O is for...?

Can you think of a better way to celebrate your 50^th birthday than 5 days in the wildest Pantanal? In true Dan style, this is where we headed. And the adventure didn’t start when we got to our lodge – the whole journey on the Transpantaneira (the main road crossing the Pantanal) was a safari in itself. Among our usual animals (caimans, capybaras and loads of birds), we saw a peccary for the first time (or a wild boar) crossing the road in front of Chiquita (our car in case you have forgotten).

Pousso Alegre is the lodge  we were staying in for 2 days and were really hoping to see tapirs and maybe a jaguar! On our first day, we saw the first animal on our wish-list: a tapir - which is a cow sized mammal with a long and rather ugly nose – at a water hole close to the lodge. We also saw a crab eating fox and a few toucans!

We also went on our first night drive and saw more tapirs, loads of crab-eating foxes (and one sleeping on the side of the road, something that both me and Ismene also really wanted to do), a frog and a rabbit.

The next day, we went on a morning walk through the forest with a guide and saw many birds and even a Great Potoo! Its camouflage made it look exactly like a tree branch and if you didn’t know it was there, you would just walk past. Quite amazing to see it. The  mammals we saw were a monkey and capuchins (the adults are the size of a baby monkey so tiny)! They were all amazing but I felt so tired to enjoy it properly because the sun was beating down on us. And that was at 8 o’clock in the morning!

Later on, we went back to the water hole and saw some deer, a fox and some more tapirs. The greatest new addition to our animal list though came from Ismene’s camera trap (again): I am glad to report that we caught an ocelot which though you might have already guessed is what O on the post title stands for!!

Dan’s birthday is tomorrow and we are moving even further down into the wildest and wettest Pantanal!