Arrival in the Pantanal, Brazil!

Sylvia from Open Door Tur arrived right on time and took us for the 3.5 hour drive to Refugio Ecologico Caiman.  We were met on arrival by the staff and immediately shown to a room near the swimming pool at Sede Lodge.  Everyone was very friendly and they explained about the board with the tours and activities.  They divide everyone into two groups-yellow (English) and blue (Portuguese).  A buffet lunch was served at noon and then we discovered that so far, we were the only tourists to arrive in our yellow group.  The flights were still chaotic and everyone else was delayed.  While resting after lunch, I heard the distinctive Macaw squawk and ran out into the garden to see two Hyacinth Macaws munching on nuts in a palm tree right there in the hotel garden!  Not even on a tour and already seeing Hys!!!

01 Arrival at the gate of Posada Caiman

The afternoon activity was the bike ride and it was only us and the guide, two other guides went along just for the hell of it, nothing else to do.  We had barely gotten out the gate when we saw about 7 or 8 Hys flying around so I lept off the bike to grab pics.  Then we passed the small airstrip and there were 2 mango trees just full of parrots-BF Amazons, Nandays and Maximillian Pionus!  I flat out refused to leave the area, lucky there were no other tourists in the group!  Ina and one of the guides biked on ahead but later on, he said he didn´t see anything else.  The other guide finally managaed to drag me away from the parrot trees kicking and screaming!  LOL!! 

02 Our room

We reconfirmed with the people from Projecto Arara Azul for tomorrow.  Cezar and one of the volunteers who spoke English-Julianne would be taking us with them on their normal daily routine.  Neiva Greves, the manager was out of the area so I didn´t get to meet her.  Cezar runs the show in the field now with help of 3 volunteers.

Dinner was at 7:30, a nice buffet.  Some of the other yellow group tourists had started to arrive, quite a mix-Americans, French, Belgians and Dutch.  We made an early night so we could get up early for tomorrow.

03 Activity board

04 Swimming pool

05 Garden area

06 Hyacinth in palm tree having a snack

07 Now there are 3 Hys!

08 Hyacinths in palm tree video

09 Rhea (like an ostrich)

10 Hyacinths just hanging out

11 Maximilan Pionus eating a mango

12 Yummy says the Maxi Pi

13 Quakers like mangos too

16 Quakers grab their food and run

17 Quakers hanging out

18 Find the hidden Amazon

19 Cheeky Pionus

20 Pionus in flight

21 This Amazon isn't hidden!

22 Off he goes!

23 Nandays and a Quaker

24 Sunset in the Pantanal

25 Huddled under blankets for the night safari