Iguassu Falls with Birds

We had a grueling flight from Ilha Fernando do Noronha to Iguassu, starting at 10 in the morning and going until 1 AM the next morning. We had two connections - one in Recife and another in Sao Paolo, but we and our bags all made it. To make it even more complicated, we had to have a special private car take us to the hotel inside the national park in Brazil, because they lock up after 7 PM.  Guests at the hotel have a special dispensation to arrive late, but, after midnight, you must use a car with a special permit. These cars must carry a park-issued GPS during the trip that will issue a huge fine and suspend the car's permit for six months if they exceed the very low speed limit. Why? They are trying to avoid deaths of wildlife in the park. Our driver told us he'd seen eight jaguars in six years. There are plenty of other animals there as well.

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We got up pretty early and enjoyed a great breakfast buffet with two espresso drinks. A lot of coatis, which are sort of like daytime party raccoons with long, curled tails visited the patio near the buffet. Plush-crested jays also came to visit. 

Another photo of the same kind of bird. 

After breakfast we met our driver Bruno, who would take us to and from the Argentinian Iguassu Falls national park. That is quite a drive, crossing over a triple border between Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. We had a little excitement as we crossed. Our driver pointed out a car surrounded by drug inspectors just beside us as we inched through the international checkpoint. There on the ground next to the car were about forty packets of cocaine, and they were still pulling more from the car as we passed. I was crazy enough to get out my phone and snap a photo of this. Luckily, the agent either didn't notice me, or decided it wasn't worth the trouble to stop us. I'm not posting the photo because it could be used to identify the agent(s) and the car and driver. 

Finally, after a chaotic arrival among numerous private cars and tour buses and huge lines, we managed to get inside the park. We saw lots of coatis and monkeys along the paths. 

We first hiked along the trails below the falls. 

Then we went to an area called the Devil's Throat. This trail was destroyed by flooding a couple of years ago, and only reopened about a week before we got there. The "trail" consists of a series of metal walkways stretching across the flowing river from one small island to the next for about a mile, until it finally reaches where the falls are somewhat more than a semicircle, all in a small space. With all the recent rains, the waters were exceptionally strong, causing a massive amount of spray to fly up all the way from the bottom to above the observation platforms, getting us all wet each time the wind shifted our way. 

There was so much spray you couldn't really see the other side. 

Later that day, we walked on the trails above the falls. In this view, you see the water going over the edge of one of the falls in the foreground, then the full height of the waterfalls in the background. In the center, the water is rebounding almost a hundred feet in the air after hitting bottom in a convergence of water from several surrounding falls. There were rainbows all around the falls that day, created by the sun hitting the spray shooting up from the falls. 

We walked about nine miles that day, according to our phone GPS app. The next morning, we took the hike just in front of our hotel inside the park, on the Brazilian side. It was pretty spectacular, as it ran along in front of the falls, varying in height from near the top of the falls to near the bottom. As on the day before, there were rainbows everywhere. 

It might appear as though there are specks on the lens in this photo, but each one is actually a bird. Zoom in for a closer view. The birds love the spray. I imagine it must be a good place to catch bugs to eat. I love how this photo merges a dreamlike look with the stark reality of daylight. 

On our way to the airport, we stopped off at the bird park called Parque des Aves, where they had a huge walk-through park with a series of very tall caged in areas with a huge assortment of beautiful birds. 

That's all for our visit to Iguassu. This part three of our trip.

Click here for part 1, jaguar highlight photos.

Click here for part 2, our visit to Ilha Fernando do Noronha. 

Brazilian Island - Fernando de Noronha

For the first part of our trip to Brazil, we flew to the islands of Fernando de Noronha. The main island has somewhat been developed for tourism, but only to the point that there are some paved roads and a small airport that only handles small planes. It's so informal that there is no real rental car company, but you can find a guy on the internet who will send you WhatsApp messages with prices and have the car and a person waiting for you when you arrive so you can pay. When we left a few days later, he said just leave the car in one of the six or so parking spaces at the airport and leave the keys in the car!

Anyway, the idea was to go to this remote group of islands to see the sea life and bird life and enjoy the beautiful beaches. For the most part, the beaches have no development here, only a few cabanas or none at all in a lot of cases. The water is clear and looks green closer to shore and fades to shades of blue further out. We saw this rock on our first hike. I think the call it Bishop Rock or something because it looks like one of those big hats they wear. 

The coast was just stunningly beautiful. This hike was inside a national park, so all natural. They have strict limits on how many people can hike each day, and you have to pay a guide also. We found out late that almost all the hiking time slots fill up fast, so we had to take the 7:30 AM time slot! It turned out we were getting up at 6 or 7 AM almost every day of our entire vacation.  But at least it was usually for a fun reason. :)  There's a big cave at the back of this cliff.

The wind was pretty strong, so the waves were strong too. We went snorkeling in one area and we found out why it's not good to go when it's not high tide - the waves were pulling and pushing us and Jennifer's shin slammed into the sharp rocks, and she was bleeding. 

But at least we did see a lot of colorful tropical fish.

This is the view at the end of the hike. You're not allowed to go in this area without a guide. 

We saw a lot of boobies at another beach, where there are great cliffs of black volcanic rock that they nest on. The first is a Brown Booby. 

These two are Red-Footed Boobies. The first is a female showing off for male suitors. The second is landing in a tree at the top of the cliff we were standing on. 

We also saw White Terns.

Frigatebirds were everywhere.  It took a lot of attempts to get a good one in sharp focus, with the sun at a good angle, good sky color, with the tail feathers in a V-shape, and the eye visible. This one meets all the criteria. These birds have about 6-7 foot wingspan and can live on the water for months without returning to land. They mainly return to land to have babies. They can drink seawater and their bodies can remove the salt. That would be amazing if humans could do that. 

We were lucky to see a couple of sea turtles at different times when we went snorkeling.

Barracuda, with his deadeye cold stare. You never know what they're thinking until it's too late.  He's over three feet long. 

Flying fish, not flying. Their "wings" are long fins. 

Stingray with a pal. This fish was following the stingray everywhere.  The stingray was like "I'm trying to hunt here - quit blowing my cover, you idiot!"

This is part 2 of our Brazil trip. 

Click here for artistic bird and waterfall photos from Iguassu Falls.

Click here for part 1 - a set of close-up jaguar photos from the Pantanal.

Jaguar Closeups in Brazil's Pantanal

My friend Eduardo lives in Curitiba, Brazil. Eduardo is a great photographer. Last January, he sent me an amazing photo of a jaguar he took on a recent trip to the Pantanal. The Pantanal is a seasonal wetlands region of southwest Brazil that is about the size of Montana. He encouraged us to come see for ourselves. I didn't think there was much chance we would see a jaguar. I was happy to be very, very wrong.

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It's quite a journey to get to the Pantanal. First, we flew to Sao Paolo, then took another two-and-a-half-hour flight to the southwestern city of Cuiabá, and finally, hired a private driver for a several-hour drive on the Transpantaneira. This is the only road that penetrates deep into the vast area of the Pantanal. The next morning, at 7:30 AM, we had already finished breakfast and the four of us and our guide were boarding our small aluminum motorboat. Soon thereafter, we saw a few boats idling in front of something on shore. Once we got close enough, we realized we were seeing a jaguar! 

The jaguar mostly ignored the people sitting in the boats and just went about its business looking for prey, etc. Every once in a while, she did look at us for a brief moment.

We watched her for about ten minutes before she disappeared into the brush. I say we watched "her" because the guides know most of the jaguars that live in these waterways, and they knew this particular jaguar. They also know which other jaguars are her children, and in some cases, by which father!

 
Less than a half hour later, we spotted another jaguar. The guides know most of the jaguars by sight because of a cooperative jaguar identification project being run by lodges and guides with some assistance from Pantera, a worldwide big cat conservation organization. This project tracks the health of the individuals and the overall population. They told us this jaguar is a female. She was working her way down to the water.

Each time a jaguar disappeared, we had to make a decision of whether to stay and hope they reemerge somewhere nearby or go on looking for other jaguars. In this case, we decided to try looking elsewhere. 

Panthera.org, a group dedicated to preserving the few remaining big cat species on earth, provides some support to the jaguar conservation in the Pantanal.

 
Last year, the Pantanal suffered huge wildfires. This year, there was not as much rain as usual during the rainy season. This is really sad for all the animals in the area, as some were killed by the wildfires, and others were forced to leave their home territories. The river basin still has water, but any significant distance in any direction is dry and dusty. In this photo, some of her claws are visible.

A couple of hours later, we found this jaguar resting under a tree. This is a male, and he has a collar to allow his movements to be tracked. This is part of a program to try to protect jaguars and find ways for jaguars and ranchers to coexist.

 

Almost every jaguar we saw went in the water at one time or another. They showed no hesitation to enter the water. They're excellent swimmers. Much of their food is caimans (similar to alligators), which they find along the water's edge.

 

We spent a lot of time just sitting in front of this jaguar. 

The longer we stayed, the more comfortable it got.

Unfortunately, ranchers don't have the same view of a majestic, threatened animal that visitors have. Ranchers see jaguars as a threat to livestock, so they often kill jaguars. It is legal to kill jaguars in Brazil. I can understand the ranchers' need to protect their livelihood, but it still feels tragic to kill something so rare and beautiful. There is so little of the wild world left these days. 

One hopeful program is adding one or a few water buffalo to a herd of cows. Water buffalo serve as a deterrent to jaguars. 

This post is a first blast of nothing but jaguar photos, all from our first day on the water. 

Click here to see the next post, about our visit to beautiful tropical islands. 

Click here for photos from Iguassu Falls. 

Later, we'll have a cormorant eating its fish, colorful birds, great river otters, and more jaguars.