Brazil September 2013

[Treepol]

Wow and double wow, San Sebastian looks like being on my next Pantanal itinerary. The giant otter sighting was very special - in the video there are a group of otters around a fallen limb and they look to be nibbling or pushing at an otter - is this some grooming or dominance behaviour or was it a young needing reassurance or support?

 

2 wild tapirs and abundant hyacinth macaws, what a treat!

 

Did you see anything on your walk around that small waterhole and how long did you walk for? I am contemplating taking my elderly mother to the Pantanal in 2015 and she can only walk comfortably for around 30 minutes at a time. Did the vehicle come and collect you at the end of your walk, was Ari in touch with the driver by mobile phone?

 

Looking forward to more. No pressure though.....

[TonyQ]

Great to see the tapirs + beautiful pictures of the macaws+ the parakeets on the nest

Keep it coming - our planning for the pantanal is getting more serious now!

[michael-ibk]

The giant otter sighting was very special - in the video there are a group of otters around a fallen limb and they look to be nibbling or pushing at an otter - is this some grooming or dominance behaviour or was it a young needing reassurance or support?

Well, I think it must have been grooming. All otters must continually groom their fur to maintain its insulating qualities. Otters spend a substantial amount of time grooming, and many species of river otters have designated areas on land for drying and grooming their fur. Most vigorously dry themselves by rolling on the ground or rubbing against logs or vegetation. I don´t think it was a young one, anyway, and it looked fine afterwards.

 

2 wild tapirs

We were very lucky with tapirs. I think they are hard to find anywhere because tapirs are territorial and one individual requires an area of at least 1, sometimes 8 km².

 

Did you see anything on your walk around that small waterhole and how long did you walk for? I am contemplating taking my elderly mother to the Pantanal in 2015 and she can only walk comfortably for around 30 minutes at a time. Did the vehicle come and collect you at the end of your walk, was Ari in touch with the driver by mobile phone?

 

Lots of birds, as I recall, and on the way back our third armadillo. Which was again faster gone in the shrubbery than I could say camera. We were on our walk for maybe 90 minutes but I don´t think we walked for more than a kilometer. We spent a long time with the parakeet. It was a circle so we went back to the car - through and over some fences, I have to add.

 

I´m afraid I´m not sure how suitable the Fazenda would be for someone elderly. The roads to the Fazenda and to the river are very, very bumpy, and the boat is really much smaller and far less comfortable than the ones in Porto Jofre.

 

@@TonyQ

 

I will, hopefully the jaguar(s) will settle the matter.

[Treepol]

@@michael-ibk thanks for the comments on activities at San Sebastian. Food for thought.

[michael-ibk]

After a short lunch break we drove to the river again. The wind had slowed down a bit and the temperature had risen, so we were hopeful for jaguars again. Ariberto, however, dampened our enthusiasm and told us it was still way too cold for them to come out and we shouldn´t expect too much.

 

Still, it was a beautiful afternoon and we enjoyed the ambience, again mostly uninterrupted by other boats. (I think we met two fisher boats and one tourist boat, from further upstream.)

 

 

Our moorage point.

 

 

 

Cocoi Heron, a bit more accommodating than the day before.

 

 

 

 

The banks were shimmering in beautiful mixtures of green, red and orange.

 

Then we had our nicest Capybara sighting of the whole trip, a small family with a litter of seven! (On average they have four, though up to eight are not unheard of. Unfortunately not even half of these cute litte ones will make it to adulthood…)

 

 

 

 

 

We drove further south, always flanked by Cocoi Herons, Rufous Tiger Herons, Great Egrets and Jabirus . We saw Black-Collared Hawks, our first Roseate Spoonbill, Southern Screamers and even a Common Iguana.

 

After a while we stopped on a sandbank which was the home of Black Skimmers. Birds I really had wanted to see, and they did not disappoint.

 

 

 

 

We had to tread carefully here because as we found out little skimmer chicks were hidden in the sand, perfectly camouflaged.

 

 

 

 

I was worried that we would disturb the skimmers too much but Ariberto reassured me that they were quite used to all kind of animals wandering through here. And indeed, we found lots of fresh tracks, deer, tapir, even anaconda and … Jaguar!

 

 

 

I absolutely loved this place. All alone, no human soul in sight, a gentle breeze, the sound of the skimmers flying over us…it was just perfect, and it´s one of my favourite moments of the trip, even without spectacular animal sightings.

 

 

 

 

Men staring at polliwog.

 

 

 

Another example of the hardships of birding: Greater or Lesser Yellowlegs? Or something else entirely?

 

We stayed here for more than an hour, just enjoying the scenery and the atmosphere (and a black-collared hawk perching nearby), before we finally moved on.

 

 

We entered a smaller, very beautiful sidearm where Pedrinho tried to attract jaguars with a horn (which apparently imitates their growling in heat.) Nothing showed up, and I´m afraid Pedrinho felt a bit sheepish. At least he looked the part.

 

Then we had a very close encounter with a Snail Kite:

 

 

 

The boat drifted so close I nearly could have touched him. He tolerated our presence for quite a while before he remembered his flight instincts and took off.

 

So, still no jaguar, but the afternoon was so beautiful that we didn´t really mind. Caimans, capybaras and birds on Rio Paraguai are more than enough. (And we saw our first Black-Tailed Marmoset, albeit quite distant.)

 

 

 

Anhinga or American Darter.

 

 

Capybara

 

 

 

Cocoi Heron

 

 

 

 

On the way back we saw several foxes again, and the pampas deer again:

 

 

Ariberto even spotted this tiny fawn hidden in the grass. How is entirely beyond me, I had a hard time seeing it even when it was spotlighted.

 

 

After a good dinner we went to bed early. Tomorrow, as we had decided, we would go to Isla Taiama come what may. And see a Jaguar there, we were hellbent on it.

 

[michael-ibk]

Day 4 at Fazenda Sao Sebastiao (Isla Taiama)

We got up early again and were hoping for big blue skies and warmer temperatures. Unfortunately the weather hadn´t improved much, it still was quite cold and windy. It cleared up a bit when we arrived at the river but was still pretty uncomfortable. Pedrinho drove as fast as possible but top speed was not a possibility because of the waves, and so it took us nearly two hours for the 60 km distance to reach the reserve,. (@@Treepol, who was stationed at Hotel Baizinha farther upstream than we were, spoke of a travel time of only 80 minutes from there in her report.) Quite some boats on the river, we met lots of fishing parties, especially near Fazenda Descalvados.

We made a short stop at a sandbank before entering the reserve. Here we saw our only Lesser Yellow-Headed Vultures of the trip:



A Jabiru was enjoying the first sunrays of this cold day:

 

And was clearly quite possessive of “his” sandbank, when a Black Vulture flew down to drink he immediately shooed it away:



And then we finally entered the reserve Isla Taiama, situated on the island “Isla de Sararé” in the middle of the Rio Paraguay. The river splits here in two arms which encircle the island. This also has the effect that the water is much calmer than on the broad river which leads until here and unites again after the island. Which is big, with a square footage of more than 16,000 hectare and a length of more than 150 km going around it. (Which is what we did.) The name “Taiama “ derives from the Black Skimmer (Talha-Mar in Portuguese, “Sea-Cutter”) – of which we saw not a single one here. Fishing and entering the island is forbidden here, and so we had the privilege of not meeting one single boat on our way around the island.

 

Ringed Kingfisher




The weather got better as we proceeded, and warm enough that even Ariberto who considers everything under 30 ° freezing cold took his jacket off. We saw many birds but since we had to cover quite some distance and leave some time for jaguar sightings (pleasepleaseplease!!!), we went quite fast and didn´t have time to enjoy the ambience as much as I would have liked to. We watched and looked and stared, and every moving leaf awakened new hope, but no Jaguars.

After we reached the southern tip of the island we returned upriver on the other side and soon made our lunch break on a beautiful sandbank. A good meal and an excellent cold bear convinced us that all the cats would come out for us in the afternoon. After all, it had gotten quite warm.





Our lunch place.

Being all day out, nature called, and Ariberto told me that there couldn´t be too many jaguars around. Very reassuring. As I squatted between the bushes I suddenly noticed a caiman skull with two holes in it. Helped speed things up enormously!

After we moved on the sun brought more and more caimans and capybaras out, and we had a nice sighting of black howler monkeys.

 

Only the males are black.

After a while we came to yacaré caiman central:







Made me think of that James Bond movie with Roger Moore using some crocs to escape his death trap. In Style. Suddenly seemed a lot more feasible.



These three musketeers made me smile, capybara caiman & cattle egret in intimate togetherness.



A true symbiotic relationship, egret gets food, capybara gets clean fur.



A giant otter was happily munching away on his fish, and looked very orderly, a bit like having put on gloves for lunch:



But as nice as these sightings were, nothing changed the fact that it was already past 3 o´clock, we had circled the island and hadn´t seen what we primarily came for. And it had been our last chance here! I realized it was quite insolent of me to get frustrated after such a beautiful day but I couldn´t help it. All the way back I grumbled mean curses into my indulgent life vest and I´m afraid I even had to vent once, and uttered a heartfelt “S*%§” across the river.

So I definitely didn´t deserve Pedrinho suddenly turning the boat around and Ariberto whispering “There….!”.

And indeed, on the opposite river bank a beautiful female jaguar had waken from her afternoon siesta, eying us suspiciously.




The river was broad here, and she was far away, so we tried to get closer. Pedrinho was very careful, just went till the middle of the river and went with the current a bit, to see how she would react:

 

Her original distrust had turned into a mere curiousity, she didn´t seem to be that alarmed about us, so we ventured closer and closer until we nearly reached the left river bank and stopped at a dead tree in the water where we fastened the boat. No 20 metres away from this magnificent animal.









We spent a good undisturbed 45 minutes with her, getting ecstatic about her every move (of which there weren´t too many) and once in a while she would even look us into the eye, as if to examine us closely, to decide what she should make of us. An undescribable feeling which sent shivers down my spine.

Finally another tourist boat approached, but too quickly, too directly. And a fishing boat crossed by in full speed. She didn´t like either of that, got up and disappeared like a shadow, leaving four very happy faces in our boat and three extremely disappointed ones in the newcomers´ones who had only glimpsed her backside retreating into the bushes. (I felt very sorry for them, they had searched to no avail for days like we had but didn´t have quite our happy-end. Ariberto told me jaguars hate fishing boats and know their sounds. The feeling is mutual since many fishers have or rent small cabins in the gallery forests for their trips. And naturally don´t like having jaguars around so they scare them off with gunshots. Two years ago there was a tragic accident when a jaguar killed a fisherman´s son from behind.)

A little video of “our “ lady Jaguar, our wonderful “last-minute-save”. It really was, we were only 10 minutes away from our moorage point. And it was already getting dark.

[africapurohit]

@@michael-ibk lots of beautiful photos to emphasise your story but I kept being drawn to the photos of the capybara family - fantastic! Glad that you got to spend some quality time with the jaguar. The black vulture almost looks like a shadow of the jabiru

[pedro maia]

Seems like you had a great time in that part of Pantanal, beautiful the female jaguar, and what an emotion to see it for the first time.

[TonyQ]

@@michael-ibk

 

What a beautiful place! Great pictures and you describe your feelings so well

Pleased you saw your jaguar - my favourites are the pictures (and the video) of the capaybara - easy as an outsider to overlook but very interesting

Keep it coming - it is all helping our planning....

(are your videos shot with your DSLR?)

[michael-ibk]

Thanks all. The Capybara were a highlight indeed.

 

@@TonyQ

 

Videos were shot with my Canon Power Shot Sx50.

[michael-ibk]

On our drive back to the Fazenda Ariberto hadn´t put up the spotlights. We were in a bit of a hurry for dinner and had agreed to to do a shortish nightdrive afterwards. The lack of lights was unfortunate cause a black shape came out of the thickish and was running in front of the pickup for almost a minute. About the size of a crab-eating fox. But moving differently - it was no fox but rather an Ocelot!

 

Dinner was fantastic as we were still ecstatic with our jaguar sighting. We had barbecue together with the pantaneiros, steak, just trickled with limes, salt and pepper, fresh tomatoes and onion, along with a cold beer – heaven! Best dinner of the trip.

 

Afterwards we drove to the pool from our walk the day before. It was a bit late already for tapirs (who come immediately after dawn) but Ariberto was hopeful for Maned Wolf. Which is a real possibility here, several farm worker have seen them, and I remember one trip report about the Fazenda somewhere which did include a short sighting. (No chance of maned wolves along the Transpantaneira btw – Ariberto has seen one in fifteen years.) Was not to be, but as we hadn´t expected one we weren´t disappointed. Lots of Capybaras, Caimans, several Pampas Deer, Crab-Eating Racoon and Crab-Eating Foxes. When one was not too far from the car Ariberto imitated the sound of some earth-frog, and the fox, believing his favourite snack was available, came as close to the car as 10 metres.

 

 

It was a beautiful, starlit night. I stood there by the car, enjoyed the star constellations so different from home and inhaled the fresh night air. Life was good. As was my last sleep here.

 

Our last morning on the Fazenda came, and of course we had to tell the Hyacinth Macaws good bye.

 

 

And Ninha showed up at the airstrip again. We were really happy to see this gentle soul again, patted her on the back and kind of hugged her. All of which she kindly endured.

 

 

At 07.00 we left the Fazenda, after promising Pedrinho we would be back (we will!), and began our long drive to Porto Jofre. On the access road we saw our first Marsh Deer, one Coati, a Peccary quickly disappearing in the woods, and lots of birds and caimans of course. The waterhole where we had seen many ibises and teals just four days before had already dried out. And then we were back on the main road and the chapter Fazenda Sao Sebastiao finally came to an end.

 

 

TRANSPANTANEIRA

 

The road leading to Poconé was quite good, very straight and not too much traffic.

 

 

We reached Poconé, the entrance gate to the Transpantaneira, at about 11.00. A small city with not much to see, but good for stocking up. (Mainly drinking water).

 

 

Immediately after exiting the city the tarmac road ended and the Transpantaneira began. It´s in perfect condition, much better than the access road to Fazenda Sao Sebastiao and self-driving should be no problem whatsoever. Ariberto told us that once in a while there are some people lobbying for asphalting the road but luckily wiser heads always prevail. With a top speed of 60 km/h (which can easily be done) there are already many road kills, especially in the northern part. One of our first “sightings” was a dead coati.

 

Soon we reached the first of the many, many bridges along the Transpantaneira. (I wanted to count but gave up after we discussed if we had just seen bridge 12 or 14.) Which are fine to pass. A few were closed for repair works but you can sidepass most of them (in the dry season).

 

 

Here we got out of the car and watched Jabirus, Southern Screamers, lots of Limpkins, Plumbeous Ibis, Black-Backed Stilts, Great and Snowy Egrets and many, many Caimans. A very beautiful place, the first bridge is one of the nicest ones.

 

 

 

The well-known Transpantaneira sign does not actually mark its beginning, curiously it is situated almost 15 km afterwards.

 

 

We took our lunch at Fazenda Estancia Vitoriak, newly acquired by Mr. Stysch, the head of our agency. When exploring the surroundings we saw a group of more than 10 Rheas, mingling with cattle.

 

After a short nap in the hammocks we drove on, and I was excited to see what the Transpantaneira would bring us. Truth be told, I was a bit disappointed in the northern section. My (admittedly not entirely realistic and not very thought-out) expectations had been a slightly elevated road with a perfect view on both sides, water everywhere, thousands of wading birds and caimans, all kind of mammals crossing the road uninterruptedly. Of course it´s not like this, water is very scarce in the north in the dry season, most bridges just cross dry land. (Here, they only serve to gap holes in the street made to mitigate the water´s pressure on it in the wet seasons, not to bridge water.) And a lot of the roadsides have become overgrown with thick coppice, so there are many sections of the road where you don´t see anything at all.

 

 

(Ariberto told us that lodge owners can´t agree on the costs of doing a bit of – very necessary – clearing work, and it´s apparently not a simple matter because the conservation agency is not quite convinced.)

 

The best time for birds was over as well, as dry as it had got many of them had moved on to “fishier” pastures.

 

But still, we did see a lot and I liked the road better and better the farther south we got. After Hotel Mato Grosso (km 65) one has passed most accommodations, and traffic (which isn´t too heavy until here either) becomes practically non-existant.

 

 

 

Jabiru Nest with Chick

 

 

Roseate Spoonbill

 

 

Gray-Necked Woodrail

 

We took a little walk to a pond near the road. The water was blubbering almost like in a whirl-pool:

 

 

It´s the fish doing this. In the dry season when pools get smaller and smaller by the day the lack of oxygen becomes a problem. So they just hit the water repeatedly to create more of it.

 

When dawn set in we left the Transpantaneira and entered a sideroad where we took a walk after a few km. A good place for jaguars and ocelots as Ariberto said. As we stood there at a roadbend I was not sure if I was really comfortable with a jaguar just passing by while on foot, so I asked how we should behave if one did. “Give him a friendly wave”, was the advice I got. Ariberto laughed and told us there was no need to worry, a jaguar would never ever attack a group of three people. My anxiety was for naught anway, no big cat showed up. But it still was nice stretching our legs, and (among other animals) we saw Capuchin Monkeys, Red-Fronted Turquoises, Jabirus, one Agouti crossing the road and an American Kestrel.

 

It was night when he had returned to the car and proceeded with the the last 30 km to Porto Jofre. Intense stink began to cross over the road, and sight got poorer and poorer because of thick fumes wading over the area – the Pantanal was burning! Swampfires are not a rarity in the dry season, but there are doubts how natural this one was. Some suspect the Fazendas of setting fire to open up more terrain and use it as cattle ground.

 

But even with the smoke, the night drive was fascinating. Much more water here, much more than I had imagined the Transpantaneira, and hundreds of caimans eyes glowed out of every single water body we were passing by. And capybaras over capybaras, much bigger families than we had seen at Rio Paraguai, sometimes numbering in dozens.

 

 

At about 19.00 we finally reached the end of the road and Porto Jofre with it. Quite a fancy place, we enjoyed our spacious chalet, equipped with fridge, A/C and tv (which we never switched on). Dinner among so many people was a definite change from our intimate meals with chicks, cats and dogs at Fazenda Sao Sebastiao. But food was very, very good and all the jaguar pics on the walls looked very promising for the next day.

 

[Atdahl]

Awesome report and pictures! Can't wait for the rest.

[TonyQ]

@@michael-ibk

Great report - we can tell how much you like the Fazenda, (and Ninha) and then a really good flavour of the trip towards Porto Jofre

Love the pictures (and the video!)

[Kitsafari]

@@michael-ibk great story-telling skills. what wonderful luck to see the otters, they look awesome, but that female jaguar looks regal.

[michael-ibk]

Thanks @@Atdahl, @@TonyQ and @@Kitsafari.

 

Day 1 at Porto Jofre

 

We got up at 05:00, eagerly anticipating what this day would bring. Ariberto had given us a 95 % chance of seeing jaguars today – pretty good odds! It was hard to say how the weather was when we exited the bungalow because the swamp fire was quite close, and heavy fumes blocked the sight to the sun. But we were told not to worry, it was gonna be a beautiful day. After a (too) rich breakfast (couldn´t resist all the delicious meat and cheese pastries) we met our boatsman Manuel, a very quiet man but an excellent driver as we would find out. The boat was a definite step up from the tiny one we had had at Rio Paraguai – much bigger, enough room for stretching our legs, and a much more comfortable life vest. 4 regular seats (Ariberto, Manuel and us) and two swirl chairs at the front and rear for sightings, and a sunshade which could be put up and down in less than a minute. Perfect!

 

All boat trips from Porto Jofre go upriver on Rio Cuiaba. After maybe 20 minutes Rio Piquiri splits away to the right, and after another 10 minutes three rivers meet: Rio Cuiaba, Rio Tres Irmaos (Three Brothers) and Corixo Negro (Black Channel), said to be one of the best places in the world for jaguars. (The direction downriver to the right is apparently not very productive though I think I would like to try that out at a return visit – just for the lack of other boats.)

 

For the first 15 minutes the smoke was still pretty thick and the air was anything but fresh:

 

 

But soon after Rio Piquiri we left the effects of the swamp fire behind, and indeed, it was a beautiful day with blue skies. Phew! We saw some Black Howler Monkeys in orange trees, beautifully lit by the morning sun. Unfortunately they preferred to stubbornly show us their backsides. We first went into Corixo Negro. This is a small channel, much calmer and narrower than mighty and broad Rio Cuiaba. Lovely and soothing ambience, we enjoyed the usual birds (and some new ones).

 

 

Yellow-Rumped Cacique

 

 

Cocoi Heron

 

 

Southern Screamer

 

 

Little Cuckoo

 

 

Capped Heron

 

 

Rufescent Tiger Heron (immature)

 

We had just been on the river for less than two hours, having photo fun with a yacaré caiman who was swimming right next to the boat (and snorting like an ox from time to time):

 

 

And had our first jaguar alarm! A young male was just getting out of the water on the right bank, a bit hard to see in all the plants. He was gone in less than 30 seconds (no time for pics) but still – 90 minutes in and we had our first big cat. What a terrific start!

 

And we didn´t have to wait long for a Jaguar who was not as photoshy. At about 10.00 a big male was radioed in (all Porto Jofre boats are linked, and others are quick to follow their lead) and we were on our way up Corixo Negro again.

 

 

Here he was waiting for us, a fine alpha specimen. Didn´t stay that hidden for long but chose to give us a clearer look at him:

 

 

Jaguars are said to look like Leopards on steroids. Quite accurate I think. We stayed with him for more than an hour but he didn´t really do anything but held his siesta, not bothered by all his admirers in the least. Eight other boats were present.

 

 

We debated if we should stay with him or move on. Ariberto told us it was impossible to know what he would do, maybe he would get up and hunt, drink or do something else spectacular. But chances were much higher of him sleeping all day till nightfall. So we decided to move on and check out Rio Piquiri.

 

Not the very best idea jaguar-wise, because one hour later Mr. Big would get up, run a few 100 m upriver and snatch himself a bit of caiman! (Just one boat stayed with him and could watch this, we were told in the evening. The lucky American lady was understandably ecstatic with this sighting!)

 

But even when I heard this I didn´t care all that much. Because Rio Piquiri gifted us with a wonderful Giant Otter sighting that was so much fun it was impossible to get cranky about missed jaguar huntings.

 

 

A group of about 7 or 8 animals were swimming fast along the bank. Manuel very skilfully drove and held the boat on their level, we went with them for almost a km. They had a young one with them, and this otter baby was too cute for words:

 

 

The adults were munching on fish with pleasure:

 

 

But poor little otter had nothing! And how he cried … and howled … and begged!

 

But for quite a while his family ignored him, even pushed him away when he came close to get his share. We really felt for the little squaller. Finally one otter had mercy on him, and one little otter was made very happy:

 

 

 

Yes, a jaguar caiman-kill would of course have been terrific – but definitely not as heartwarming as this sighing! Will never forget the little one´s “ Please please give me fish” cries.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8-3xqTCIHw

Edited November 10, 2013 by michael-ibk

[pedro maia]

It´s amazing how the porto jofre region delivers jaguar sightings.

 

Great video with the giant otters.

Edited November 10, 2013 by pedro maia

[TonyQ]

@@michael-ibk

Good to see the jaguar - but great otter viewing - it is brilliant to see the video and to hear the squealing

[michael-ibk]

After all the otter fun we returned to Porto Jofre for lunch. (It´s possible to stay on the river all day – we did on our third day. But it´s not too far from the meeting of the waters to the hotel, and the option of stretching you legs after five hours on the boat is not a bad one.)



River Entrance to Hotel Porto Jofre

Here are some pics from the website of our operator:

http://www.pantanal-pocone.net/en/pantanal/lodges/hotel_porto_jofre.php

Our first opportunity to get to know the place a bit, since we had arrived after dark the day before and left early in the morning. And it´s very nice.

Lots of old, big trees which serve as a home for Monk Parakeet, Yellow-Chevroned Parakeet, Hyacinth Macaws, Yellow-Rumped Caciques, Rufous Horneros and many more. Black Vultures are always watching the waters.

 

Hyacinth Macaws are not shy here at all.

There´s a very beautiful water lily pond just 50 metres behind the bungalows. Always something to see there too, be it Kingfishers, Egrets, Jabirus, Wood Storks, Ibises and of course Jacanas.

 

Less than 100 m away from our room.

 

The giant waterlilies here are native to the western Pantanal and were introduced here.

So you can watch lots of birds at any time of the day, and explore quite a bit. One of the major advantages Porto Jofre has on the several houseboats moored upriver where the guests are not allowed to enter the shores. Quite a cramped atmosphere there I would imagine. And not really better location-wise since Jofre´s speedboats get there in about 20 minutes. Another plus: They offer breakfast beginning at 5 o´clock, and also prepare packed lunchs if desired.

It is the most expensive accommodation along the Transpantaneira, but its unique quality as the definite jaguar hotspot in the world, very good food and the nice premises are well worth the money. But it´s quite a big place, I believe they have capacitiy for more than 60 guests. Not all of those will go for phototrips, though, Porto Jofre always was a hotel for fishing parties, only for the last few years photo tourists have become more and more numerous.

Porto Jofre is not a village, btw (as I mistakenly believed because of the way it is marked in maps.) There´s just the hotel, and a camping place a short way upriver.

In the afternoon we checked how our jaguar Mr. Big was doing. Yes, he was still there. As already mentioned he had killed a caiman a short time after we had left him. No traces of the caiman but he definitely had battle scars. His eyes looked not quite right, and the blood stains were quite visible.

 

We stayed with him for about two hours, again with several other boats. (9, as I remember.) An Argentinan guy was really really irritating, he mistakenly believed that we had come to Porto Jofre eager to let ourselves be “entertained” by his bawdy, delivered in a booming voice which nearly gave me a headache. Just as the temptation of using my monopod as a lance and delight the piranhas with a proper snack became more and more irresistible to get some peace luckily for all ff us Mr. Nuisance decided that we didn´t appreciate his witty efforts to his satisfaction and left.

So we finally could spend some quiet quality time with Mr. Big. Who understandably was a bit dozey after his caiman meal and didn´t do all that much.

Finally he at least repositioned himself so that he was at least partly in the sun, albeit covered by branches.

When he retreated even further we finally left him. The rest of the afternoon was quiet. Capybaras, caimans and birds. And a family of giant otters again. And then a fast drive back home, the boatsmen obviously considered this a bit of a race.





Needless to say that we were very happy with our first day. But jaguar-wise, the next day would be even better!

[Atdahl]

@@michael-ibk - Superb photos again. I can't imagine that "jaguar-wise, the next day would be even better!". I'm hooked...keep it coming!

[michael-ibk]

Day 2 at Porto Jofre

 

Again we rose early (4.45), and after a rich breakfast took a quick look to the pond. It was very misty and hazy from the smoke, quite a mystic atmosphere.

 

 

Lonesome Jabiru

 

We left with the boat at about 6 o´clock. The mist soon dissolved, the sun rose red and it soon should get hot. Very hot. Of all the drinks in my life I think I´ve enjoyed few more than the ice-cold water the hotel provides in the boats.

 

On our way upriver we spotted an Osprey, not a very common sight but he took off before we got close enough for pictures. Corixo Negro, the Black River, was our first destination.

 

 

 

Southern Screamer, one of my favourite birds in the Pantanal. Though they look more like raptors (especially in flight) they are actually related to ducks and geese. Aptly named, their scream is very loud, and thinking of the Pantanal I always hear their distinctive voice in my mind.

 

 

Great Black Hawk. a very impressive raptor.

 

No jaguars to be seen, but their presence was very evident.

 

 

This caiman had clearly been killed by one of the big cats, its skull deeply pierced. (Jaguars get through their armour with ease, their bite is the most powerful among all big cats.) Curiously the caiman seemed untouched otherwise, the jaguar had not feasted. Maybe he had been disturbed – or this caiman simply was not to his taste.

 

We drove upriver quite far on Rio Cuiaba afterwards. Not too much to be seen, even capybaras and caimans were scarce. Ariberto had hoped to show us huge bird flocks here on a sidearm but unfortunately it was apparently still a bit too early for that, the water level had not sunk enough yet. Still, I enjoyed the very small channel we used for the way back simply because of the very leisurely pace the boat had to go because of the narrowness and shallowness here.

 

Our nicest sighting was a very approachable Crane Hawk:

 

 

 

A not too commonly seen raptor which uses its very long, double-jointed legs to probe into crevices. We couldn´t see what prey it was after here, probably a snake.

 

We only met a small fishing boat in the channel who told us of a jaguar who had just passed about 500 m away. But he was gone when we got there and I wasn´t sure if I really was too unhappy about it. After all, the channel was not broader than perhaps 6 or 7 metres here, and to keep some safety distance would be problematic.

 

But we didn´t need to wait long for jaguars, at about 10.30 a sighting along Rio Tres Irmaos was radioed in, and *brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrm*, Manuel hit the pedals and we seemed to fly along the river. (With about 50 km/h as he told me.) And soon had the pleasure of seeing a fine younger male jaguar:

 

 

A very pleasant sighting, only three other boats were present, and all kept quiet and were happy just watching.

 

 

The jaguar was very relaxed, and dozed on the river bank totally oblivious to his admirers. Only now and then could he even be bothered to take a look.

 

 

 

Sleeping was more important to him:

 

 

 

 

Tiny little cardinal here had no respect whatsoever:

 

 

At noon we had to decide again what to do. Stay with him watching him sleep? Or leave and risk missing something spectacular again? (Like the caiman hunt the day before?) Ariberto was convinced the jaguar would not even blink for the next few hours so we hesitantly returned to base, worrying if we really would have such a nice sighting again in the afternoon. As we soon found out, there was no need to worry.

[michael-ibk]

After a quick lunch we intended to go back to our male jaguar and were on our way at a tearing pace. But near the meeting of the waters Manuel stopped, two boats near the left river bank had apparently found something pretty cool judging by the way their passengers smiled.

 

And yes, it was something cool! A purring, mating pair of jaguars!

 

 

Checking her out…

 

 

Could have done without the collar…

 

 

Does she like me does she not…

 

 

*blush*

 

 

*doubleblush*

 

 

Thank you darling, you did fine, now go away and let me sleep.

 

It was a bit of a difficult sighting photowise because of the angle, the branches and the strong shaking of the boat here – but all these things didn´t matter. I just felt “Wow!!!!!!!!!”, what a privilege seeing this, the creation of jaguar babies!

 

We left the loving couple (who had retreated deeper into the gallery forest anyway) and went on to Rio Tres Irmaos to see if our jaguar was still there. Luckily he was.

 

 

 

 

Another wonderful sighting. Only three other boats there.

 

 

All quiet, just admiring the beauty of the jaguar, and only his (rare) movements would trigger some noises – the shutter sound of about ten camers clicking in unison, sounding not unlike gun fire at times.

 

I just realized I haven´t mentioned insects yet. That’s because there´s not much to mention. Mosquitoes were really not bad at all in the Pantanal, in the morning and well after noon I mostly didn´t even bother to use a repellent. In the afternoon it got a bit worse, but our “No Bite” (a German brand) was very effective and I was hardly stung at all.

 

We stayed with the jaguar for nearly three hours.

 

 

 

And it paid off, because finally he decided to get up.

 

 

And went to drink:

 

 

 

He clearly couldn´t understand why everyone was so excited about him sticking his tongue out. But indeed, everyone was blissed out, if he liked it or not.

 

 

We had hoped for him to get active now, maybe even try out his luck with the capybaras who were anxiously eyeing him from the other shore, but – he went straight back to sleep.

 

 

Which was just as well, because it got dark and we had to leave him anyway. And so our second day at Porto Jofre came to an end, and we couldn´t have asked for more.

 

 

 

[Atravelynn]

Those otters out of the water are fabulous. They look so relaxed. Way to go! Then I got to the mating jaguars! The crane hawk in action, using its double jointed legs looks like a textbook illustration for that special feature of the bird. Nursing capybara, adorable.

Edited November 23, 2013 by Atravelynn

[Pennyanne]

@@michael-ibk. I am really enjoying this report. Such wonderful viewings, especially the giant otters. Brazil is definitely on our list. Thanks for sharing and I am looking forward to the next instalment.

[TonyQ]

@@michael-ibk

You certainly had fabulous viewings at Porto Jofre - superb jaguar sightings - I am really enjoying this!

[michael-ibk]

Thanks, @@Atravelynn , @Pennyanne and @@TonyQ (booked your Pantanal trip yet?)

 

Day 3 at Porto Jofre

 

For today we had decided to stay on the water all day long but started one hour later than usual. Which gave us time to enjoy the lily pond in the morning.

 

 

Water Lily

 

 

 

Cocoi Heron

 

 

Ringed Kingfisher

 

 

Wattled Jacana

 

We passed a sandbank full of American Skimmers, and it was very entertaining listening to their hue and cry.

 

 

 

It wasn´t as sunny and hot as the days before, it had gotten noticeably cooler and especially between 10 and 11 o´clock it was very much looking like it would start to rain any minute now. But we were lucky, the clouds dispersed and we remained dry.

 

No special sightings, it was too cold for the jaguars to come out, and even capybaras and caimans were quite scarce this day.

 

 

Male Greenfisher

 

 

Capybara

 

But curiously, Common Iguanas were out in force. None of them around the days before, and we had seen only one at Rio Paraguia, but more than 10 this day. Probably a weather they like, although I would have expected them to prefer sun and heat. Apparently not.

 

 

We took our lunch at Corixo Negro, and enjoyed the meat and cheese pastries, sandwiches, fresh ananas and passion fruit the hotel had packed for us. We were pretty much opposite of where we had seen the big jaguar two days before. Lovely place, we were undisturbed by other boats and enjoyed the tranquillity.

 

 

 

No big cats around, but some interesting smaller stuff.

 

 

Amazon Lava Lizard? (Not sure about this one at all…)

 

A Glittering-Bellied Emerald was also humming around near our siesta place in the trees but we didn´t manage to take decent pics. Ariberto showed us its nest, however, positively tiny!

 

 

 

The afternoon started out pretty quiet and we had pretty much come to terms with the fact that we wouldn´t see jaguars today. Which was ok, we were very happy with what we had already seen, and not every day can be sighting after sighting. But then the radio call came in – our loving couple had been spotted again near the meeting of the waters, and so we sped there.

 

About 10 boats were already here, and saw … practically nothing. The jaguars were resting in the shrubbery, it took me more than 10 minutes to even spot them:

 

 

Now and then they would get up and change their positions, but always hard to see. They were lying on a very narrow strip of ground between two section of the river which does a perfect 180 ° bend nearby. Every time they moved a bit all boats would frantically hurry to the other side in hope of getting a better view there. Which was mostly in vain.

 

I remember feeling unthankful and immodest even then, how could one not like seeing jaguars in the wild? But I did really not enjoy this, far too many boats, all jostling for positons, and the jaguars were clearly irritated about the loud crowd, the motor noise, especially since they were practically caged here, with no way out. No matter if they went left or right, the boats could approach them from both sides and they definitely were not comfortable with this situation.

 

They even jumped into the river once and hid behind some branches but quickly retreated up the river bank again.

 

 

 

 

 

I was actually relieved when Ariberto, who clearly didn´t approve of all this, suggested to leave. We tried out Rio Piquiri for the last two hours but didn´t find anything out of the ordinary. So our last boat trip was a bit of a disappointment, especially the afternoon. But it didn´t really matter – all in all our time on the rivers here at Porto Jofre had been spectacular.

 

And our day was far from over. We went on a night drive, with a strong emphasis on “night” – we started at midnight. Ariberto told us that game viewing along the Transpantaniere has been seriously deteriorating because of increased tourist and therefore car traffic, especially for the last two years. Mammals are becoming harder and harder to see, giant anteaters are all but gone, and even marsh deer who used to be abundant are avoiding the proximity of the road more and more. But the middle of the night, many hours after evening drives are over, is still a good time for nocturnal animals, especially here in the south of the Transpantaneira.

 

I would expect that not every driver likes to pass the bridges of the Transpantaneira in pitch black dark but Ariberto doesn´t mind. He told us about the state of the road about 10 years ago when some “bridges” used to consist of just two wooden beams and one had to carefully, carefully get over these and drive extremely accurately – or land in the water. As it is today Ariberto doesn´t even see the need to slow down much at bridges.

 

 

The Transpantaneira´s longest bridge.

 

It was a fantastic night. Thousands of bats seemed to be active, hundreds of caiman eyes glowed in every water body, and the chirping of the insects and quacking of frogs coalesced to a very special nocturnal concert I will never forget. (I apologize for the poor quality of some of the following pics, but I´d like to present a flavour of what it was like. We will have to figure out how to take good ones on night drives one day.)

 

 

Night-blooming water flowers.

 

The swamp fire had crept close to the Transpantaneire, which just enforced the eerie atmosphere.

 

 

Lots of capybaras were resting near the road, a similar sight as in daylight but the egrets, ibises and herons of the sun had made way for their nocturnal counterparts:

 

 

Boatbill, quite an odd bird I had really wanted to see.

 

 

Black-Crowned Night Heron

 

 

The capybaras didn´t mind our presence at all. I could literally have touched this one

 

And then, after almost an hour, Ariberto stopped quite abruptly after a bridge. A young Yellow Anaconda was getting over the road. I stormed out of the car to get a better look. Missed its head, the snake had already partly hidden in the grass. I had a good adrenaline rush getting as close as less than two metres. The anaconda was pretty small, maybe around two or three metres, but it looked impressive enough to me. (Another species very hard to find nowadays according to Ariberto. For whatever reason, many disappeared after the big flood of 2005/2006.)

 

 

We also saw a huge Great Horned Owl. And then the absolute, undisputed highlight. Ariberto had told us he hoped to see a jaguar, it´s not too uncommon finding them during night drives here in the south of the road. And yes, after about two hours of driving he calmly said “There she goes” and pointed to the big cat skulking away from the road on the right. Jaguar!, he confirmed. But it was not. My bincos revealed a different cat, one rangier, longer and more lithe than the spotted alpha predator of the Pantanal. This here was no jaguar, it was a Puma!

 

An incredible thrill! I never even had considered that there was a chance of seeing one, especially near Porto Jofre, which is pure Jaguar territory. Ariberto was very surprised (and delighted), in all his years he hadn´t seen more than five pumas this far south.

 

We watched the silent hunter treading carefully and alertly in the grass some hundred metres away from us, its caution probably due to the fact it realized that it was deep in the land of a very much stronger cat. I was really ecstatic seeing a puma, and we could watch it twice for a good five minutes until it disappeared in the shrubs. Unfortunately we didn´t manage to get any decent pics but just for proof:

 

 

 

So the night drive was a big success, and after almost three hours we returned very tired, but very happy. The afternoon was forgotten, we had seen a puma! For me, this was probably the most thrilling moment of the entire trip.