Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world.  It is slightly larger than the continental United States.  Brazil has the world’s largest river, as well as the biggest forest on earth; it has flora, fauna, air, land, minerals and water resources of inestimable value for our planet.  This area was inhabited as far back as 8000 years ago; the Portuguese, who eventually settled much of the country, did not arrive until around 1500.   Portugal benefited greatly from the colony’s prosperity – gold, diamonds, cotton, and sugar cane.  Independence came in 1822, followed by some years of political instability.   Today, Brazil is South America’s economic giant and one of the world’s biggest democracies, though there remains a wide gap between rich and poor. 

We visited Brazil with Overseas Adventure Travel in September 2015, along with 10 other friends from South Carolina and Texas.  Our trip started and ended in Rio de Janeiro, with other stops in Salvador, Manaus (Amazon Rainforest), and Cuiaba (Pantanal).

Rio de Janeiro is a city of unusual urban diversity, with beaches, mountains, skyscrapers and slums all woven into the fabric of its landscape.  The city sprawls between granite peaks and the Atlantic Ocean.  Its 13 million people are crammed into a space designed for one-fourth that number, but they seem unfazed by all the chaos.  In spite of high crime rates and profound social inequalities, Rio is much-loved and celebrated by its residents. 

Our hotel in Rio was oceanfront at Copacabana, with a view of the beach and of Sugarloaf Mountain.  Copacabana is said to be Rio’s most beautiful beach, and we found it to be a fascinating, if somewhat chaotic, place.  Its art-deco buildings, aging beachfront hotels and tree-lined side streets form the backdrop for an interesting mix of tourists, elderly middle-class residents, and shanty-town dwellers from the hillsides surrounding the neighborhood. 

 

Atop Corcovado Mountain, the world famous statue of Christo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) overlooks Rio and its beaches.  The mountain rises to 2330 feet, and its 125-foot statue is visible from nearly every part of the city … all 1145 tons of the open-armed redeemer.   The statue is the work of a team of artists headed by French sculptor Paul Landowsky and was completed in 1931. 

We reached the summit via the Corcovado Railroad, a cog train which climbs up the mountainside through tropical foliage that is said to be home to monkeys, parrots, and coatis.  The animals stayed well hidden, but we enjoyed occasional glimpses of the mountain above and the city below.  The view from the top provides a spectacular panorama of Rio and its surroundings – Sugarloaf Mountain, the waters of the bay, and the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema. 

Rio’s harbor is considered one of the wonders of the natural world; Sugar Loaf Mountain is the solid granite prominence that rises at its entrance.  Two cable cars connect to the summit, 1300 feet above Rio.  The first ascends to Morro da Urca; the second goes up to Sugar Loaf.  Views are excellent from all sides:  the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema and the mountains beyond; Corcovado peak and the Christ statue; and the high bridge across the bay connecting Rio to Niteroi.  From this vantage point, Rio may indeed be the most beautiful city in the world – it has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its spectacular landscape between the mountains and the sea.    

 

 

In the city center, Praca XV de Novembro is home to the Paco Imperial (Imperial Palace).  Originally built (in 1743) as a governor’s residence, it later served as the home of the Portuguese royal family when they fled Napoleon and transferred the crown to Brazil.   In 1888, Princess Isabel proclaimed the Freedom from Slavery Act from the palace steps.  Today it serves as a cultural center.  











Nearby is the Teatro Municipal, Rio's opera house, built in 1905 in the style of the Paris Opera.  Today it is the home of the city's opera, orchestra, and ballet.  

The Sambodrome is the venue of the Carnival Samba Parade of Rio – it is the "stadium" of samba. It consists of the parade avenue and several sets of bleachers for spectators.  It was built in 1984 for the express purpose of hosting this parade.  Most of the year it is bare and not very attractive, but it is transformed and comes to life during Carnival.  Here is a photo as we saw it and one from this year’s Carnival.  

The Cathedral Saint Sebastian of Rio de Janeiro, also known as the Metropolitan Cathedral, was built in the center of the city between 1964 and 1997. The Cathedral is conical in form, 250 feet high and 350 feet wide – space enough for 20,000 standing worshipers or 5000 seated people.

Architect Edgar de Oliveira based his design on Mayan pyramids in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico.  Four massive and colorful stained glass windows enclose the church and stream in natural light. The windows are positioned according to the four cardinal points of the compass and symbolize the four characteristics of the Church: One (one flock, one shepherd), Holy (Jesus, Mary and the saints), Catholic (all people, all races), and Apostolic (St. Peter and other apostles).    

 

The old Canoca Aqueduct is near the Cathedral.  It was built in the middle of the 18th century to bring fresh water to the city's population.  Since the end of the 19th century the aqueduct has served as a bridge for a small tram connecting the city center with the Santa Teresa neighborhood uphill. 

The cobblestone streets and aging mansions of the Santa Teresa neighborhood are a vision of days long past.  Named after a convent founded here in 1750, Santa Teresa was home to Rio’s upper class in the 1800s.  Later, during the mid-1900s, many artists and bohemians moved into the area.

The Selaron Staircase is the crazy and colorful work of self-taught Chilean artist Jorge Selaron.  He moved to Rio in 1983 in a tiny house just in front of the then-desolate stairway.    He covered the 215 steps entirely with majolica collected in urban areas of Rio or donated by visitors from around the world.  Since 1990, Selaron has laid over 2000 tiles.  He also planted greenery and continues to embellish the stairway. 

 

The favela, or shantytown, is a fixture of life in Rio – easily visible from any part of town.  Favelas sprang up as a response to the chaotic expansion of the city as property prices exploded and public transportation was overpriced.  In the early 1900s, poor families began to build illegally on the steep hillsides that were regarded as unsuitable sites for more expensive structures.  Today, there are about 500 favelas in Rio; about 40% of the city’s population of 6.3 million lives there.  Some favelas now have electricity and running water, but many families lack these basic essentials, as well as medical clinics, schools, roads, and other services that we take for granted.  Here, the favelas are taken for granted, a sad example of the huge gap between the rich and the poor.     

We rode Rio’s modern subway, the Metro, from downtown back to our hotel.  We’re keeping a list of different modes of transportation on this trip – our guide promises it will be a long list.

We had several memorable meals in Rio, beginning with dinner at a Brazilian steak house, or churrascaria.  A churrascaria is a place where meat is cooked in churrasco style, which translates from the Portuguese as barbecue.  It is a distinctly South American-style rotisserie, owing its origins to the fireside roasts of the gauchos of the Pampa region of southern Brazil.   Here passadores (meat waiters) come to the tables with knives and a skewer carrying various kinds of meat.  Our waiter told us that they served 32 different kinds of meat – we can’t verify that claim because we lost count – too busy eating.  Some of the meats we remember:  spicy sausage, smoked sausage, chicken, calamari, shrimp, catfish and at least two other kinds of fish, pork, flank steak, filet mignon, prime rib, top sirloin, beef ribs, ostrich, and wild boar.  Nobody went away hungry. 

Feijoada is Brazil’s national dish.  It is prepared by simmering smoked meat in black beans for several hours, before the beans and meat are served separately.  The dish is accompanied by collard greens, toasted manioc (farofa), and hot sauce.  Originally a slave dish, feijoada has become a staple comfort food throughout the country.  It’s a very hearty meal!

Our restaurant was located on one of Rio’s many hills and offered the chance for a short but wild motorcycle ride.  Our mini-van was pretty agile in the hopelessly congested streets of Rio, but the motorcycles made the trip much faster – and a lot more exciting. 

For our farewell lunch in Rio, we ate at Confeitaria Colombo, possibly the most famous restaurant and bakery in all Brazil.  The Colombo was inspired by the grand tearooms in Europe; when it opened in 1894, its elegance, upscale décor and wealth had not been seen before in Brazil.  The Colombo became popular with politicians, journalists, writers, and artists.  It has had some legendary visitors, including Queen Elizabeth of England, and King Albert of Belgium and almost all of Brazil’s presidents.

The ceiling dome in the center of the restaurant is a stained-glass window. The walls are lined with massive Belgian mirrors and the floors are covered with Italian marble. The counter tops, bar and other furniture are made with Brazil’s finest “Jacaranda” wood.  The restaurant located on the second floor is called “Cristóvão”. The dishes served there are inspired by the blending of Spanish and Portuguese cuisines. Eating there is a unique experience as waiters wearing long aprons serve you on silver trays.  Apparently, this is the happening place to be - very noisy but well worth it.

Salvador de Bahia, in northeastern Brazil, is located on a peninsula that was discovered in 1501 by Amerigo Vespucci.  Its glory days as the first capital of Brazil came early in the colonial period, when its wealth was based on sugarcane and cotton.  The city has lost its economic and political importance, but it has gained fame as a center of Brazilian culture, a mixture of black and white races descending from Africans and Europeans.  Brazil’s Portuguese colonizers brought in millions of African slaves, many of whom held onto their cultural traditions.  Today in Bahia, 80% of citizens can trace their roots back to Africa, and Salvador is the biggest African city in the world outside of the African continent. 

While the Portuguese brought Catholicism to Brazil and revitalized saint worship and its mysticism, the slaves brought their own deities from Africa.  Salvador is home to over 350 Catholic churches, but it also is home to some 1500 terreiros, places of worship for Candomblé, the unique Afro-Brazilian religion practiced in this region.  The Catholic Church, the state religion of Brazil, does not officially accept Candomblé, but the country's expansive area made it difficult for the clergy to control the new converts. As a result, the Candomblé deities (known as Orixá) and the Catholic saints were honored side by side, each gradually taking on the identity of the other.

For example, Oxalá, the most powerful deity in Candomblé, is often portrayed wearing white garments and a silver crown. Oxalá’s reputation for his beauty, purity and as the creator of man syncretizes him to Jesus Christ.  Today, worshippers don't necessary choose between Christ and Oxalá, on the contrary, the two deities are often worshipped together, their divine forces combined.

The deities of Candomblé are visible throughout the city – mural paintings, signs, and statues.  The most memorable of these displays is at Dique do Tororo, a lake in the center of downtown, believed to be a sacred site for the goddess who rules lakes.  Here there are eight towering statues of the Orixás, the deities of Candomblé; the statues are over 22 feet tall and weigh 2 tons each. By night, they are illuminated and appear to float above the water in a circle as if they are dancing, around a lighted fountain. They are most impressive monuments to Brazil's African heritage.

Our hotel was located by Bahia’s Independence Square, with its grand monument and friendly people happy to visit with visiting Americans.  Here we met an all-girl drumming group, the maintenance guy getting the park ready for a big parade the next day, and the coffee vendor who didn’t have many customers on this hot afternoon. 

Our tour of Salvador focused mostly on the older, historical part of town, also known as the upper city.  The lower city is the newer part of town.  The two are connected by an elevator!  

 

We started our walk at the old Town Hall, now a museum.  Nearby was a monument shaped like a fallen cross; this was the site of an old cathedral, the Church of Mercy, which was torn down to build a bus station (which was later torn down due to lack of riders).  And near the cross, there is a statue of a woman in the traditional dress of those who follow the Candomblé religion. 

 

Soon we were surrounded by real women in traditional dress, eager to pose for pictures with the tourists.  A couple of them were particularly taken by Pat ... who knew he had such magnetism?

Pelourinho is the historic centerpiece of the upper city, designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  It contains a wonderful collections of colorful colonial buildings and magnificent churches.  This was the home of the first slave market in the New World, with millions of slaves arriving to work on the sugar plantations.  The area has undergone major restoration work, and now provides a delightful place to wander narrow streets, trip over cobblestones, and admire the city’s oldest architecture. 

The Terreiro de Jesus is home to three of Salvador’s most famous churches.  The largest, the Basilica Cathedral, is a 17th century Jesuit structure.  Next to it are the 18th century St. Peter’s Church and the 17th century Dominican Church.  On the fourth side of the plaza is the Afro-Brazilian Museum, which highlights the strong African influence on Bahian culture. 

 

The San Francisco Church and Convent, built over 100 years and completed in 1723, is one of the world’s most opulent baroque churches, paradoxically dedicated to a saint who preached the simple, unencumbered life.  The church exterior is nothing fancy, but the interior is crammed with displays of wealth and splendor, including a silver chandelier, ornate wood carvings covered in gold leaf, and a courtyard paneled in hand-painted Portuguese tiles.   

 

The Largo do Pelourinho is the site of Salvador’s best-preserved colonial buildings, whose colorful facades line the steep, meandering cobblestone streets.  The square here was once the site of the old slave market.   Today it is a colorful, lively place to visit. 

The Church of Our Lady of the Rosary of the Blacks dominates the Largo do Pelourinho. The church was built over a period of a hundred years beginning in 1704 by the enslaved members of The Brotherhood of Our Lady of the Rosary of the Black Men of Pelourinho for their own use – they weren't allowed inside the other churches.  Work on the church was always done at night so that the slaves' normal daytime work would carry on uninterrupted.  








The wrought-iron railings in front of the church are covered with bright miracle ribbons – another link to the Candomblé faith that permeates the city.  Miracle ribbons come in many colors, each representing a particular deity (Orixá) of Candomblé.  Their primary function is to petition for miracles, large or small. 

 

After wandering the streets and taking in the sights of Pelhourinha, we stopped by the studio of Master Macambira, the king of percussion in Salvador.   Macambira, who has played with many of Brazil’s top artists, agreed to give us a lesson in Afro-Brazilian percussion.  He taught us some basics of creating a rhythm on the tall timbals – we sounded pretty much like kids pounding on drums while Macambira coaxed complex rhythms out of his drums.  He seemed to have an orchestra in his fingers. 

 

We also attended a live Bahia folklore performance in hopes of understanding some of the Afro-Brazilian customs that are part and parcel of the culture of modern Salvador.  One of these was capoeira, a ritualistic African dance developed by slaves in Brazil as a means of maintaining a ready self-defense against their masters.  It evolved into a uniquely Brazilian martial arts form mixing indigenous Brazilian fighting games with African dance moves and acrobatics, all paired to live music and accompanied by clapping of hands.   Capoeira is typically practiced by two fighters at a time inside a circle of spectators/fighters who clap, sing and make music.  Once a tool of insurrection, capoeira is now considered a national art form. 

The music associated with capoeira uses folk instruments such as the single-stringed berimbau, tambourine, and three sizes of drums.   This led to the creation of the definitive dance of Bahia, the samba de roda (samba of the dance circle).  UNESCO cited this dance as a Masterpiece of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity for its role in the creation of Brazilian samba music as we know it today.  

The Lower City is the newer part of Salvador, near the bay – and home to Sorveteria da Rebeira, the very best ice cream in these parts.  The shop is in a working-class neighborhood and was plenty busy on a warm Sunday afternoon. Picking one flavor from a list of fifty choices was a bit challenging, but everyone came away happy. 

São Joaquim Market is the oldest and largest outdoor market in Salvador, covering nearly 10 acres of real estate in the lower town.  It is traditionally the market of choice for the low-income population because of its low prices.  Local folks come here to buy everything from fruits to vegetables to manioc flour and candles and other religious items. São Joaquim is not for the faint of heart – it is not a tourist market.  Its labyrinthine lanes are riddled with potholes, puddles, and rotting fruit, and there’s always the danger of being run over by a wheelbarrow full of mangoes or smacked in the head with a jackfruit.

If you’re not a vegetarian, the gory meat section will make you consider the possibility.

Jorge (our guide) explained how to tell the difference between different types of manioc root.  Since one kind is poisonous unless prepared properly, this could be important to know.     

 

Piles of spices and tropical fruits assault the senses with their fragrant scents and dazzling colors.  Some we recognized, some remained a mystery - being told the name in Portuguese wasn't much help!  

One of the most interesting fruits was the cashew apple.  The food we know as the cashew nut is actually a seed, which grows externally on top of the apple.  Just think - one seed (or nut) per fruit - no wonder those things are so expensive!

Some of the most colorful non-food stalls are those devoted to Candomblé artifacts: fistfuls of brightly colored beads associated with different deities, fragrant leaves for sacred baths, and traditional ceramic serving dishes for food and other offerings.

The Church of Senhor do Bonfim was built in 1745 and has gained great fame for its power to effect miraculous healing cures—transforming it from a rather ordinary church into a popular shrine.  Senhor do Bonfim means Our Lord of a Good End, which is one way the local people refer to Jesus.   This church is now one of the most popular pilgrimage sites in all of Brazil, as people come from all over to pray for jobs or cures, or to give thanks for miracles attributed to Senhor Bonfim.   Like most of the churches in Salvador, Bonfim has a Catholic base, but allowances were made for dual meaning with Catholic saints also taking on the attributes of the Orixá worshipped by practitioners of Candomblé.

Bonfim's Room of Miracles is a unique collection of prayers and praise.  The walls are covered with photos and testimonials on slips of paper, thanking Senhor do Bonfim for his miracles. The photos fearlessly display heartache: pictures of torsos taped by adhesive, car crashes, and burned skin (peeled and raw). Some have prayed for assistance in being elected to office, or obtaining a promotion at work.  On the ceiling hang the ex-votos offered by faithful parishioners—wax or plastic replicas of body parts (arms, feet, heads, hearts, spines, and breasts), representing those that were cured or need curing.  As further thanks, people have given their most prized possessions to the collection: bullets extracted from just-near-the-heart, watches, sports jerseys, and keys to cars and houses.

Here, too, miracle ribbons are tied to the wrought-iron railings enclosing the church.  These Senhor do Bonfim wrist ribbons have "Lembrança do Senhor do Bonfim da Bahia" printed on them. Translated from Portuguese, the phrase means In Remembrance of the Savior of Bahia.  The colorful ribbons can be tied around the wrist or ankle.   Multiple chances for a miracle, or chances for multiple miracles, are obtained as the wearer makes a wish each time one of three knots is tied.  Since no wish will be granted unless the ribbon is worn until it disintegrates naturally, we opted for tying one on the railing outside the church.

Under close supervision of a black-headed marmoset, we ended our visit to Senhor do Bonfim by receiving blessings from a Candomblé high priestess, known as a Mother of Saints.  This individual, who had undergone years of training for the priesthood, gave us blessings and cleansing of all evil. 



Another important aspect of life in Salvador is the ubiquity of favelas – slums or shantytowns.  Over sixty percent of the city’s population lives in these areas; we visited one neighborhood known as Saramandaia and another called Alto de Ondina. 

 

Our first stop was Arte Consciente, a youth development project that was founded by a circus trainer, a boxer, a percussionist, and a graffiti artist.   These four young men were horrified by the murders of children by other children; they wanted to do something to give local kids more positive outlets.  At first, their program focused on life-mentoring; they had only the street to work with the children.  The project now is supported in part by the Grand Circle Foundation; it has its own building and offers activities in dance, percussion, circus arts, boxing, street graffiti and soccer.  

 

Our second stop was at the home of Patricia Caldas and her two children, Rafles and Tansy, and her mother, Diva.  They showed us around their home, which the family had built themselves.  It’s still an unfinished project – they can only afford to build a little at one time.   They also prepared a simple supper for us – two kinds of soup, vegetable and pumpkin.  This was a major contrast from home-hosted meals on our previous trips. 

We wrapped up our stay in Salvador with a visit to Barra, the waterfront neighborhood where EVERYONE goes to the beach to celebrate the weekend.  The place was packed with people having a fine time.

 

Here are Bahia’s oldest fort and oldest lighthouse, Forte de Santo Antonio da Barra, built in 1698.  Watching the sunset here is possible because Salvador’s peninsula is the only location in Brazil where the sun appears to set over the ocean. 

 

The other place where things were hopping was a vacant lot farther inland – not really vacant, it was covered with food trucks and stalls, with lots of tents, tables and chairs.  Adding to our transportation list, we rode the city bus (which was packed) to this destination just to try the local delicacy known as acaraje’.  Acaraje’ is crushed black-eyed peas rolled into balls and then deep-fried in palm oil.  It is served split in half and stuffed with shrimp, a spicy paste made from ground cashews, a salsa made from green and red tomatoes, and homemade hot pepper sauce.  It goes well with the local beer …

 

Amazonas is Brazil’s largest state, spanning nearly 400 million acres.  It is here that the massive Solimoes, Negro, and Madeira-Mamore rivers converge to form the Rio Amazonas, the granddaddy of them all.  It is home to dense rain forest, indigenous tribes and abundant wildlife.   The numbers are mind-boggling.  The Amazon basin is over two-thirds the size of the United States; it spans 8 countries, though most of it is in Brazil.  At its peak, the river can measure 35 miles across and dump 80 million gallons per second of fresh water into the ocean.  Life here is tied to this waterway and the thousands of smaller streams that feed it and provide transportation, food, water, waste removal, and tourism.   According to the Brazilian government, about 40% of the Amazon rainforest is protected as national parks or reserves, including one area of 15 million acres that has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Unfortunately, these areas suffer from encroachment and poor management, and the exploitation of the rainforest remains an international concern.  Deforestation (from cattle ranching and logging) has caused irreparable damage to vast areas. 

Manaus is the Amazonas’ largest city, an incongruous pocket of urbanity in the middle of the jungle, a major port for ocean vessels, over 900 miles from the ocean.  We had a quick look around before boarding our vessel for exploring the river and the rainforest.

Manaus may look like a city, but the jungle is never far away.  Trees can grow to immense size (as this kapok tree) and monkeys are likely to be found anywhere.  This woolly monkey was in the trees on the grounds of our lodge.  The lodge was located on the riverfront, so we had a good view of the river’s immensity – and of the only bridge that spans this waterway.  The city brings in white sand to create a beach that is much enjoyed by the locals.

 

We stopped by beachfront street vendor to try fresh açaí, served as a sort of semi-frozen sorbet, topped with granola.  Of all the thousands of fruits in the Amazon, açaí is the best known, thanks to its international status as a super health food.  Traditionally eaten by indigenous tribes for energy, the hard purple berry is also used as a sauce with fish.  Pretty tasty stuff. 

Mercado Municipal, the imposing cast-iron city market building, opened in 1882, a copy in miniature of the famed Les Halles market in Paris.  Although the art nouveau ironwork was imported from Europe, the place has a distinctly Amazonian character.  In and around the market, you can purchase just about anything, especially bananas!

 

This fish section of the market was quite amazing - an endless array of fish - and all were fresh.  The market is emptied and cleaned every evening - all fish must be sold or removed and the whole process starts over the next day.  

We were interested to see the one Amazonian fish that had a familiar name - the red-bellied piranha.  This variety is good size for eating, but watch out for those teeth.

The most unusual fish we met was one named Arapaima.  This man is cleaning a fish about three feet long - just a baby!  A full-grown Arapaima measures about 10 feet in length and weighs in at 400 pounds or more.  We brought home some Arapaima fish scales to use as nail files ...

 

The market is by the river and there are boats everywhere – all sizes and shapes bringing goods and people in and out of the city.  We boarded one of the local ferries to have a look around – the lower decks were filled with cargo and the upper deck was a maze of hammocks.  This is where the passengers will spend days or weeks to reach their upstream destinations.  

 

Manaus’ famous opera house, the Teatro Amazonas, was designed at the height of the rubber boom to be the “jewel of the Amazon.”  Opened in 1896, this theater symbolizes the opulence that once was Manaus.  The artists and most of the materials were imported from Europe; the wood is Brazilian but much of it was sent to Europe to be carved.  The one truly homespun feature was the roadway outside the entrance; it was made of rubber, so that late-arriving carriages wouldn’t create too much noise. 

 

Another remnant from days gone by is the Palacio Rio Negro, the one-time home of rubber baron Karl Waldemar Scholz.  Scholz lost his fortune after World War I, as the rubber was grown more productively in other parts of the world.  The home is now a museum. 

Enough history - at last we boarded the Premium II for our four-day Amazon River Cruise.  This small ship is privately chartered by OAT for our group of twelve.  There are 8 air-conditioned cabins with big picture windows, a dining room lined with windows, open decks for panoramic views, and a naturalist on board to tell us what we are seeing. 

The ship was off and running the moment that everyone was on board.  The first miles of the trip were scenes of Manaus – lots of boats and shipping-related industry, but we did spot the dome of the opera house and the nearby cathedral.

Soon we were in another world – nothing but water and trees.  We enjoyed the first of nightly spectacular sunsets. 

We rose early the next morning for our first jungle walk.  This started with a boat ride (as did all excursions) in a small motorized canoe – we were loaded down with cameras, binoculars, hats, life jackets and more.  A walk in the forest is not as simple as it seems – at this time of year, much of the forest is flooded and we had to ride a while to find a spot suitable for a walk.  This first outing got off to a grand start as our guide almost fell out of the boat – he only got wet up to mid-thigh.

 

We got a close-up look at an immature female tarantula (only about 6 inches across).  Our guide coaxed her out of her nest (a hole at base of a tree) and then blocked the entrance with his machete.  He then maneuvered her onto a big green leaf, where she sat perfectly still.  After a nice photo session, he nudged her off the leaf and back toward home … she went into attack mode, but eventually ducked back out of sight.

 

Here the naturalist showed us a rubber tree.  It was covered with tiny slashes where the latex was collected for manufacture of rubber.    Many indigenous people were forced to work collecting the milky white sap, while most of the money went elsewhere.  Today there are few remaining rubber trees in the forest.

Here is an example of illegal logging.  While this land is supposedly protected, there is little enforcement to prevent the taking of rare hardwoods for lumber – sometimes for local construction, sometimes for shipping overseas.

While on the water, human signs were few and far between.  There were occasional boats – small canoes, a school-boat (no school buses here – there are no roads), and other adventurers. 

 

 

From time to time, we would see riverfront homes, mostly built on stilts to allow for high water.  In the picture to the left, you can see the high water mark on the bare tree trunk.  The guide said the water would drop another 30 feet before the rainy season starts again.

 

We stopped one day to visit an indigenous village and to bring some supplies to the local school.  The kids were shy, but liked to see themselves on our camera screens.

 

 

The village was full of surprises.  The homes are simple, mostly wood with brick foundations, each with a television satellite dish.  One family even had a washing machine – with its own covered shed and water tank on top.  Others were doing laundry in the traditional manner – on a small dock at the river’s edge. 

 

Another family had a couple of pet birds – blue and yellow macaw and a festive parrot.  We saw quite a few macaws and parrots flying high in the sky – nice to get a closer look!

 

In the rainforest, manioc, or cassava, is widely cultivated for its edible starchy root – it is the major source of dietary carbohydrates.  We walked some distance through the jungle to visit the community manioc preparation shed.  Here we learned about the lengthy and back-breaking process used to remove dangerous toxins (such as cyanide) to make edible food products such as manioc flour and tapioca. 

 

On the river, signs of high water were easy to spot – plants were brown and/or muddy at water level.  At first glance, it looks like a shore line, but up close you just find more water. 

 

Bird life was probably abundant – we could hear them in the trees, but hard to see with so much thick foliage.  Here are some that paused for a photo: yellow-rumped cacique, plumbeous kite, common potoo, and roadside hawk.  

On one boat ride into the flooded forest, we were most pleased to spot a three-toed sloth hanging in a tree overhead AND a hoatzin (bird) not far away.     Both are very unusual animals.  The sloth comes to ground once a week to defecate; we were worried how this would work in the flood water.  The hoatzin is notable for having chicks with claws on two of their wing digits.

 

One of the most beautiful areas we visited was the Alavilhanas National Park, which encompasses one of the largest fresh water archipelagos in the world.  It contains about 400 islands which extend for over 875,000 acres of native forest; during the rainy season (November – April), most of the islands are underwater.   

This is where we had the best look at river dolphins, both pink and gray.  We had seen them at other locations, but this time our guide brought along some fish to bring them a bit closer to our canoe.  These are both fresh-water species that live in the Amazon River basin.  The pink ones may reach about 10 feet in length; grays are smaller, only about 4 feet long. 

 

And, there are monkeys – lots of them.  Our guide had thoughtfully brought along some bananas and we came upon a troop of squirrel monkeys who were very happy to see them.  Our boat pulled over toward the shore and suddenly our world was full of monkeys, jumping all over the trees, the boat and sometimes even the people.  It was great fun – just wished we had more bananas!

We also wished we had more time to explore this place, but this was a short cruise – just three days.  Our last evening on the ship was memorable.  We helped Jo celebrate her birthday and sailed under the Rio Negro Bridge while Jorge taught us how to make a Caipirinha, Brazil’s unofficial national drink.  The ingredients are simple:  cachaça (made from fermented sugarcane juice), crushed lime, sugar and ice, but the sugarcane liquor is harsh and it takes just the right combination of lime and sugar to make it tasty. 

 

Our cruise ended at the Meeting of the Waters, the confluence between the Rio Negro, a river with dark (almost black colored) water, and the sandy-colored Amazon River.  For nearly four miles, the two rivers run side by side without mixing.  This phenomenon is due to the difference in temperature, speed and water density of the two rivers.  The pattern of the wavy water is popular in Brazil - we saw it in Rio on the beach at Copacabana and in Manaus at the square near the Opera House.

 

PANTANAL

In western Brazil, near the geographic center of South America, lies the Pantanal – a vast wetland spanning 65,000 square miles – about the size of the state of Georgia.  This is the largest freshwater wetland in the world.  The Pantanal is an immense alluvial plain that encompasses a variety of ecological regions, including rivers, forests, wetlands and lakes, as well as vast areas of seasonally inundated grasslands and forests.  
  

Most of the rainfall that makes the Pantanal watery occurs during the region’s wet season, between November and March, when the rivers rise and flood low-lying areas, submerging some places by as much as 15 feet.  We are here in the dry season, when the floodwaters have receded to expose large open areas of grassy savannah that offer superb wild-life viewing. 

Seasonal flooding makes systematic farming impossible, severely limiting human impact.   Cattle ranching is the main industry, but there are still few people and no towns.  Distances are so great and ground transport so poor that people get around in small boats and planes.  The Pantanal remains one of Brazil’s wildest areas, but most of it is privately owned and endangered by poachers, ranchers, uncontrolled tourism, and pollution.  

Our lodge here was the Pousada Rio Mutum, located on the Mutum River, in the heart of the Pantanal’s natural splendor.  Here is an aerial view at high water time and a couple of views of the dock seen in that picture.  Not much water here today – it’s a pretty long walk down to the river! 

 



We started our first day in the Pantanal with a horseback ride along wetland trails.  We were provided helmets and leather chaps for protection – we added jackets for warmth as the weather was unusually cool for this part of the world.  

Not too many pictures to document our ride – it’s pretty hard to use a camera while bouncing around on horseback.  We did stop for a look at the nest of a huge jabiru stork – the tallest flying bird found in Latin America - five feet tall, with a wingspan of eight feet. 

Wildlife was easier to spot in the next leg of our journey – on the water in motorized canoe.  We got our first glimpse of yacare caiman and brown capuchin monkeys, as well as a gray-necked wood rail and the beautiful Amazon kingfisher. 

 

 

On the walk back to the lodge, we got a chance to check out a termite mound.  The mound itself is hard-packed mud, with a few holes used by nesting birds.  The insects themselves are far underground. 

Back at the lodge, there were always plenty of birds cruising the grounds.  Here are the chaco chacalaca, chestnut-bellied guan, bare-faced curassow, and the buff-necked ibis.  These are all large birds, but the chacalaca by far makes the most noise – mostly at 5 or 5:30 AM.  No need for alarm clocks here.

 

Those four birds were the biggest and most impressive - and noisiest - but the crowd favorite was the much smaller yellow-billed cardinal.    

Thanks to the chacalacas roosting outside our window, we were up early – with plenty of time for a boat ride to watch the sun rise and to spot some birds before breakfast. Here are a few:  cocoi heron, black-backed water tyrant, yellow-billed tern, and lots of anhingas.

 

The big excitement of this outing was seeing a family of giant otters.  They look very much like our river otters, except for their size – these giant otters can grow to more than five feet in length.  They have a wide range of vocal expressions including whistles, barks and coos – we heard several sounds of displeasure from this big male when got too near the den.

The rest of the gang was in the water, fishing – we saw one otter catch a fish and carry it into the bushes to eat.  We couldn’t see him, but we sure could hear loud crunching as he polished off his breakfast.  These guys are inquisitive and playful nature – great fun to watch.   

 

And more yacare caiman … the cute guy with his mouth open has a leech in his throat.

 

After lunch and a little siesta, things cooled off a bit and we headed out for a walk with our naturalist, Natalie.  As we left the lodge area, she showed us the high water mark on a utility pole.  It’s even more dramatic along the water. 

Along the marsh and in the forest, we saw several new birds:  sun bittern, capped heron, red-legged seriema, and blue-crowned motmot. 

 

 

Before dinner, we took another boat ride.  We saw lots of fishing bats and bulldog bats – busy eating mosquitos.  We also saw lots of birds, but only one – the boat-billed heron – posed long enough for a picture. 

And before breakfast, another boat ride.  More birds, including the ringed kingfisher, purplish jay, osprey and black-collared hawk. 

 

 

After breakfast, we met with the lodge owner, Miss Alice – a remarkable woman who has turned a rundown lodge into a thriving business committed to protecting the environment and its inhabitants.   Miss Alice has developed a close relationship with a nearby fishing village, from which she has hired most of the lodge’s workers.  Few of the villagers can read and write and many children quit school and go to work (fishing) to help support the family.  This problem has been made worse by the fact that the school here is very poor; because of government corruption and low pay, the teachers are almost always on strike.  If there is no school to attend, the kids have nothing to do, so Miss Alice has worked with the village to develop plans for a community cultural center which will teach health, personal hygiene, arts and crafts, information technology, and other skills – year round, all ages.  Miss Alice has purchased the property for the new center and is now raising funds to make it a reality.  The Grand Circle Foundation is supporting this effort, and so are we.   

The village is Cuiaba Mirim; it stretches for several miles along the river.  There are no roads, just a string of houses, separated by fences to keep livestock.  There are about 300 families living here, with about 100 school age kids. 

 

The houses are mostly simple, two-room structures made of mud bricks that require lots of upkeep, especially in the rainy season.  The kitchen is in another building.  One woman that we visited was proud to show us her new kitchen, filled with shiny pots and pans that her daughters had given her, but … she still preferred to do most of her cooking in her old kitchen, with its brick, wood-burning stove. 

 

The village church and school are built of concrete blocks.  Both were empty when we visited; it was a school day, but the teachers were nowhere to be found. 

 

The kids followed us everywhere – shy but curious, they were excited to find out that we had some balloons to share.  They have so little in the way of toys or entertainment, we wished we had brought more for them.

The village matriarch invited us to join her for a cooking lesson – how to make piranha soup.  She had all the ingredients ready and benches set up for villagers waiting to see the show.  Vicky, Carol, Pat and Dennis responded to the call for volunteers to scale the fish, cut up the ingredients, puree the stuff in a blender and cook it all together until just right.   In spite of the fact that the WHOLE fish went in the pot (head, eyes, bones, etc.), the soup was surprisingly tasty. 

On the way to and from the village, we saw a big green iguana and still more birds, including the roseate spoonbill, southern screamer, and rufous-tailed jacamar.

And my favorite caiman … he seems to think that he is invisible.  We got quite close and he just stayed perfectly still.

Back at the dock, along the riverbank, we saw a lovely kaleidoscope of butterflies engaged in a process known as mud-puddling.  Male butterflies zero in on sources of sodium and nitrates which are found dissolved in mud or damp sand.  Urine-soaked ground, carnivore dung and bird droppings are especially rich in these minerals and can attract large gatherings - almost always only males.  One or two males will chance upon a suitable feeding spot, and other butterflies flying past swoop down to join them. Isn’t nature amazing! 

 

When we got back to the lodge, there was plenty of excitement as a nine-foot yellow anaconda was making his way slowly across the grass.  The local birds were not one bit happy about this, but some of the humans were fearless (or maybe just a little crazy). 

 

After a late lunch and siesta, we took our final afternoon/evening boat ride.  And finally, we got a really good look at a bunch of capybaras – we’d seen them on other outings, but not this close. 

 

 

Today’s trip seemed to be the mother lode of yacare caiman.  They were everywhere, mostly just watching us and the birds, but occasionally lunging in the water to catch a fish.

 


And of course, a few more birds:  an American stork, another jabiru stork, rufescent tiger heron, and the spectacular hoatzin. 

 

 

We ended the evening drinking champagne, fishing for piranha, and watching the sunset.  A few lucky folks pulled in some fish, which we later fed to the caiman.  Most of us just sat back and enjoyed our last few hours in this magical place.

Last, but not least …leaving the Pantanal, we spotted some rheas.  The rhea is a large flightless bird native to South American, related to the ostrich and emu.  Mature birds may reach 5.5 feet in height. 

For a different view of this trip, take a look at the video that our wonderful guide (Jorge Elage) made for us.  He took pictures and videos throughout the trip and somehow transformed them into a wonderful record of our adventure.  You can see the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raIXu_IAsvs


Author’s note:  Birds mentioned in this blog are the one we were lucky enough to photograph.  Over the entire trip, we identified 111 different bird species, most of whom did not pose for pictures.