Headed to the Pantanal

We left the house bright an early to leave for the airport. Ted was gracious enough to drive us saving us the taxi fare. We are luckily close to the airport, about a 10 minutes ride.

We boarded the plane for Cuiaba without incident which is atypical of our travels. We had a layover in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, and found a comfy spot to watch the France vs. Honduras game. We got to see the first half before we boarded another plane to Cuiaba.



Cuiaba is the capital of Mato Grosso and is located exactly in the middle of South America. The city was founded in 1719 when gold was discovered and people flocked to the area to become rich. Now the area raises cattle.

We were met at the airport by Carlos Grandez Perez, owner of Pantanal EcoExplorer Tour. Carlos’s company was recommended to us by 2 teachers from work, Tim and Kate, they raved about the company and their tour guide, Max. Carlos was very responsive to our email request for possible tour dates within the next 2 weeks. We did not plan this trip in advance and we were lucky he responded. (info@pantanalecoexplorer.com.br)

We set off in his car towards Pocone, a small town in Mato Grosso. We saw plenty of cattle and horse on the way. Reminded me of our trip to Tanzania where we saw goats and horses for the first half of the day.




We arrived at the entrance to Pousada Piuval and drove several kilometers.

The sun was setting but we managed to see a few thongs off to the side of the road; termite mounds, egrets, and an ibis. Right before the pousada we saw our first glimpse of the Hyacinth Macaws.



We settled into our room which was large, clean, and came with a few pets; worm, frog, and bettle.



We then went to supper and to meet our guide. The food was good, hot and simple, typical Brazilian; arrots, onions, lettuce, rice, beans, beet root, steamed greens and flan for dessert.



Max was to be our guide as he was for our friends so we were excited and new we were in good hands.
Next day begins at 5AM. Ready or not here we come!

Parque das Dunas, Salvador, Brazil

Thank you Ioana for organizing a trip to the Parque das Dunes!
Graduation was last night and the 18 students headed out to celebrate and I headed to bed. Up at 6:30AM on a Saturday, which those who know me was an effort, 7:30 in the car and off to the Dunes. The Dunes are about a 5 minute trip from our house and we met 13 colleagues to explore the area. Next time we will walk!
The information that I gathered from the Portuguese speaking guides and Metha, by personal translator, are as follows. The Ecological Park was started 20 years ago by Jorge who wanted to protect the area. He bought a section of the dunes to preserve them from turning into a concrete jungle like the rest of the area became and to education locals. The Dunes are open to the public with a simple request for a small donation. Jorge runs the 6 million sq. meters with an all voluntary crew of 44,000 volunteers ranging from instructors, guides, security, first aide workers, gardeners, researchers, scientists, and many more professionals.
While I wished that I had Dustin`s camera to capture the hidden gems that we found, our battery sucking camera worked well. 6 rechargeable batteries later we captured a few highlights. Sorry I do not know the scientific names of anything.

Training for the guards who protect the flora and fauna that is often stolen and then sold.

Flora

Grape family

Do you see the lizard? We heard him rustling in the dead leaves and took a few minutes to find him.
Bonzai tree, it is about 8 inches tall and about 20 years old. We overhead David (5th grader) telling Lucas (6th grader) that the tree, so small, was older than he was.

Sign reads:
Prohibited from using the lagoon as a toilet. How sad. One thing I have noticed about Salvador is that men and children use the world as their toilet. No matter where you are…the beach, the highway, outside a store or waiting for a bus. There are now signs on buses asking people not to contribute to this problem.

So the trip is complete Mike saw his lizards and I saw my dragonflies! These blue beauties were abundant!
Lagartinho-the-Abaeté ( Ameivula abaetensis ) or Abaetense, an endemic species of the Park.

Another type of lizard.

Shrooms!

We learned about plants that notify you that water is near. Some times it was easy to find the water source as they were close to the lagoons others not so easy to see the water. Luckily there were children on our tour who did not mind digging to the source.
Overview

Female vultures fly over head looking for food and providing a critical service, cleaning up the landscape. We were told when numerous vultures are over head there will be rain in 24 hours. Glad I enjoyed the beach and pool today!

Jorge explaining the cycle of life and the need to preserve the area for future generations.

"Shin-de-ema", a plant of the family "Velloziácea". This plant self combusts releasing the proteins in the seeds to promote germination.

Hungry? Very nutritional termites are edible and, so I was told, delicious. Several people tried them. Some chewed, some let them march around in their mouths before swallowing. I wonder how hungry I would need to be to digest termites?

I love that multiple species cohabitate to share resources; cacti, grapes, and other plant life.

What is in the hole?

Burrowing Owl, or Caboré

View of the lagoon from one of the observatory towers that are located throughout the park.

So the 2 hour planned excursion lasted 4 hours and was worth it. I would highly recommend a visit. Mike and I plan to go back and stock the fauna and contribute to the sustainability of the park.

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