Here is a link to an article titled "Ecotourism in the Pantanal and its Role as a Viable Economic Incentive for Conservation". This was written by Douglas Trent, owner of Focus Tours.
Day 6---
I checked on Brian at 5:30am, he felt like crap, but the fever had broke and he was ready to continue. Crisis averted, we made our way to the airport and flew to Cuiabá, a 3 hour flight west. Once in Cuiabá, we met a new driver, Paulo, to take us south to the town of Cáceres. It was about a 2-hour drive and the road was well traveled but in very poor shape. At time we had to slow to a crawl to go through potholes that could swallow a car. For such a well-traveled road, I'm surprised the government doesn't fix it. Much of the 2 hour drive was through Cerrado type habitat. I was hoping we'd see a giant anteater along the way, but no such luck.
We arrived in Cáceres, a town built on the banks of the Paraguai River. Fishing and moving soy along the river were the big industries here. We stopped at a marina where we met our boat driver, a young native named Indio. We had a two hour boat ride to our final destination and the rain clouds were really threatening today and at best we were looking at a sunset arrival without any stops.
You can see how gloomy it was as
we cruised the river.
I LOVE boats and boat rides, so this was excellent! All of our
luggage was bagged up to keep dry and placed in front of the boat. After about
ten minutes we were out of town and in wild country. The boat had 110hp outboard
and could really move once it was planed out. The clouds dropped really low
and we were misted on most of the way.
We made a few stops for birds, but the light was bad and with the mist we just hauled ass to get the hotel. It was well after dark when we finally arrived. The trip was great, nice and cool due to the moisture in the air. Our destination was Hotel Baiazinha, a very remote but very nice hotel on the water. From Cáceres it is a 2 hour drive to the hotel having to go through 26 different gates or a 2 hour boat ride along the Paraguai River and I'm glad we took the river! Shannon made her first dramatic appearance in the Pantanal when we arrived at Hotel Baiazinha! Right after we pulled up to the boat dock and we all started standing up, I guess her balance was not right and she nearly went in the river. Literally, if someone hadn't grabbed her, she'd have gone into the dark water!!! Crazy… ;)
Hotel Baiazinha is a popular destination for fishermen and arriving the beginning of the week worked out great because our group was the only group there. Dinner was served after we arrived and the first course was piranha soup. It tasted like miso soup to me, but better. I had three cups it was so good, with a few Skols too of course! ;-) Dinner was fried pacu, not sure which species, but it was delicious.
Day 7---
We met early like always after a quick breakfast. I should mention that breakfasts in Brazil are all the same and I didn't really care for it. It was always some sort of cake, ham and cheese melts, cheese bread, and sometimes eggs. By this point in the trip I was really missing a bagel or some bacon!
The weather was a bit better, but still a little overcast. The thing most amazing about the Pantanal in my opinion is the bird life. It is overwhelming, there are just so many birds. We didn't go far this morning, just drove around different sections of the river looking at all the birds.
Here are just a few, many more
are in the galleries linked at the end of this section.
Large-billed Tern, Anhinga, and Ringed Kingfisher
Black-capped Donacobius, Amazon Kingfisher , and Rufescent Tiger-Heron
Roseate Spoonbill, Jabiru Stork,
and Wood Stork
This was about the time that Shannon asked Brian for a fresh battery for her
camcorder. He couldn't find one and while looking in the bag he realized that
he also couldn't find the charger! Turns out they left the battery charger
with a battery in it in the wall outlet in the hotel back at Ipanema!!! What
a BUMMER! No more camcorder…
As the morning warmed up the caimen really started coming out. I didn't realize
there be so many of them! They would let the boat get surprisingly close to
them.
I told Fabricio that I want
to hold one, and I was half joking. He told Indio what I said and Indio said
okay and I thought he was kidding. So, he pulls up to this little island full
of caimen and proceeds to rope one!
Oops, missed this one!
He ropes about 5-6 footer and starts dragging it toward the boat. He wasn't kidding!!!!! It was strong and it beat the side of the boat with its tail and thrashed violently! Once he got it next to the boat he used a stick to get another smaller rope around its mouth and then threw a half-hitch on it, closing its mouth. Besides the tail, the caimen was pretty harmless at this point and he brought all 6 foot of it into the boat and then looked at me and motioned for me to come to the front of the boat! Time to man-up, so I headed up front and grabbed the caimen by one front and one back leg and he just hung there. The tail was in a prime position to whack me out of this world, so I kept one eye on the tail.
Indio released it and on we went. Later, he pulled the boat up to the bank and we didn't know what he saw. He walked to the front of the boat and like superman he lept out of the boat into this shrub on the bank. He then stood up holding a about a 3 foot caimen. He is like an every day Steve Irwin or something! (Edit on 09/06/2006: Steve Irwin passed away this week, he was an inspirational guy and the world will miss him dearly.) We all passed around the little guys for pictures and even removed a nasty leach from its abdomen.
We got some decent looks at some of the monkeys as we explored.
Bare-eared Marmoset, Crested Capuchin, & Black-and-gold Howler (males
are black, females are gold)
We came back for lunch and walked around the grounds of the hotel some. In
the field to the north of the hotel there were some buff-necked ibis and whistling
herons walking around.
We headed back out again around 2 and drove for a while. We stopped at a large, well-maintained ranch and got out to walk around. There were birds everywhere and then we saw a few groups of Hyacinth Macaws, and that just blew my mind! They were so beautiful!
We also got a good look at some Black-hooded Parakeets and several Rhea. Cool
birds.
The sunset at the ranch along the river was stunning on this night. I got
some pretty good pictures at sunset.
Continue
on to the rest of Part II
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