One of the great things about adventure travel is that you can never predict what will happen day-to-day or even hour-to-hour. Our morning began with breakfast at 5am as usual, but as we left the dining hall we heard the unmistakable racket created by Hyacinth Macaws, four of which had roosted in a palm tree on the central green. Photographing dark birds in a dark tree before sunrise is a bit of a challenge. Of course it gets better with each passing minute, until they decide that it's gotten too light out, and fly off!
Similarly after lunch we strolled to the marsh next to the lodge to see if there were any dragonflies. There weren't, but there WAS a yellow anaconda resting in the water with a few coils visible above the surface. As we watched, a jacana (a small noisy water bird that walks on the surface of the lake weed with its large fan-shaped feet) came closer and closer... and the snake slowly uncoiled itself and slipped under the surface of the water to get closer to the bird. We were ready for the "jump scare" part of this horror film, but at the last minute the jacana developed some common sense and flew out of harm's way. We returned to our room to look at the pictures from the encounter, and another Macaw landed in the tree next to us!
As for the more regularly scheduled parts of the day, we were able to explore some very long sections of the nearby rivers. The jaguars eluded everyone today, but we saw beautiful landscapes and birds. We have seen some of the birds so frequently that we have given them nicknames; for example, the Roadside Hawk we now call a "riverside" instead. We saw Hyacinth Macaws for a third time today, on a sandy beach sipping water from the edge of the river, a very unusual behavior.
We also saw a medium-sized snake curled up under the vines on a riverbank. We have mentioned our two excellent guides already, but we haven't talked about our boat pilot, Gonsalo. He knows the rivers very well (which is essential with the water level so low) and does a wonderful job handling the boat. Today we got to see how good a wildlife spotter he is, not only with the snake but with a small green iguana sitting on the upturned roots of a downed tree-- he spotted it while driving the boat at a fair clip!
Pictured: Yellow Anaconda with his almost-snack, Hyacinth Macaws (in tree at dawn and on beach), sunset on the Cuiaba River.
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