A return to the Pantanal Sept. '22: The best-laid plans oft go awry....

[Soukous]

18 hours ago, janzin said:

Unbelievably I was quick enough to get what is probably my best jaguar photo of the entire trip.

It's certainly a cracker

[Soukous]

7 hours ago, offshorebirder said:

 

I am sorry, but To Hell with anywhere that cannot feed each of their guests sufficiently and forces them to compete for limited food.   

 

They should be ashamed!

agree with Nate. It makes me wonder why people accept it, surely a steady flow of complaints and negative reports would bring about the needed change

[janzin]

Day 2, part 2 (Day two has only just begun!)

 

We spent most of the morning in the same narrow channel with the moms and the cubs. Everyone was just waiting for the cubs to make an appearance.

 

 

Yes it looks crowded but everyone was very well behaved. It also looks like we were up against the bank, but we weren't--that's vegetation that's floating in the water. Dry land was several yards further back. The blonde woman writing in the notebook is actually one of the researchers with the Jaguar Identification Project, taking notes. As you can see here, everyone was just patiently waiting!

 

While we were waiting I watched the birds, this Neotropical Cormorant was struggling with this big fish for quite awhile, but he did get it down eventually.

 

 

After awhile the cubs appeared. I believe these are Rio and Marcela, the cubs of Medrosa, seen above. (If I had the patience I'd look in the book, but does anyone really care? ) They were doing as cats do...eating the grass!

 

 

 

 

 

Eventually they started walking along the bank. One sat down to give a scritch...

 

 

 

 

And they soon settled in for a rest up on the bank. 

 

 

 

Edited December 31, 2022 by janzin

[BRACQUENE]

Pantanal or Costa Rica ? Both for sure after your splendid report ! 

[kittykat23uk]

Definitely whet's my appetite for a return to the Pantanal. not next year though as my schedule is already full!  Fantastic photos Janet! 

[janzin]

4 minutes ago, BRACQUENE said:

Pantanal or Costa Rica ? Both for sure after your splendid report ! 

Well very different, unlikely to see jaguars in Costa Rica (although slightly possible in the Osa, I've never heard of anyone actually seeing one there.) But both have their charms!

[janzin]

The cubs seemed to be down for a long rest so we decided to scout around elsewhere. Leaving the channel and going back out on the main river, we ran across another great Pantanal mammal, the Giant River Otter. The were just resting on some logs...it was nice to be able to get some photos of them out of the water as usually they are swimming...very fast!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[janzin]

I believe after awhile we heard the cubs were moving again so we made a u-turn and back to the original channel (remember, we can't really communicate with our boatman at this point, so we basically just went where he took us. We did figure out that he understood "toilet" though. )

 

Yes, the cubs were on the prowl.

 

 

 

There's nothing like a jaguar swimming right towards your boat!

 

 

And, another of my favorite shots of the trip.

 

 

It still wasn't even near lunch time. What a morning!

[Soukous]

They are certainly beautiful cats ... and beautifully photographed Janet

[michael-ibk]

Wonderful sightings and photos Janet, a real pleasure. Sorry about your troubles with your guide but your sightings were top notch - awesome stuff! 

[Galago]

‘There’s nothing like a Jaguar swimming right towards your boat.’

 

Undoubtedly a strong contender for the Best Understated Comment award on ST this year, 🏆 And it’s a very good photo too! 

 

And I love the photo of the cormorant and the fish. The fish is rather like the piscine equivalent of the Pied Kingfisher. 

[Alexander33]

Fabulous photo of Medrosa with the caiman catch!  But what I’m really jealous of is the tayra. We saw one on each of our two previous trips, but both times, they were so darn fast that even a record shot was impossible. 
 

I completely agree with you regarding the ambiance of Hotel Pantanal Norte. It’s fun to come across and chat with people and guides you know of, even if you’ve not met them before.
 

As to Pouso Alegre, just to set the record straight, in my experience I never saw them run out of food completely. It’s just that latecomers sometimes had only very limited choices because the more popular offerings (usually the main entree) tended to go faster. Not excusing this at all, but I don’t want to create the impression from my earlier comment that some guests ended up going to bed without anything to eat whatsoever.  But YMMV — maybe this has gotten worse since we were last there. 

[janzin]

3 minutes ago, Alexander33 said:

As to Pouso Alegre, just to set the record straight, in my experience I never saw them run out of food completely. It’s just that latecomers sometimes had only very limited choices because the more popular offerings (usually the main entree) tended to go faster. Not excusing this at all, but I don’t want to create the impression from my earlier comment that some guests ended up going to bed without anything to eat whatsoever.  But YMMV — maybe this has gotten worse since we were last there. 

Yes, exactly...the main entree (usually something with chicken or beef) would be gone quickly and not replaced. There was usually rice and beans and some veggies left. I don't think anyone starved. But forget about going back for seconds. This was definitely not the way I remember it from our last trip there.

 

I also think most people only stay there one night, or at most two, so it's tolerable for that short time.

 

But, as I said, I would not stay there again--I think at this point there are better choices.

[janzin]

After that last jaguar sighting we decided (by means of arm waving and thumbs up/down) to move on to another channel. One thing we discovered on this trip was that there were way fewer navigable channels then on our last trip. In fact, we pretty much traversed the same three channels off the main river for the full five days. You would quickly get to a point where the channel was completely overgrown with the water hyacinths, and reach a dead end. This is becoming a real problem (we learned later, when we could actually discuss it with some of the other guides) and apparently during the off-season they (I'm not sure who "they" is) will attempt to clear some of the hyacinths so that the boats can travel further. I definitely remember that last trip we were able to go for hours up certain channels (and not just the main rivers.) This was no longer the case.

 

Anyway we headed down this narrow channel where clearly the boatman knew of specific birds roosting.

 

Like this Great Potoo. (In fact we saw this same bird, in this same spot, on multiple trips down this channel.)

 

 

These bats were also obviously in a known location

 

 

And an Amazon Kingfisher was always near.

 

 

One surprise was this Crane Hawk. There was actually a pair of them along the bank, the only time we saw them this trip.

 

 

And a beautiful male Rufescent Tiger Heron.

 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

awesome sightings and shots @janzin

[janzin]

After our jaunt up this channel it was just about time for lunch, so we headed back again to the channel of the cubs. Upon arrival we found Rio, the male cub of Medrosa, just hangin' in a tree. Being lunchtime, almost all the other boats had gone and there were just two or three others that also had brought lunch and were pulled up to the banks.  We found a shady spot nearby to just watch and wait to see what Rio would do--he was alternately sleeping and sitting up but not doing much else. Meantime, we ate our lunch (which was exactly the same every day...a ham and cheese and egg sandwich, some fruit, and some of those peanut candies. And the diet cokes we'd thoughtfully--and fortunately--bought on our way down. There was always water in the boat of course.)

 

Having lunch with Rio.

 

 

This might be a good moment to mention the black flies. Oh boy, the flies on the river this season were relentless! On the first day two days we'd made the big mistake of wearing sandals on the boat...hey, its hot, sandals on a boat, why not?  Well our feet (and any other uncovered spot, but especially our feet) got bitten terribly by these flies. Which initially hurt, like a tse-tse, and then eventually itched like crazy. In fact up to six weeks after I got home I was still scratching the red bumps from the flies and seemingly finding new ones nightly.  Insect repellent did little against them. I think they are related to the black flies we get here in Alaska or Maine...just nasty! Luckily they don't seem to carry any diseases in this area, although in other areas they can carry river blindness .  Needless to say after this day we made sure to wear shoes and socks and long sleeves as much as we could tolerate, but we were forever slapping away the flies whenever the boat was still (which was often, while we were waiting for a jaguar or eating etc.) And scratching at night!

 

While we were waiting for Rio to come down or do something we were also entertained by birds, of course. The Wattled Jacanas always foraged right up to the boats, seemingly oblivious, but constantly in motion. Not as easy to photograph as one would think!

 

 

And a Ringed Kingfisher perched nearby.

 

 

At some point we heard that his sister Marcela was on the move at the other end of the channel. So we left Rio, who was fast asleep by this point, to see what Marcela was up to.

 

We found her in the grass.

 

 

slinking...

 

 

Stalking...

 

 

Things get a little fuzzy after this--as I said, I kind of lose track of which jaguar is which and we spent the entire afternoon going back and forth in this one channel, between the four cubs and two mothers! And we were relying at the time for IDs from the other boats and guides, although now I have the book to refer to. But the photos of the cubs in the book are tiny and they were taken when they were much younger, so it's difficult to be sure.

 

But I'm fairly certain these two are Krishna and Kashmir, cubs of Patricia. They were also resting in the heat.

 

 

Krishna (I think!)

 

 

coming down...Krishna or Kashmir? Not sure.

 

 

And posing! This bit of flotsam turned out to be a favorite perch for the cubs, especially at the end of the day. We spend a lot of time (and a lot of photographs!) of one or the other or both on this perch. There will be more, in better light too.

 

 

By now it was pretty much the end of the day...we usually started heading back to the lodge at around 5:30 to be back to the lodge by six-ish (it is required to be back by sunset.) This channel was at least 30-40 minutes from the lodge at top speed.

 

But as we disembarked at the lodge we got an unexpected and very welcome surprise. The manager delivered a message from Julinho...he had found us a guide...who spoke English! Her name was Raquele and she would meet us after dinner that night and go out with us the following days.  We were greatly relieved and very appreciative that Julinho had done what he could to make the best of the situation.

 

So after dinner we met Raquele and she turned out to be very personable, friendly, spoke English well and knew her birds. She even had some bird calls on her phone. So we were doubly excited to see what the next day would bring, now that we had a guide we could communicate with!

 

(There will be a slight hiatus now for a few days as I am still working on photos from day three onwards!)

 

Edited January 1, 2023 by janzin

[AKR1]

Spectacular shots. Interesting comment about the black flies. Are the bites not as bad as Tse-tse bites? Based on your description they sounded pretty bad, fortunately not disease transmitting at this particular location. Being feasted on while waiting in a still boat sounds grim. Did the full cover up and repellent help after the first day? 

[janzin]

2 hours ago, AKR1 said:

Spectacular shots. Interesting comment about the black flies. Are the bites not as bad as Tse-tse bites? Based on your description they sounded pretty bad, fortunately not disease transmitting at this particular location. Being feasted on while waiting in a still boat sounds grim. Did the full cover up and repellent help after the first day? 

I would say almost as bad as tse-tses...for me, I had a terrible reaction in Zambia to the tse-tses and my ankle swelled up. That didn't happen with these flies...just horrible itching! Also unlike the tse-tses they didn't readily bite right through clothes, so as long as you were covered that part at least was safe I didn't really find that the repellent did much, but we used it anyway. Problem was it was so hot sitting that I just couldn't bear to keep long sleeves on all the time. So got some bites on our elbows, and oh yes on our hands! Even between the fingers (the flies are very small.) Now I know why the local boatmen and guides were totally covered up with face buffs, some were even wearing gloves. https://eyesonbrazil.wordpress.com/2008/07/14/borrachudo-flying-under-the-radar/

 

On the upside we did not see or hear a single mosquito.

 

I do think the flies are hit or miss, I didn't remember them from last trip, and people I know who went earlier in the season weren't bothered by them. But they were vicious anytime you weren't moving.

Edited January 2, 2023 by janzin

[Atravelynn]

"best jaguar photo of the entire trip"--that was a stunner and you had a myriad of fantastic jaguar shots, and not just jaguars!

[janzin]

29 minutes ago, Atravelynn said:

"best jaguar photo of the entire trip"--that was a stunner and you had a myriad of fantastic jaguar shots, and not just jaguars!

 

Thanks, and more to come!

[Galago]

18 hours ago, janzin said:

I would say almost as bad as tse-tses...for me, I had a terrible reaction in Zambia to the tse-tses and my ankle swelled up.

I really sympathise! I now travel with steroids because my reaction is so bad, with bites swelling to the size of goose eggs, that it's made me really ill. I've always taken anti-histamines to deal with the mossie bites but they haven't helped with tsetse bites. However, I made a fortunate discovery this time around. My doctor had prescribed a much stronger, but non-drowsy, anti-histamine for an entirely different problem, Fexofenadine 180mg. As I had lots left, I used them in Zambia. The tsetse bites never became worse than mossie bites, and the mossie bites were not too bad in terms of reactions. Even my OH, who just swells at the mere sight of a mossie, did pretty well. Result! Also, I ended up having a discussion about this with @Zim Girlwhen we were at Musekese together and she also swears by this! I checked online and it looks as though you can get this in the US as well.

[janzin]

@Galagogood to know, it’s over the counter here as Allegra. I’ve always used Zyrtec which also works on hives/bites but perhaps Allegra would be better. 

[Zim Girl]

Fantastic collection of jaguar pictures already @janzin, really enjoying your report.

 

On the subject of strong antihistamines, taking the 180mg fexofenadine was a total game changer for me with regard to tsetse bites.  All my bites would bubble up to large blisters, then burst and become extremely itchy, it used to be a complete nightmare.  The fexofenadine stops the bites from blistering and massively reduces the itchiness.  I take it a day before I leave for safari and every day during.  It also comes in a lower dosage 120mg version but the 180mg has literally worked wonders for me.

[mtanenbaum]

Thanks so much for your gorgeous photos! I had the Pantanal on my bucket list, but after reading about the biting flies, I'm no longer certain! I am not scared of lions a few feet away from the jeep, but I am scared of bugs!!! especially ones that bite....

[Jil]

What a wonderful trip report and such fantastic photos. Can not wait for the rest of it.