Day 2 of My Pantanal Adventure

View from the Airplane

This morning we drove about two hours out of Campo Grande to Aquidauana. In Aquidauana, we loaded our bags onto two small planes and took off to our final destination in the Pantanal. The trip was amazing! I couldn’t believe my eyes when I was flying over the Pantanal. All pictures I had seen before came to life. Looking down several hundred feet, we could see cowboys herding sheep and the brown river snaking its way through the country. The flooding river turned many fields into swamps and we flew over one pool of water after another.
After making a landing in the fields at Fazenda Rio Negro, we made our way to the buildings of the farm that we will call home for the next week. As soon as we stepped off the plane, we were greeted by wildlife everywhere. There are hundreds of types of birds, the largest being the Rhea Americana (emas) and vultures circling overhead. We had some time before and after lunch to take pictures.
This afternoon we had two orientations with the scientists before we went out on the river in a small boat. They spoke about the mission ans methods of our research projects. I learned about the importance of conserving otters as a means of regulating the ecosystem. The views from the water were breath taking, but it was even better getting off the boat and walking through the jungle. We had to cut away vines to get our boat through a few small passages. We were on a mission to check traps. (Ellen Wong, one of the researchers we are working with, puts out the traps to catch frogs, lizards and snakes). She was successful! We found several frogs and an unidentified snake. I’ve been assigned to a team work to track otters (lontras). Today I learned that it is very hard to encounter otters this time of the year because it’s wet season and usually they migrate to higher ground. However, we are optimistic we will see them at some point in time.
As we pulled up to the riverbank back at the farm, we were greeted by 10 sets of Caiman (Jacaré) peering up at us from the water. We were also called over to one of the farm buildings because a farm employee found a snake in his room. Who knows what we will see tomorrow! I haven’t seen any anaconda yet. My American teammates love the Brazilian people, food, and scenery. I am sorry, buy I don’t have time to translate this journal into PortugueseL. I’ve been very busy and the internet is extremely slow.

Some Answers for My Students’ Questions:

Gabriela: A aventura para o Pantanal está sendo maravilhosa. É gratificante estar conhecedo esta parte do Brasil com um grupo de cientistas e professores interessados em preservar este santuário ecologico.

Carol: Também gostei de da bandeira brasileira na nossa foto.

Gustavo: Ainda não vi nenhuma anaconda por aqui, apenas um filhote de jararaca.

Ana Maria e Vinícius: Infelizmente não conseguimos ver nenhuma lontra, pois o Rio Negro está muito cheio, consequentemente as lontras migran para outras areas mais remotas.

Nyana: A viagem está sendo cheia de aventuras. Leia meu blog para mais informações.