We had a little different plan on this morning. We wanted to try really hard to see a jaguar. Nearby was an ecological preserve called Taiama where no hunting or fishing is allowed and we thought we'd try there. Along the way we stopped to talk with a local fisherman (a pescadero) at his little fishing shanty. He insisted that he had already seen two jaguars in his camp and that they liked him and we should stay there a while and see if the jaguar would come back. This was him, a nice little man in a little boat. We visited with him a little while and left.
Once into the heart of the Taiama preserve, we saw quite a few capybaras. They are the world's largest rodent. Not the prettiest thing in the world, but they make good jaguar food!
Here is a little video of a capybara
shot with Brian's point and shoot camera. (26 MB)
(Click image to start video)
We drove for about 4 hours or more, usually at full speed, looking for jaguars. We'd stop for cool new birds and the like, but we wanted a jaguar. Then it happened! We were driving upstream, fully planed out, when we saw a jaguar on the left bank sitting under a tree. We all saw him at the same time and Indio pulled hard left on the wheel and killed the engine at the same time. The boat surged to a stop and we all readied our cameras as the river started pulling us back toward where we saw it. The jaguar never moved and we floated right on by him slowly about 20 feet away!!!!!! We all were snapping photographs like crazy.
Once we got out of visual we all high-fived each other celebrated our luck! Then Indio started the boat and we headed back up to get another look. Indio drove the nose of the boat right up to the jaguar and then he finally stood up which alarmed me a little bit. This was way larger than any mountain lion and here we are driving our boat right up to it, pissing it off! It could have easily jumped in and made quick work of the 6 of us! As he stood up I got a few pictures and then the jaguar walked away and disappeared in the greenery.
Since it was a bright and sunny
day we all were shooting an ISO speed of 100. In the heat of the moment none
of us realized that while in the shadows the cat was too dark for ISO 100
and that is why my last few pictures are soft. I am still incredibly happy
with the images though and learned a good photography lesson at the same time.
If that leaf wasn't in the way of the last picture, it would have been sweet!
Here is a video, again from Brian's point and shoot camera. This was shot
the same time I got these profile shots above. Thanks goodness for the 70-200
lens! As you can tell from the video, we were a little ways away from the
bank and the look was brief, toward the end of the video.
Link
to video (14.3 MB)
We all celebrated some more
and finally got under way. Brazil was set to play their second match in the
world cup in about 2 hours. We ate a quick lunch and raced back to see Brazil
beat Croatia 1-0 in World Cup action.
Here is a picture of us watching
the game, I'm the one with the balding head! ;)
The sunset at the hotel that night was amazing.
Day
9---
After breakfast we headed out for some fishing. Indio was pretty much good at everything and fishing came easy to him as well. He used some moistened corn kernels to catch a half dozen small bait fish. He took a chunk of one of the bait fish and put it in a bigger hook with a 12 inch steel leader and all this was tied to a bamboo pole. We pulled up into some dense vegetation and he pulled the vegetation apart until he could see the murky water below. He lowered his bait there and within about 3 seconds he hooked a "snake fish".
Then we went out into some more open water and again the same thing, he lowered
the bait and within a few seconds he had caught a piranha!
I'm really certain at this point that I DO NOT WANT to swim in these waters!!!
I gave the fishing a try, thinking
that my years of fishing experience as a young man would help, but no, I sucked
at it. After about 5 minutes of losing bait and getting ridiculed by everyone,
Indio showed me again how easy it was. I retreated to the back of the boat,
a beaten man!
After my embarrassment as a fisherman
subsided, Indio made some fresh shushimi with soy sauce out of one of the
piranhas. I'm not a fan of raw fish, so I opted out, but both Dave and Shannon
tried the fish and said it was fine. I just took their word, no thanks!
We drove around photographing
more of the vast bird life and headed back for a final lunch at the hotel.
One little cove we drove into had literally thousand of birds. The pictures
won't give it justice, but these are a few images I got.
We finally had to go back to the hotel, it was time to leave Hotel Baiazhina.
:( We were set to leave the hotel at 2:30 for the boat ride back to Cáceres.
Having some time to kill while everyone else napped, I went on another nature
walk. Our waiter for the past 4 days, Johnny, asked if he could join me and
he grabbed an old pair of binos and off we went. He didn't speak much English
and I knew no Portuguese, but we communicated just fine enjoying the nature
around the hotel.
The ride back to Cáceres
was great, seeing most of the same birds. We caught a new van into town and
stayed at the Hotel Porto Bella in Cáceres, a rather nice place for
such a remote town. Tomorrow we head back to the airport and then to the Amazon!!!!!!!!
The Amazon Rain Forest
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