As is the case with most things in nature, there are no guarantees of a sighting. This weighed on us quite a bit prior to venturing on this trip because jaguars are not common sightings in general. Furthermore, getting a full day excursion on the Rio São Lourenço is not an inexpensive affair. We feared that we would come all this way, spend all this money, and potentially see nothing. So with that in mind, I would like to present to you our day out on the water.
We were on a private boat compared to others which could hold as many as 16. We also didn’t have a guide because we hadn’t booked through a group and spoke broken Portuguese with the boat driver. Our speed boat arrived at the national park in about 15-20 minutes and we had a jaguar sighting pretty shortly thereafter. Now that’s cool and everything, but as you can see from the above picture, I would have had a much easier time taking pictures of other people’s heads. While this photo is a bit of an extreme example of what we dealt with, it is worth posting because it shows the reality behind the neatly edited and cropped photos you may see on this blog and elsewhere.
There were in fact three jaguars together, sharing a recently-killed caiman. Being one of 20 boats, and timing my shots between parts of other boats, heads, and people’s massive $20,000 zoom lenses wasn’t ideal. It was not necessarily a relaxed environment as I felt all the boats were competing for position. This is unfortunately what happens around rare animals. It happened in Tanzania in safari jeeps even during a travel downturn at the end of 2020. There are a lot of rich tourists and unfortunately not many jaguars to go around.
With that being said, I do admit a sense of relief, that we had seen a few so early in our trip up down the river. It felt very cold while out on the river especially when moving swiftly between points. My phone said it was 70, but we were bundled up in jackets and long-sleeved shirts. I would say it felt more like 50. We were shivering most of the morning.
We would eventually see a couple more over the next few hours, but not as active. They are often lying down in the vegetation. The last one was so obscured by tall grass, that I had to switch to manual focus to even try and get a respectable picture. For the last hour, we appeared to be boating around aimlessly until I eventually asked him, “O que está procurando?” (what are you searching for?) He said anacondas. That would have been cool, but because we didn’t have a proper guide, there are some disadvantages in not being as informed as to what’s going on. That’s the price of a lower price.
We had almost three hours to regroup back at the Santa Rosa Hotel before our afternoon session. The jaguars and other animals are not very active in the middle of the day. This would usually be due to the heat, but today I think they were perhaps cuddling together for warmth. We had lunch and switched into our upgraded room which apparently goes for $750 per night. That steep price evidently gets you capybaras walking outside your room for entertainment.
There is a lot more natural light. I am actually convinced that we were put up in housing for the guides last night since we had a last minute booking. Our neighbor was indeed a Brazilian guide and it might explain why there were four beds in our tiny and dark room. After settling in, we got bundled back up for a cold afternoon out on the river. After about 30 minutes or so, we were able to find another jaguar napping in some tall grass. We waited it out. Of the initial 10 boats or so that were there, most eventually gave up until there were 2 or 3 including ours.
Eventually it woke up and started taking a stroll atop some cliffs next to the river. It would disappear and reappear from the thick vegetation after a period of time. Someone in the other boats (or Nicole with hawk eyes) would spot it again through the brush, and the boats would slowly parallel its track. It kept looking over the edge. There would be long stretches where I wasn’t sure if it would reappear. With that being said, Nicole and I agreed that we both would prefer to follow this jaguar than boat around aimlessly in the wind. The sun even made a brief appearance as we waited.
Then shortly after the above photo was taken, it jumped into the water. I do not have photos of this moment because someone’s head from the other boats was in my way. I do however have video of it pulling a caiman out of the water and climbing back up the cliffs with it in its mouth. My refurbished and dated iPad doesn’t let me import such hi-res footage, so use your imagination.
So while we technically only saw one jaguar during our afternoon outing, I thought it was pretty successful even if I don’t have photographic evidence of the jump. We got to witness nature happening before our very eyes. We got back to the room and wondered if we’ll ever be able to warm up. I got a tea from the dining room. Even though we did a full day outing today since we got here a day early (had to cover our bases in case our standby flights went awry), we have elected to do another full day tomorrow. The forecast is predicting some sun, so that would be nice.
It should be noted as well that relaying that we wanted to do another tour was no easy task. Nicole went into the office and said, “We would like to book a tour for tomorrow.” Pretty straightforward. Simple words. All met with a blank stare. Alright, I guess Brian from Belém has to step up. Somehow we were able to get through the different options in Portuguese including all the different boats and different prices and got the desired result. So if for some reason one of you wants to come here, you should know that English is really not widely spoken if at all. Last night, a woman at a nearby table ordered a bottle of water for her dinner and after being offered a coke instead was then given simply an empty glass with ice. She seemed perplexed. Google Translate is probably the bare minimum you would need. But you should also know that there is no cell service in this part of Brazil and the wifi isn’t very good either. Boa sorte e até amanhã.
passports & pepto bismol 