Aug 2--Cuiabá to Sao Jose do Rio Claro

Sunday, August 2, 2015
Cuiabá to Sao Jose do Rio Claro

The Festival of San Cristo parade passed right under my window at 8:45 am—a long procession of cars and trucks honking their horns and igniting firecrackers, plus someone with a loudspeaker. Despite this distraction, I re-packed and organized after breakfast and then met Marcelo, Jan, Heini & Erkki in the lobby at 10:30 am.

Marcelo had engaged a bus and a driver he knew and liked (Luis) and we loaded our luggage and then were off to the airport to gather the rest of the group. Once the rest of the group — weary from their overnight flights — were aboard, we drove a short distance to a place where one filled one’s plate at a buffet, and then it was weighed to determine its price. We all did this and our plates were charged to Field Guides. Marcello ordered a variety of juices to be served at our long table. I liked the passion fruit juice best. Though the restaurant was noisy we did our best to get acquainted. The food was good.

After lunch, we were off to Sao Jose do Rio Claro and our lodge, Garden of the Amazon, a 5-hour drive. On the way we birded, stopped a couple of times for rest stops, and crossed the Chapada dos Guimarães mountains. The terrain on either side of the mountains was flat to rolling and contained vast agricultural fields as far as the eye could see of cotton, sunflowers, sugarcane, corn, beans, and teak tree plantations. We also passed lime mines, which white dust from a distance looked like smoke. The terrain was very dry, the dirt Oklahoma red.

On the way we saw many birds: Turkey, Black, and Greater Yellow-headed Vultures; Rheas (1); Smooth-billed Ani (2); Quira Cuckoo (3)—with their punk “hairdos” these became one of my favorite birds; Southern Lapwings (4); Roadside  and White-tailed Hawks; Wood Storks (5); Eared and Ruddy Ground Doves; Red-winged Tinamou (6); Southern Caracara (7) to name a few. Marcelo ran into the field to flush the tinamou so that we could see its rusty wings. We also saw several Burrowing Owls (8). The owls make their own burrows or take one made by an armadillo. They stand on the ground or on fence posts or corn stalks in this area with few perches.

At one of our stops Marcello bought pineapples displayed in an artful wagon (below) for the people who run Garden of the Amazon lodge where we would stay.

We arrived at Garden of the Amazon, a little family-run lodge that sits at the ecotone between the Cerrado and Amazon, at about 5:30.  There were six adjoining cabin-type rooms with balconies looking out over the ponds and toward the river. Our room was a large family room with a king bed on the balcony side and two twin beds on the other side of the room. Kathy Burkhart, from Miami, my roommate, immediately claimed one of the single beds and assigned me the king. Kathy’s dim bedside lamp did not work but after Marcelo came and brought a new bedside lamp and taught us how to operate the swamp cooler, we were set.

I got a bit more acquainted with Kathy. I found that she is a used book dealer whose common-law husband, Wally, had died the year before. She had been on many birding tours with this company and others. And, most pointedly, all of her previous roommates had been “horrible, one rummaging in her bags [as I was doing when she told me this] zipping and unzipping too much and using too much toilet paper.” Hmm. We got along okay, but quite cordially as I refused to be baited by her comments. She was master of the room key, determined who got what bed and who showered first, etc. I went along.

As soon as we got settled in the room we walked to the main building for dinner. A large family of Capybaras—oldsters, parents, and children—grazed the lawn beside the open dining area as we ate. Also near the dining area was a Muscovy Duck in a soft feathery nest, several other wild Muscovies in the ponds, and quite a few Guineafowl keeping the lawn free of ticks and other insects.

Capybaras (large rodents) up from the river and dining on the lawn grasses near the dining area. It was dusk so my cell phone caught their eyeshine. They are prolific breeders so there are generally several babies in the mix.

Dinner was a buffet of fish, meat, veggies, salad fixings, fruit, and desserts, all very nicely presented. Also the various types of juice freshly squeezed. I tried them all but liked the passion fruit best so stuck to it, though we could order alcoholic drinks, as well. Think I did have a beer that first night.