Brazil 2025 part 4

    This morning, I wake up with an unhappy stomach so make the decision I had better stay on the boat. We cannot exactly pull up anywhere on the riverbank for an emergency stop! Pit stops are only allowed on open sandy beaches and those can be few and far between.

Paul waves at me as the speedboat backs away. Naturally, I feel some remorse as I watch the group leaving without me. The good part of my staying on the riverboat is that today we will be on the move and heading up the river. Another good thing is I can stand up and walk around plus there is an awning to stand under and escape the hot sun! Paul and I are both sick of sitting all the time! We do walk laps around the upper deck when we are on the riverboat to get some exercise.

    I observe the crew prepare to leave. The youngest member goes ashore to untie the huge rope that has kept the riverboat moored to a tree during the night. It takes three men to get the lengthy rope pulled back onto the ship. One of them is in the water pulling the rope to the boat, another man pulls it through a hole in the ships side, and the third man wraps the rope around a bar on the other side of the ship. This is all taking place below me, so I have a bird’s eye view of the process. It takes a lot of strength to get that rope back on the ship and secured.

Once we are moving up the river, I stand in the prow and observe the river and the shoreline.  I see birds everywhere, spy an iguana sitting on the edge of the river, and watch a pair of Hyacinth Macaws fly in front of the ship. I did not have my camera in hand so there is no photo of the Macaws.

   I also watch the Brazilians going about their lives as we drift by their homesteads. One homestead has laundry hanging on the line. There is a man and woman preparing to leave in a small boat. Maybe they are going fishing?  A couple of cowboys are driving a small herd of cattle down a road. We wave to each other and by the time I think to take a photo, they have disappeared behind a grove of trees. The riverboat is amazingly quiet which is a nice change from the speed boats. I really am enjoying this!

I watch the crew clean the ship, swabbing the decks and washing windows. This ship is always very clean and well kept. After they finish, I do some laps around the top deck and see several of the crew taking a break on the deck below. I go to our room and get the photo book I brought with photos taken at our ranch. The men do not speak English, and I sure do not speak Portugues but photos they understand. The crew crowd around the man holding the book and one of them points to a photo of cows and says “bison”? No, I reply, they are Angus cattle. Several of them say Angus as though they recognize that word. The photo that gets the most reaction is one of our cows lined up eating hay with snow on the ground and snow on the cattle’s back. All of them react with an ooh or even brr. They hand my book back and thank me for letting them see it, (I think).

    Fred and the group return to check on me late morning, and I am feeling good enough to go with them on a short jaunt before coming back for lunch. Paul tells me they saw Marcela and Ousado but the best sighting was a Tapir! Boy am I sorry I missed seeing that odd animal. I tell myself that we saw two tapirs on our first trip to Brazil so that makes me feel better. Paul has a photo which looks good on his phone, but it is too pixelated when it is blown up to post on the blog.

Our adventure this afternoon is going up a side channel that is very shallow with lots of water hyacinths. Fred must use a pole to check the depth of the water to make sure our boat does not bottom out. There are caiman everywhere and more beautiful birds including Roseate Spoonbills. Unfortunately, it is so blasted hot that everybody agrees we should return to the riverboat early.

   Fred sang for us and gave a great talk on caymans and howler monkeys tonight. The best thing on the buffet in my opinion was the French fries! They were cooked perfectly. We have not had many potato dishes so I ate my fill of them! I love potatoes and am not fond of rice and beans which is a staple in Brazil. Okay, the stroganoff was excellent too.

     This morning Paul and I go out to watch the sunrise but are soon chased back in due to clouds of mosquitos. We have had very little trouble with these pests so far which is kind of surprising.

   We do not leave until 6:30 this morning as Fred is taking us to a place where we can take a walk. Yeah!! The Indian couple decide to forgo this as Fred warns us that there will be mosquitos and the man seems to be a mosquito magnet. It was not a tough hike although in one place there were a lot of loose rocks which made you watch your step. We saw a Pale-crested woodpecker which was new for us and a tiny woodpecker about the size of a wren. When we got out of the timber and onto a dirt road, Paul spotted a jaguar track in the dust. We are just glad we did not run into the big cat on the brushy trail. We walked a couple of miles and boy did that feel good.

    The Indian couple are waiting in the speedboat when we get back. Our boat driver takes us down a river canal which leads to a huge lake. There is a mountain range in the background so the scenery is stunning. As we motor on, there are lakes and water canals as far as you can see. This means we see huge flocks of water birds, flying, perching, and swimming. It is just surreal. We end up in Bolivia for a few minutes; the border is marked by a white post sticking up out of the water. No, we are not supposed to go into Bolivia, but we have not seen a soul since we entered this beautiful area so figure we are safe. Oh yes, the riverboat is now traveling up the Paraguay river.

     This afternoon we are going to visit what Fred calls the shopping mall. A group of women decided to start weaving crafts from the water hyacinth stems. Fred always brings his groups here because he so admires the innovation of the women. Also, very few tourists come here so they need all the help they can get. Everyone finds something to purchase. Paul and I buy a piece that resembles a capybara. I have no idea what we will do with it when we get it home but the ability it took to weave this piece is admirable.

  We leave the shopping mall behind and motor to the Pantanal National Park headquarters. I cannot remember how many acres the park is but do know it is huge. To patrol the waters and land of this enormous national park there are only two rangers! The head ranger is a personable woman who warmly greets us upon our arrival. We follow her to the office building and sign the visitors’ book. After visiting for a bit, with Fred translating, we head back to the riverboat. One thing Fred shares with us is how isolated the people who work and live here are, twelve hours by boat to a town!

    A wonderful day and I loved this scenic area. Not a bad way to spend your 49^th wedding anniversary!

I have included slideshows in this blog. Below are various birds we saw. Another slide show shows photos when we were touring the expansive waters. Just click on the arrows to see all the photos.