Floating down the River

We just received some photos from the tourism agency we hired during our trip to the springs up in Nobres, up north of the Pantanal.  It was a good thing that the guide who accompanied us (everyone who visits the region must have a guide) brought a camera - and underwater, at that - as ours broke several weeks back when we got caught outside in a heavy rainstorm.  Enjoy the pictures - I promise they don't do justice to our amazing experience snorkeling down the river....

Ready to hit the river.....there was no one else there that day and the area was very wild...with dense jungle and the sounds of monkeys and macaws in the trees overhead.

trying to get a nice family shot....apparently John was not in the mood to cooperate

The walk down to the river was beautiful....

Carina testing out the water...it was a little cold and as soon as we stepped in,
hundreds of little fish swam up all around us

You were supposed to keep your feet off the ground at all times so as to not disturb the limestone sediment.
Because the river was shallow and we knew this would be difficult for Carina, we brought her tube so she could just sit in it and float down.

No matter how hard I tried, I could not convince John to put on his mask and snorkle and stick his head
under the water.....sigh.  Truly though, the water was so crystal clear you could easily see everything from above the surface.

Testing our gear in a little pool before entering the river where the fast
current would carry us quickly downstream.  Once we started, the current was swift enough that it was very
hard to stop.  There were a few fallen trees in the water along the way, and it was possible to climb
up on them to take a break and regroup.

Totally clear water due to the enormous quantity of limestone in the ground, which acts as a natural filter so that
impurities are deposited at the bottom of the river, leaving the water totally transparent.  

We weren't sure what John was going to think, as the river was moving pretty fast
and he wasn't supposed to touch the bottom - in fact, in many places he couldn't as it was too deep or
the current was too swift.  He absolutely loved it - as soon as he got in he told us it was 'amazing'.  It was a long
ride down - about 45 minutes and no stopping - so he was very cold by the end.

Sunrise on the Pantanal

We took a quickly planned trip to the Brazilian Pantanal this past week. What an incredible place. The Pantanal is the world’s largest wetland, equivalent in size to the State of California. While its nearby neighbor the Amazon gets all of the press, the Pantanal is the place to see wildlife in Brazil.

Our trip started with a flight to Cuiaba, a small city at the northeastern edge of the Pantanal. Cuiaba is funny, a bit remote, yet a bit noisy and urban. From Cuiaba we hired a car to take us the 100 or so kilometers down the trans-Pantanal “highway,” and I use the term loosely as much of it is a two-lane dirt road. Our lodge, the Fazenda Curicaca, was about 3 kilometers down a rutted dirt driveway near the eastern edge of the trans-Pantanal.

Fazenda Curicaca was a great find. It was a former cattle ranch, but unlike many of the other Fazendas in this area that are still cattle ranches, this land was allowed to revert back to its natural state 6 or so years ago. As a result, you feel very much like you are in the wild; and judging by the wildlife, they feel the same way. There are green parrots, blue macaws, storks the size of dogs, and dozens of other birds that live in the trees around the cabins. The Fazenda keeps a green parrot as a pet. She took a liking to me on our first day there and climbed up on my shoulder. She liked it so much, in fact, that she wouldn’t get down. It was only after one of the guides came and grabbed her (as she clenched her claws into my shoulder) that she finally got off.

In addition to birds, caiman abound in this area. In fact, during the trip to the Fazenda we stopped at a mud hole that was drying up (as this is the dry season) and at least 50 caiman were crammed into the small mud pit.

The Fazenda itself sat on the bank of a small river that remains wet year-round and the caiman are common here as well. One of them, they refer to her as Loira, frequents the bank on the side of the river near the Fazenda to sun herself.

There were all sorts of other wildlife too. Tapirs roam the ground in the evening as they like a strange plum-like palm fruit that falls from the trees and litters the walkways. And howler and capuchin monkeys swing from the trees. The only problem with the howlers is they tend to wake up at about 4 AM and begin grunting so loudly that you would swear an elephant-sized monster was in the middle of your cabin. Turn up the volume when you listen to this:

Howler Monkeys in the Pantanal

One afternoon we took a boat ride up the river. The birds were spectacular and about a quarter mile up river we saw a family of giant river otters. While we were delighted to see them, I don’t think they were very happy to see us as they barked at us for the 2 minutes that we stopped to look. The river also abounds with fish. And John and CC were giddy about catching piranha and other small fish in the river.

We had one extra day in Cuiaba after returning from the Pantanal so decided to take a trip to the city of Nobres. Nobres is in a mountainous region that is high in mineral salts like calcium and magnesium. The salts actually help to precipitate any soil or sediment in the rivers in the area, and so the waterways look as if they are Disneyland swimming pools – they are crystal clear. If you look closely, you can make out hundreds of small minnows swimming in the water just next to John in the picture below.

One of the highlights of this trip was that we happened to see a band of capuchin monkeys on our way the park and our guide pulled out a bunch of bananas. The monkeys in the area are almost as tame as Central Park squirrels, and after a minute or two were taking bananas right out of our hands.