25th July 2009 – Pantanal
It was noticeably warmer during the night. Again a few of us got up to do an early morning hike before breakfast. This morning we were rewarded for our persistence with no rain. This was starting to look promising and with the rain stopped we could start to hope that the roads would start to dry out.
The early morning hike started off by heading back along the road we drove in along and then cut through some of the forest back towards the river. The reason for getting up at this stupid time was that it is suppose to be the best time to see animals. Someone should have told the animals this though as we didn’t see a great deal of either bird or animal life on this hike. That said it was nice to be up a doing something. As we got back close to the posada Eugene and I split from the group and walked to the river to take some photos of the dawn.
As we finished breakfast there was several chestnut eared aracari in the trees close to the dining hall. These are a small bird related to the toucan. This was quite unusual to see so many together. The smaller birds were out in force as well at the bird feeding stations. Maybe the cold weather which had get the birds away for the previous day was really on its way out.
After breakfast the two groups headed off for a morning walk. Our group headed across some of the land owned by an adjacent ranch and then into the woods. As we approached the woods I could see something black in the tops of the trees. These turned out to be howler monkeys. I was surprised as how quiet these were compared to the howler monkeys we had seen in Central America.
As we walked through the woods Diceasar pointed out various things along the way such as the Caraca Hawks and Black Vultures.
As we walked along the river bank we heard a noise like someone exhaling loudly. Diceasar was pretty excited about this and the next moment we saw a family of giant otters swim past. These are really beautiful animals and they were pretty inquisitive about us, looking out of the water at us. Eugene managed to get a great photo, but the rest of us were either too slow or not in a great position to get a shot.
We walked along the river through the woods for a bit longer and then struck inland. We saw a small rodent called an agoti but this was about it. We reached the edge of the marshland we had ridden through the previous day made our way back to the posada.
When we got back Eugene, Fi and I had opted to do another horseride. I think more people would have liked to do another ride but unfortunately there was only three horses available and it was first come first serve.
I think that I must have had the horse that Webster had the previous day as it did not want to do anything more than walk, an even then walk as a sloe pace. The guide cut a switch from a tree and said that I was to use it to get the horse to move on. The first time I uses this on the horses hind it tried to buck. When it realised that I wasn’t phased by this it then broke into a trot. This would form a pattern to be repeated for the rest of the trek. My horse would fall behind with a slow walk. I would then kick it to get it to move on, when this failed I would hit it with the switch and then it would buck and break into a trot. Towards the end I would only need to kick it to trot for a while. At the very end we were even able to get a small canter down the last leg of the track. I was so glad that I had learnt to do a rising trot all those years ago as when we came back I wasn’t sore in the least. Eugene on the other hand hobbled from the horse having been crushed against the saddle.
When we arrived back Donna and Dion had reccied the way out. They pretty much confirmed what we had thought earlier in the day. There was no way were going anywhere and we would be grounded for the next few days. The slight irony to this is that Eugene and I had been complaining that we were not spending enough time here. We had asked Dion if there was any way we could leave mid afternoon instead of straight after lunch. The reply was that we would get back to Pocone too late. Be careful what you wish for.
To help us out the Posada said that we could camp in their grounds and we could still eat in the dining hall. This gave us more time to explore the area. In the afternoon a few of us went Piranha fishing from the jetty.
Though I could feel the piranha biting I didn’t manage to catch one this time. Eugene caught a few though. Webster managed to catch a Cayman.
One of the guides managed to unhook the cayman which were impressed with until Jepser pointed out “how many times do you thing a stupid tourist does something like this!”.
Later on I went for a walk with Fi but we ended up turning back as the mosquitoes were pretty aggressive. One of the great things about walking with Fi is that is there are any mosquitoes she’ll attract them all so you don’t get bitten. After we got back to the Posada I chilled out in my hammock by the pool reading Treasure Island till the evening meal was ready.