It was an early morning once again with a bit of a chill in the air, though not as windy as the previous day. Our morning session yielded a very rapid jaguar sighting with one posing on a log. It sat there for quite some time as did the humans in their boats. As it was pretty close to the park entrance (which Nicole believes takes over 35 minutes to reach by boat rather than the 15 that I mentioned previously), pretty much every boat heading out for their morning tours was stopped there.
When this particular jaguar eventually bid adieu to the crowd and made its stage exit back into the thick vegetation, the boats began chaotically zig-zagging across each other in all directions as if we were all under artillery fire trying to reach the beaches of Normandy. As the morning progressed, a few boats scattered to go elsewhere, but there were still quite a few camped out trying to track the jaguar’s movements.
Eventually we found another one (or maybe the same one…it’s hard to tell, they look…similar) making yelping noises and two cubs appeared shortly thereafter. There was some wrestling and mutual licking before they too posed on logs for the audience as if we were on a Disney safari and the jaguars were coaxed into position.
Eventually they even jumped into the water to cross the river. And this is a good time to point out that the boat excursions (including the Santa Rosa Hotel where we are staying) insist that these tours do not harass the jaguars. Sure, people aren’t throwing things, or yelling racial slurs at the jaguars, but the mere fact that the boats exist is kind of an issue. As all the boats scattered off in one direction predicting the jaguars movements, the jaguars themselves actually went the opposite way to jump into the water. This was possible because there were no longer any boats. So as much as the tourist revenue from these things may be helping preserve the habitat and the national park etc., there are way too many boats.
We saw so many jaguars in the morning and shot so much video and photos that I drained an entire battery before 11am. Even Nicole, who has a much simpler camera interface and a more durable battery drained hers for the first time ever. We had been observing the jaguars so much that I had a discussion with Nicole whether we should tell our driver just to focus on other animals and birds in the afternoon, just to avoid all the other boats if nothing else.
As if on cue, we slowed down just before reaching the hotel for lunch. Due to the engine noise and the Portuguese, we thought he yelled out, “Anaconda,” but in fact it was “Lontra,” the Portuguese word for otter. They are referred to as Giant Otters in these parts, but we found them to be fairly regular sized. When we saw them swimming in the distance (and still thinking he had said anaconda), we were a little alarmed by the movements and thickness of this perceived anaconda, but pleasantly surprised to hear them chirping to each other.
Our safari didn’t end during our lunch period. Numerous insects, lizards, birds, and capybaras kept us entertained. At 2:00, we returned to the boat to head back upriver. Things had greatly thinned out for the afternoon session. We would usually only see one or two boats at any given time (and sometimes none at all). We stopped briefly to see an actual anaconda snaking its way up some vines, but it was mostly hidden and difficult to photograph.
We motioned for him to stop so we could watch some capybaras in the water. Nobody stops for this and it perplexes us. Do people just see them being walked around their neighborhoods back home? The same treatment goes for caimans. They have often looked majestic sunning themselves on the shores, mouths open. All boats would fly by them like caimans are also hanging out at the dog parks. But without us saying anything, our guide seemed to understand that we were looking to see things other than just jaguars and took us on a sort of slow-paced jungle cruise to point out birds and other unusual life forms such as the proboscis bats you see below.
The sun was beating down on us throughout the afternoon and it felt like a completely different climate from yesterday. Some people in other boats looked as if they were going to pass out. Toward the end of our excursion, we did track down another jaguar. This one seemed poised to snatch up a caiman like yesterday evening, but I think the constant rumbling of boats streaming in to observe this scared the caimans away which in turn prevented the jaguar from getting dinner.
Nicole thought she heard something near her seat and a caiman had nestled in between our boat and the next one — maybe just a foot or two away from me. The jaguar eventually retreated, and it was time for us to call it a day. We sped back toward the Santa Rosa, catching a dramatic sunset on the way.
Tomorrow we drive back toward Cuiabá to catch a flight to São Paulo. While this segment seems like it’ll work out okay, it’s the following one that concerns us. We are doing all of this as standbys because the fares are quite expensive and our next connection to an island off of Brazil’s coast looks far from certain. So perhaps we will end up doing something really boring for the next couple of days and today’s very active blog adventures will have to carryover until we work our way over to Manaus and the Amazon. Boa noite.
passports & pepto bismol 