Planning and Preparations
We had such a good time earlier in the year with Carol's brother and sister-in-law that we gladly bought into his suggestion that we do another birding trip, this time to Brazil. "Sorry, not so much archaeology on this trip." Oh, well.
This time, instead of doing all the planning himself, brother-in-law found a naturalist / tour leader through his birding contacts. Xavier, owner of Neblina Forest, became our planner, muse, guide, and birding leader for much of the trip.
Carol and I had had lots of innoculations for our Belize trip, but there were some extra precautions we wanted to take for Brazil. Carol checked the CDC site, and determined that we should get vaccinated against Yellow Fever. We couldn't find a place that would do so; despite the relatively modest risk of adverse events to people over 65, neither our neighborhood pharmacy, Walgreens, or Costco would administer the vaccination. We eventually found a travel clinic that did, and a vaccination against chickungunya as well, for a hefty fee. We got prescriptions for the malaria prophylaxis, which we took religiously before, during, and after our trip. That week we also got the flu shot and the most recent Covid vaccination. Sore arms!
We weren't thrilled with the phone service we'd had in Belize, so I looked into alternatives for Brazil. To buy a SIM card in Brazil, you need either to go to a mall with a phone store, have a Brazilian bank account, or both. We opted for the international travel plan from Verizon, our mobile phone carrier. $100 a month for each phone, keep the phone numbers, and we're done. OK then.
Travels from the West Coast to São Paulo via Miami
This time, rather than rent a car and stay for a night before the trip, we arranged to meet in Miami. They would fly from Seattle to Miami, we'd fly from Los Angeles, and we'd proceed on the single flight to São Paulo. Or so we thought.
Carol and I arrived in the Miami airport and proceeded to the gate for the Sao Paulo flight, where we met our other family members, and one of their birding friends, from the Seattle area. We settled in for a few-hour wait, nibbling on food from the terminal vendors. Finally, the flight was called, so we all prepared to board. We got on, got seated, and saw the friend walk back to her seat. No brother-in-law or sister-in-law. Frantic texts back and forth revealed that brother-in-law doesn't have his passport. "But he had it when we arrived here in Miami" sister-in-law texts us. As it turned out, they had flown on a different airline, had to claim and re-check their baggage, and then leave security and re-enter. Brother-in-law had forgotten his passport at the security check-in. Fortunately, the TSA agents had sent the passport to the airport lost and found, where it resided until the very last moment before departure. One very nice person from the lost and found ran it all the way across the Miami airport terminals to get it to our gate. Take-off was only delayed 30 minutes.
When we landed at São Paulo early the next morning, a Neblina Forest guide, and driver and van were waiting for us in the international arrivals area. Unfortunately, neither spoke English, and I hadn't yet figured out how to get Google Translate to work. Despite this, we got to the Hampton Inn, just off the airport grounds, in a neighborhood with some shantys ("Favelas") and lots and lots of truck traffic. The hotel grounds were fenced, and a guard at a shack at the entrance kept out unauthorized vehicles and pedestrians.
We settled in for a long post-travel day. The birders (everyone but sister-in-law and me) wandered around the walled grounds, looking for birds, and found some. After dinner, we all went to bed early, due to our early pickup the next morning.
Campo Grande and Pousada Pequi
Very early the next morning, we grabbed breakfast and had all gathered in the lobby with our luggage. There was a guy there with a van parked just outside, and eventually (about 30 minutes later) we figured out that he was there to take us back to the airport for our flight to Campo Grande. Off we went back to the airport, but to the in-country terminal. He handed us some paper boarding passes as we left the van. We wandered around for quite some time looking for check-in and luggage drop. A LATAM staffer saw us and waved us into a line for seniors, and processed us quickly. He gestured in the general direction of the gates, so off we went, through security, down a long corridor, down an escalator, into a waiting area, onto a bus, and out onto the tarmac where we boarded the plane for our 90-minute flight to the state of Mato Grosso del Sul, and Campo Grande, where Xavier was waiting for us with another driver and van.
We drove east out of Campo Grande for about two hours, then stopped for lunch at a roadside restaurant, where the staff seemed to be quite familiar with Xavier and his tour groups. Lunch was filling, and we were all intrigued by the local cherry soda that we were served. Another hour drive south, on a dirt road through the Pantanal, brought us to Pousada Pequi. A "Pousada" is a guest lodge, and this one was at one corner of a huge ranch, or "Fazenda". Accommodations were very nice; the three groups (Carol and I, her brother and his wife, and their birding friend) all had rooms at one end of the main building, with a screened enclosure for us to relax in for the evening. Our rooms were nicely air-conditioned, which was great, because the daytime temperatures, dry and well over 100°, only cooled down into the mid-80s at night.
One thing I noticed right away: the shower head in the bathroom had a cable of some sort running to it, plugged into a connector on the top of the fixture. I didn't poke at it while taking my shower, but wondered about it. More later!
The first afternoon, we took one of the Pousada's safari trucks around the ranch, seeing thousands of head of cattle, but also seeing anteaters, our first jaguars, some agoutis, and lots and lots of birds. After dinner, we did another safari truck tour, where I got my first glimpse of the southern skies, somewhat obscured by the smoke from wildfires in the area. We visited a pond with some birds, but hundreds and hundreds of crocodiles, with the reflections of our flashlights illuminating their eyes.
The next day we did three more safari truck tours. More jaguars, more birds, even more anteaters (of greater and lesser varieties). That night, we had a traditional Brazilian grilled dinner, where a side of beef was cooked over an open pit full of charcoal. This was to be the last beef we'd have on our trip :-)
The last morning at Pousada Pequi was just getting ready for our next leg. We did the long drive back to Campo Grande, and stayed the night at the Hotel Mohave, a nice place next to Casa de Ensaio, a cultural center with lots and lots of very cheerful children playing in the courtyard. This shower, too, had a cable running from a cover plate on the wall to the showerhead. Curiouser and curiouser! The next morning we awoke very, very early and drove to the Campo Grande airport for the first flight out, to Cuiaba.
Cuiaba, City Park, and Pousada Piuval
This flight was on Azul, a Brazilian regional airline. Friendly people, Campo Grande airport is much, much smaller than GRU in Sao Paulo, and our guide shepherded us through the process. No problem!
In Cuiaba, yet another driver and van awaited us, as well as Xavier's associate, a videographer / drone pilot. After getting loaded up, we drove across the road to a hotel for breakfast. Again, everyone seemed to know Xavier, and we had a nice meal. Then, a short drive to Parque Bernardo Berneck, a city park with a big lake surrounded by a narrow band of forest. Tiny monkeys populated the trees! We all got out for a walk. I did a circuit around the park, and met up with the birders (i.e. everyone else) back at the parking lot.
Our trip southwestward traversed more of the Pantanal, with rough mounds visible off in the distance. "What are those mounds?" "The remnants of mountains mined for gold. They don't look so good - sorry!"
After a quick rest stop in Pocone, we entered a southerly dirt road, but fairly quickly turned off to enter Pousada Piuval. This was clearly a much more established eco-lodge, with dozens of rooms, a large dining hall, and a fleet of safari trucks. After an afternoon outing and dinner, we convened in the pool, looking out over the savannah. More birds, more jaguars, lots of dust and smoke from the wildfires there, too. We recognized some of the folks that had been at Pousada Pequi, evidently on the same sort of birding circuit as us. A very pleasant place! We stayed there for three nights, then drove south on the dirt road for another hundred miles or so, to Porto Joffre.
Floating Hotel Panoramico
We left the van in Porto Joffre, and boarded a fairly large motor launch which took us 15 miles or so upriver to a floating hotel moored to the riverbank, Panoramico. This was to be the center of our most fruitful mammal observations, on Rio Cuiaba, Rio Piquiri, and oxbows and tributaries. We stayed there for two nights, but had five outings on the motor launch, day and night, to see everything from mother jaguars with kittens, a variety of bat species, giant river otters, and lots and lots of birds.
On one of our outings, the motor launch got snagged in some river foliage. Another launch came out to get us and continue our tour, but we got back to the floating hotel before people there expected us. We found the boat silent and dark, but as soon as we got on board, the diesel generators were fired up, the lights came on, and we could take hot showers.
I noticed that WiFi was provided by Starlink terminals (including one in our room), something that was to be evident in subsequent places we stayed.
From what we could tell, the staff that we'd interacted with (in the dining room, on the motor launches, in the kitchen) all lived aboard the floating hotel, on the lower level. We all stayed one deck up, on the same level as the dining room. I ventured up to the next deck up, but it was dark and unoccupied. During our stay, we were the only guests aboard.
This was by no means the only hotel on the river. There were at least two more, larger boats. We'd encounter another motor launch full of birders here and there, up until jaguars, tapirs, or otters were spotted. Then, the boat captains would radio one another, announce the location of the jaguar, and the crowds of boats and people would gather.
The jaguars paid minimal attention to the people. The mothers would groom the kittens, a jaguar leapt into the river from an overhanging tree to try to catch a caiman, all going on with their business. Xavier directed our driver into the backwaters, small enough to only permit one or two other boats in when wildlife was spotted.
Return to Cuiaba via Southwild
The final night in the area was spent at Southwild, about halfway up the dirt road to Pocone. This was a spectacular eco-lodge, with only us as guests. We were entusiastically greeted upon arrival by the staff, with local fruit punch for us to drink on this hot afternoon.
The architecture was ultramodern, and the accommodations were very nice indeed. We did a bit of a drive-around, but then after dinner, did a walk through the forest to a blind where we had hoped to see an ocelot. Unfortunately, no luck for that, but we did see a pantanal fox who came to the building for a short visit.
Alta Floresta, Fazenda São Nicolao, Forest Husbandry, and Harpy Eagle
The next day, we continued our drive up the dirt road, through Pocone, and back to Cuiaba for our short Azul flight to Alta Floresta. After a stop for lunch at a buffet, and a stop at an ATM for some Brazilian Reals, we drove northwest into the headwaters of the Amazon. The van stopped on the banks of the Rio Juruena, where two small boats awaited us. Roberto and his son had come over to retrieve us and take us to Fazenda São Nicolao on the other side of the river.
With one boat full of luggage, and the other boat full of us, we made our way crosswise and northward, passing ferry terminals on either side of the river. These were informal shacks, but with semi trucks lined up for the next crossing. Passing those, we continued, finally winding up at another informal landing, where two Toyota Hilux pickup trucks awaited. With all the luggage in the beds of the trucks, and nine of us squished into the two passenger compartments, we drove off to the main compound for Fazenda São Nicolao.
This area, simultaneously protected by ecology laws and exploited by people flaunting those laws, was at the interface between the indigenous people of the forest and settlers from the east. Many properties had been clear-cut for grazing land. Nominal obedience to environmental laws meant that one huge tree would be left standing in a field a half-mile square. The staff at Fazenda São Nicolao were dedicated to helping local farmers and ranchers make a living in the forest without clear-cutting, and finding ways of living in harmony with the environment.
Roberto and his son took our party on a number of motor launch outings up and down the river, as well as truck outings to the forest. We had budgeted three days to find and observe a Harpy Eagle, a very large predatory bird. Xavier, Roberto, and his son had been cooperating for years, finding harpy eagle nests and unobtrusively leading birders to them. It was our turn.
The trip, probably 20 miles altogether, started on firm, graded road, but quickly diverted off into the forest on a two-track. This gradually diminished, until ultimately we were driving through the woods, around recent deadfalls, on no road at all. Eventually, we emerged at the base of a portable tower that the three had erected about 100 feet from the Harpy Eagle nest. The tower was guyed to stakes in the ground, but the 20 or so sections rose 100' or more through the canopy. Carol didn't climb the tower, but brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and birding friend and I did. We sat quietly at the top of the canopy, looking off in all directions, but paid particular attention to the nest nearby. After about two and a half hours, the Harpy Eagle chick flew in and quietly settled. We observed it for an hour or so before descending.
We found Carol at the bottom, contenting with wasps and ants, but also observing the chick from the ground. Mission: accomplished but on the first of three allotted days.
On a subsequent day, we were invited to visit Roberto's home in the countryside between the Fazenda and Cotriguaçu, a town of about 11,000 people. We met his wife, who spent time talking to Carol while the rest of us wandered into the woods to see how he was managing his land. The canopy was fairly thick, but the understory was full of coffee and cocoa bushes. He handed us coffee bean and chocolate bean pods, showed us how to open them, and we tasted the raw beans. He picked up a big fist-sized pod, whacked it open with his machete, and handed us raw, fresh Brazil nuts.
Back to Alta Floresta and Fazenda Anaca
The next day was rainy and blustery, but we had to get back to Alta Floresta for the next leg of our trip. This entailed loading our baggage and us back into the boats, and crossing the river again, to get to the van. As we made our way across the river, our boat ran out of gas. We watched a squall line make its way downriver toward us, but fortunately, Roberto and his son refilled the outboard motor, and we beat the squall to the van by a few minutes.
Once back in the van, our troubles were not quite over. We slithered up the riverbank back towards the road. Once on the road, we came to a saddle, a low point, where a semi truck had become stuck in the mud. After carefully surveying the lay of the land, our driver inched his way around the semi, and sped away up the hill on the other side. We all stood and applauded!
As we approached Alta Floresta, the weather cleared. We entered the grounds of Fazenda Anaca, near the end of the airport runway, and found ourselves in an absolutely delightful guest house. Again, gracious hosts, a beautiful facility, a very nice pool on the property. Xavier knew his way around very well, and we took our van around the property to birdwatch (and observe monkeys) in the trees around the bodies of water on the property.
We did another trip round the property the next morning, had lunch, and then drove the very short distance to the Alta Floresta airport terminal. We flew to Cuiaba, where Xavier and his associate left us, then on to São Paulo for the last third of our trip.
São Paulo to Sitio Macuquinho
We landed in São Paulo late in the afternoon, where we were met by our new Neblina Forest guide, a graduate student in ornithology. After one last night at the Hampton Inn (where we'd stayed on our first night in Brazil), we drove eastward to a hilly, forested region about 100 km from the airport, to Sitio Macuquinho / Hotel Soares Camargo. We were met there by the owner, Elvis, a young conservationist, who had bought the property after it had been clear-cut and was in the process of reforesting it with native plants. He knew the area extremely well, and took us on walks both on the grounds and in the vicinity. We had our first encounter with a Brazilian Bell Bird, whose striking call can be heard for miles through the forest. We stayed there for two nights. This time, the weather was mostly overcast, with temperatures in the 50s. For the first time on the trip, we broke out sweaters, long pants, and jackets.
Elvis had placed bird feeders in the yard off the veranda. These attracted a continuous stream of extremely colorful, small birds.
During one of our siestas on our second day there, I heard someone using a table saw. It turned out to be Elvis, who had noticed that Carol was having an increasingly difficult time climbing in and out of the van. He had constructed a stepstool for her to use, which we kept for the rest of our stay in Brazil. Very nice!
One of our walks on the grounds went to a blind that Elvis had constructed. Another got to a small bridge, with a bench nearby. In both places, after sitting quietly for a few moments, beautiful birds emerged from the forest and displayed for us. Further up the hill, we encountered deep pockets in the hillside. "What are these?" "Oh - when they clear-cut these woods, they made charcoal. These are the charcoal furnaces."
Across São Paulo to Sitio Espinhero Negro
Our last stay was as far west of Sao Paulo as Sitio Macuquinho was to the east. This meant that we had to retrace our steps to the airport, then continue across the northern edge of Sao Paulo (and the widest highway - 24 lanes - that I've ever seen) and continue another hundred km to Sitio Espinhero Negro, located a few km off a highway. This property, about 120 acres, was lush with deep forest, a creek, and a couple of ponds. The open-air dining hall was again adjacent to bird feeders, but paths nearby led into the forest. This property, too, had been clear-cut, and was surrounded by eucalyptus forest. Jo Bernardes, the owner, was incredibly gracious, and made our stay extremely enjoyable.
Sao Paulo to Miami and Home, Hurricanes Be Damned!
We took our leave of Sitio Espinhero Negro and drove back across Sao Paulo's maniacal traffic, arriving at GRU in plenty of time for our flights. This time, in the International terminal, it was relatively easy to find the American ticket counter, check in, check our baggage, and get our boarding passes. We ate dinner nearby at a sushi restaurant in the outer terminal, made our way through security, and to the departure gate. No problems this time with missing passports, thank goodness! However, while sitting there, we checked the news and realized that Miami was under threat from a hurricane. The flight to Seattle had been cancelled!
We arrived in Miami early the next morning, with green, stormy skies. After getting through immigration, we re-convened briefly before the rest of our party left to try to make arrangements to get home. They eventually found satisfactory flights (with a stop halfway cross-country), and made it back to Seattle a little before they would have had their original flight taken place. Not bad!
Carol and I had a much longer stay in the terminal - about ten hours - but we too got on our originally-scheduled flight back to LAX where our ride was waiting for us.
Vacation completed, with no orthopedic injuries!
Last Updated February 13, 2025