Man's impact on the basin has been substantial, and it is difficult to find even a small river that is uninhabited. Current estimates indicate that the Amazon Rain Forest is more than 20% deforested with continuing threats coming from many sources such as: cattle ranching, soy production, hardwood logging, and oil and gas development. Recently, the largest high-grade iron ore deposits on the planet were found in the Amazon Basin and the charcoal people of Brazil are migrating north to feed the pig-iron industry with charcoal.
I wonder what the effects might be as we lose more and more of the Amazon. Will the earth's air quality suffer? Will the carbon emissions from the burning of all that biomass accelerate global warming? Will we lose more and more cures for our diseases as species become extinct? What new diseases will we uncover? Only history will tell…
Day 10---
We left the hotel really early because Brian wanted to try to find a camera shop in Cuiabá to try and replace his charger for the camcorder. Right outside of Cáceres, as we drove north, a jaguarundi crossed the road! One of the other big cats, cool as hell!
Once in Cuiabá we stopped at several places and unfortunately we couldn't get a charger that would work for the camcorder. The flight from Cuiabá was to make a short stop at a small fishing town of Sinop then on to the final destination, Alta Floresta. This was my first time flying on a turbo-prop plane, an ATR-72.
About 40 minutes into the flight we should have started seeing Amazon rain
forest, but it was all cleared with small patches of forest here and there.
Once we got to Alta Floresta, the forest was still intact and it was lush.
The town is clean and small. We met representatives from the hotel at the
airport and they drove us to the main hotel for some complimentary drinks
and lunch. We went for a short hike at the main hotel because an active harpy
eagle nest was reported to be nearby. Being the largest eagle in the world,
I was excited at possibly seeing one! A blind was set up a quarter mile from
the hotel and we got some great photos of the nestling, not quite yet fledged.
The parents were not around unfortunately, but Brian got some amazing shots
of the adults after we left later in the trip. He'll have pictures in his
trip report linked on the main Brazil page.
After lunch we had a 40 minute drive to the Teles Pires River boat launch.
We got into small aluminum boats and traveled upstream and into the mouth
of the Cristalino River. The confluence of the black water of the Cristalino
with the yellow-brown water of the Teles Pires was a fascinating phenomenon.
The waters don't mix until several kilometers downstream. Boating up the Cristalino
River was a delightful experience, and one we repeated several times over
the next few days. The
Rio Cristalino Jungle Lodge, a half-hour upstream, is in a small clearing
on the banks of the river and miles from the nearest facility. It is difficult
to find any river in the Amazon Basin where there are not many people settled
on its shores. One hut is reported to be 70km upstream, but this is unconfirmed.
Here we find nothing but virgin river and forest.
We were driving in right as the
sun was setting.
The lodge has electricity by generator only, usually a few hours in the mornings
and evenings. We arrived about an hour before dinner was going to be served.
We had smoked Tambaqui, a large fruit-eating fish found in the Amazon river
system. It was the best fish I've ever had in my life. The meat was so flavorful,
it makes my mouth water to think about it!
The bungalows at the jungle lodge
at very nice and screened well. As long as we didn't leave the door open,
the mosquitoes were not bad inside. It was hot and humid though, so sleeping
was difficult. The ceiling fan helped but after the generator would stop around
10pm I'd wake up soon after drenched in sweat. I got used to it after the
first night and slept well after that even with the heat and humidity.
Here is the main building at the jungle lodge and our bungalow.
The forest was alive with sound all night long and at some point during the
night I woke up to this sound that seemed to be right next to me. I thought
a fire alarm was going off because it was so loud! I got up, confused and
bewildered, and stumbled around the room in the dark trying to find my flashlight
until the sleepy haze wore off enough to realize it was a bird, noit a fire
alarm! It was right outside the screen windows calling. It was a bird called
a Screaming Piha, but for the rest of the trip I called it a Fire-Alarm Bird!
I scoured the internet to find a decent sound-file of this bird so you can
see what I mean! Check it out here
at this link. (88kb, .wav format)
Day 11---
After breakfast, we headed out
this morning to the canopy tower. The tower is a little over 50 meters tall
and it gets you up where the action is, in the high canopy. The fog was really
thick this morning and the narrow metal stairs going up the tower were slick
and dangerous. Once I made it to the top, the climb was well worth the effort.
The views were great!
After the mist lifted, we were treated to a close look at a pair of Scarlet Macaws.
We all had a comical moment when we saw a white-fronted nunbird. I wrote down numb-bird, Brian wrote down thumb-bird and we had to get Fabricio to show us in the book. Words that sounded alike were hard for Fabricio, but his English will only get better.
We saw several different types of parrots, macaws, toucans, parakeets, and the list could go on. I could sit up there all day, but it was warming up and we decided to head down around 10am to explore the forests some.
The forest floor was dark and not great for pictures. I had to use a flash to get any sort of decent photos. The ficus trees were huge with roots that went out in every direction from sometimes several meters high in the tree.
Back at the bungalows we heard some ruckus in the trees and we saw some white
whiskered spider monkeys moving from tree to tree feeding. We saw them frequently
while at Rio Cristalino.
After lunch we went on a boat trip and saw several more cool bird species
and a neotropical otter! The otter was playing on the beach and as soon as
he saw us he split.
Green Ibis, Sunbittern, and a Southern River Otter
After sunset the lodge staff set up a blacklight and a white sheet outside
in a tree to attract insects. We were really lucky to have a couple rhinoceros
beetles fly in. I was standing by the light and then I heard this low humming
sound in the distance and it got louder and then wham, this huge beetle hit
the sheet like a smart bomb! Glad it didn't hit me in the head, it would have
hurt like hell! I tried holding the massive beetle, but it seriously creeped
me out and I didn't get any pictures with it. Dave didn't mind though and
here he is with the beetle, looking a little tired! He didn't like this picture,
so of course I had to post it!
There were also some night monkeys that were spotted near the lodge, but I didn't get any photos of them.
Here at the Jungle Lodge was the
first time we'd encountered any non-Brazilians on this whole trip. There were
several groups at the lodge, many Americans, some British, and some Australians
as well. It didn't take long to see the ubiquitous "Ugly American"
traveler that foreigners describe. Not everyone was like that though and we
met several nice people there. Another tour company called Field
Guide Nature Tours was there with a large group. They catered strictly
to birders. Later in the week a film crew from the World Wildlife Fund would
arrive to work on a documentary on the giant river otter.
Day 12---
After breakfast we headed up river to the Brazil Nut Trail. There are several large Brazil Nut Trees on this trail, I had no idea these trees got so large! We saw quite a few birds, but getting pictures when you are beneath the canopy proved to be a real challenge!
For some reason, all my capped heron pictures washed out. The bird is so soft pastel in color, we all had a tough time getting a good exposure on it. Here we all are in front of one the huge Brazil Nut Trees. (left to right: Shannon, Brian, Fabricio, Dave, & Myself)
Back at the lodge I decided to get some photos of the butterflies on the shore.
Hundreds, I guess even thousands, would gather on the shore. They were really
pretty with pastel colors.
The afternoon walk was to the tower again where we stayed until well after
dark seeing lost of new species. Nothing realty close enough for my camera/lens
combo though. We walked back to the lodge in the dark and found a few cool
critters. This scorpion and whip-scorpion were on the same log. Glad they
didn't get in my bungalow!
Back at the lodge we walked out on the dock to look for new frogs and came
across an Amazonian Tree boa on the dock. Brian got these pictures of it before
it escaped into the water below.
Dave and I messed around with a few frogs on the dock and adjacent bank too.
I don't have a good herpetology text for Brazil, so I didn't try to key these
guys out. Not sure what species they are.
Day 13---
This morning we left really early because we were driving about 40 km upstream
to find a rare bird known to frequent that area. The boat ride took a while
because of the small motors and the water was really low in the river as well.
As the sun was coming up we saw a tapir on the bank! They are not all that
common to see and we were lucky to have seen it. It jumped into the water
and disappeared. In the low light of early morning nobody got any pictures
of it, but it was cool.
We had to stop and get out once and walk ahead to meet the boat because of rapids. The driver wanted the boat to be light as he navigated through the rocks.
We finally reached the area of the river that has a lot of big oxbows. We were looking for a bird called the hoatzin and within a half hour we found a few. They looked like a chicken up in the trees with these funny feathers on their heads that resembled a halo. Pretty cool bird, but like most birds they refused to let any decent photos get taken of them. Birds are tough subjects to photograph.
We got some good looks at a rare heron called an Agami heron.
We saw bats pretty frequently roosting along the river.
The boat ride back treated us to lots of new birds and a great look at some
King Vultures. This vulture had some adventitious molt in the secondaries
on the right side as well as symmetrical molt on primary number 7 on both
sides. For a vulture, they really are beautiful with that white breast!
The afternoon and evening were much of the same, more exploring the various
trails around the jungle lodge. Our final dinner at the lodge was sad; Dave
and I were leaving the next day...
Day 14--- The longest day…
We all went on one more morning
hike before Dave and I had to head out. A Spix's Guan was walking around the
grounds of the jungle lodge and let me take a few pictures. We also got a
nice look at a Masked Tityra.
After we got from our last hike, Dave and I headed to our bungalow to clean
up for the 20 hours of travel time ahead of us. As we approached our bungalow,
all I saw was ants, everywhere! A colony of Army ants was on the move and
they happened to be crossing the grounds of the lodge and right over our bungalow!
This was insane! Luckily, they didn't get inside, just up and over most of
the walls, just passing through. Most of them were in the grass, maybe a 2
meter wide swath. Brian even made a short
video of the ants that is pretty funny. (25 MB) Thanks Brian!
Dave and I headed back to Alta Floresta by boat around 10am. We said our goodbyes
and well wishes to Brian and Shannon and headed out.
Brian and Shannon stayed several more days and got some amazing photographs
after we left. Check out his trip report (linked on the main Brazil page)
to see what he was up to.
Our flight from Alta Floresta to Cuiabá was on-time and uneventful except for the stop in Sinop. For some reason the pilot really pulled hard on the yoke after takeoff and I felt like passing out for a few seconds as all the blood rushed to my feet!! Those damn ATRs are powerful little turboprops. Either the pilot was having fun or we were trying to avoid a flock of birds or something.
Once in Cuiabá, we had about an hour wait for our connection to São Paulo where we'd hit our overnight flight home. This is where the trouble started….
It just so happened that on this same day, South American based Varig airlines went bankrupt. The news reported that all international Varig flights out of South America were cancelled because their planes were being seized for outstanding debts. The Brazilian airline, TAM, was trying to handle the overflow and their whole system was crashing.
Our flight was delayed over 6 hours. We were going to miss our international flights for sure. Having purchased the flights from a discount broker, I didn't know if we'd have to buy new tickets or not. I doubt I had the funds to cover new last minute international flights anyway. The TAM desk worked with us for over an hour with the help of a passerby who could translate. Help is not the way to describe it though, they kept trying to tell us to call Delta and get new seats and through the translator we kept saying that they screwed it up and they needed to fix it. They finally told us that the TAM crew in São Paulo was working on the issue and when we arrived that night we'd be all set.
We arrived around 11pm and the Delta desk was closed. We walked to the TAM desk and shocker, nobody knew who we were or had anything working for us. We were just one of the dozens of folks screwed that night by TAM.
After a couple hours, TAM finally got their act together and secured new flights home for us on the same flight the following night and they got us a couple hotel rooms at Hotel Monoco near the airport, with taxi and food vouchers. We got to the hotel at 2am and crashed, exhausted after a 21 hour day.
Day 15---
After sleeping in I decided to explore around the hotel some. São Paulo is the third largest city in the world and I just got a free day to check it out. From the hotel, the city is just vast. Not many cities in the U.S. have a skyline like this.
I walked about mile or so in every direction, just shopping, checking out the local scene in the area. I wanted to buy some music and hit a few different music shops, it is funny how much American music is available in Brazil.
I wasn't sure what these street entertainers were up too, but it was interesting. This is actually one of Brian's pictures, but I saw these same guys as well, I just didn't get photos of them.
Dave and I met up that afternoon and caught a bus back to the airport. Everything
went smoothly after that. Our 10pm flight arrived the next morning in Atlanta
no problem. The U.S. Customs in Atlanta was quick and painless and we were
back in Albuquerque by noon the next day.
Thanks again to Brian and Shannon
for making this trip happen! Thanks to Dave for going with me as well.
What a great trip, thanks for reading!
Here is the Full Image Gallery for Part III of this trip (recently fixed this link)
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