Hammocks and humming birds in the Pantanal

.We had lunch in the base lodge in the blistering noonday heat and started to see proper wildlife.

This is a capybara with attendant parasite remover. 

And here's a stork with baby in the nest. After lunch we transferred to a tractor trailer for the dirt road ride to the fazenda where we claimed our hammocks in a great big room with screen sides and some fans.  They were really comfortable apart from the heat. Our guide was Paolo who was glad to see we were interested in birds and had a fantastic ear for birdsong and seemed to know at a glance what things were. We had a 2 hour walk with him towards sunset and saw loads. 

This was a rare and tiny Toady Flycatcher nesting just outside the hammock room and below is a caiman - we had to watch out for them as they climb out of the lake at night and walk across the path. They are timid creatures. 

The next day saw Verity and I up for sunrise and again saw loads of birds. Our tally for the 2 days was 55 but there was no guide book so we weren't sure of others.

One of the loveliest birds is the Hyacinth Macaw - usually seen in pairs or bigger groups with great long tails streaming in flight.  I managed to find a feather for my hat.  A word on technology. Verity thought the SLR with zoom telephoto would be too heavy (1.7 kg in fact) so we took Miner Marshall's advice and bought a nearly new Panasonic LUMIX with fantastic zoom (450gm) and these are the fruits of mainly Verty's handiwork..

We were definitely the sad gits of the tour - the only ones with binoculars and keen to see a lot more than the others.  For the others there was of course the ever present caiparinhas near the campfire and made in buckets.  Even I knew when to call it a night. 

For those familiar with Wales units the greater Pantanal is 8 times Wales and floods after the big rivers bring the water from the highlands. It was very dry for us but at least we escaped the midges with liberal use of DEET. I would definitely be tempted back at April time. We did get to go piranha fishing and we ate the ( team ) fruits of our labour. In other words we just spent a couple of hours feeding bait to the greedy beggars. By the way they are delicious. 

The next day was a long day travelling first by the tractor trailer enlivened by seeing various kingfishers and deer, followed by transfer to minibus to Bolivian border which took ages waiting for a stamp from a bored official.  All of life was there from little old ladies in bowler hats, through travellers with unicycles on the road for two and a half years to the slightly bizarre picture of a family of Mennonites - Dad and five boys in overalls and caps and Mum and daughter in old fashioned dresses and head scarves - all blonde as could be. Apparently there are 7 or 70,000 in Bolivia.

Then an extremely slow overnight train through the flat hot desolate Eastern lowlands of Bolivia to Santa Cruz taking just 16 hours. Luxury.

More to follow.