The Ones That Got Away

Monday 5 March

We both woke just before the alarm rang, feeling much more refreshed after our long night’s sleep. Breakfast was a similar meal to yesterday, with Colin being spoiled by having another poached egg cooked specially for him. Today there was acerola jam – which we remembered was the ingredient in Colin’s orange juice at the top of the Christ the Redeemer mountain. Valeria showed us the small scarlet fruits – looking a lot like our red cherries, without the large kernel inside – and told us that one of these fruits had more vitamin C than half a dozen oranges, so they were very good for you. But they were not nice to eat raw, and in Brazil were usually used to add flavour to other fruits and desserts. We both tried the jam and found it tasted a lot like strawberry, and was delicious.

This morning we would be walking across the farmland and woodland to reach the salt lakes. The sun was already high as we left the homestead and trudged along rutted tracks made by a tractor and the jeeps. The long grass was quite wet – from the dew at night? – or last week’s rains? – lucky we had our proper walking shoes on which kept our feet dry. We stopped in the shade of trees to look at many species of birds - some we had seen yesterday on our travels, but also “guira” cuckoo (yellow beige and brown in colour, and not like ours cuckoos as they live in groups), chachacalacas (which rarely land on the ground, preferring to eat fruits, seeds and insects from the tree tops), cardinals, a purplish jay and an oriole blackbird.

We walked for a couple of hours, skirting two of the salt water lakes, where we also saw lots of water birds, like stilts, plovers, ducks and terns. A couple of jabiru storks were parading along the edges of one of the lakes, almost on opposite sides to each other, while a family of half a dozen capybara were taking a refreshing swim. We followed a small track between one lake and the next, and in the sand we could see tail trails from the tails of caiman, who apparently lay their eggs in grass nests away from the lake and their natural predators. These nests have been known to hold as many as fifty eggs, but usually only a few of the babies survive to become adult, as foxes, pigs and even birds of prey find them tasty.

As the sun rose higher the temperature followed suit, and it was extremely hot by the time the jeep came to collect us. Ansell drove us by a roundabout route home, stopping on the way, first to see a caiman’s nest – a large bundle of straw and grass under the shelter of a bush, currently standing in several inches of water. The eggs had been there now for 36 days, and anything over 32 days incubation, means that the offspring will be female. But Lico wondered if, because the nest was in a damp sheltered spot, the eggs could still hatch as males, even at this late date. The longest gestation period known is 92 days, but that was in cooler conditions than in the Pantanal at present. Our next stop was at Lico’s house, a few fields away from the main farmhouse, where we saw a six banded armadillo – who lives in a nest, under the corner fence post in his garden. The armadillo obliged by running along the side fencing, before making a charge for cover in the woodland.

When we got back to the main building, Valerie made us another jug of fruit juice, before we went off to shower and ready ourselves for lunch. Today’s menu included fish – it was deep fried, but still had its ribcage in place, so I gave that a miss – and I think Colin did too. Instead we ate more beef, red cabbage, pumpkin, and manioc flour with broccoli “crumbs” – sort of finely chopped cooked broccoli. Colin was in his element again for dessert – lime jelly (he told everyone how he never gets jelly at home) and bananas in burnt sugar syrup.

This afternoon we were going swimming in the Rio Negro and to trying our hand at fishing. The boat took us upstream for about half an hour, till we reached this small sandy shore at the bend of a river. Ariane was surprised to find the “beach” so small, as usually there is a good distance between the trees at the back and the water – today there was little more than a couple of metres. As we neared the beach we could see a group of about a dozen sulphur yellow butterflies grouped together on the sand – like they were having a Mother’s meeting – I have never seen butterflies congregated like that before. Ariane put up a lime green umbrella and laid out towels, which took up almost the entire space. There was a small inlet between the sand and the trees at the back of the beach, making us almost on an island! – about 5 metres by 2. Also we could see through the brown, brackish water that the ground suddenly dipped a metre or more at the river’s edge with some slimy green seaweed attached to the side – Colin and I were not at all sure this was the place for us to swim in – particularly when Ariane told us there were caiman and piranhas in the centre of the river – even though she assured us they would not come to the side – unless they smelt blood! She stripped off and sat in the river, telling us the water was warm. Lico meanwhile was photographing a dragonfly eating a yellow butterfly on a branch of one of the trees at the back of the beach – perhaps the cluster on the beach were in fact, attending a wake! We also took a few photos before deciding to join Ariane. She was right, the water was warm with a soft, smooth feeling. It was very refreshing and relaxing although we could feel the pull of the current downstream – even Colin enjoyed it, and he is not a water person.

Lico got out a couple of quite expensive looking fishing rods and cast a line into the middle of the river. He stood near the sharp right-angled bend in the stream, just downstream from the corner, and looking over there, we could see the beady eyes of the caiman watching us! Lico did not seem at all concerned. Ariane had a few “throws” of the line, before I decided to have a go too. I don’t think my wrist is strong enough to snap the rod and send the line spinning out over the river – my casts seem to end no more that about 3 or 4 metres from us. Needless to say I didn’t catch anything. But Lico did – he caught a largish flat fish – a pacu - large plaice size, with yellow and red scales around the face and gills, becoming more tawny to the sides. Lico said it weighted about 1 kg, but when I lifted it to have my photo taken to show what an excellent fisherwoman I was, it seemed to weigh more.

It was now time for Colin to “have a go”! He waded into the water and across the sand bar a short way out to take the rod. Bearing in mind Colin plays cricket and golf left handed, he of course had to “fish” left handed too, This meant that he held the rod upside down to everyone else, but when he flicked the line out, it spun into the centre of the river, just like Lico’s. The current there was quite fast flowing, and brought the baited hook back round the bend of the river to become parallel with Lico’s. A couple of times he felt the tug of a catch, but by the time he had wound the line in, the bait was gone and so was the fish! Never mind, the fish were well fed today. Colin really enjoyed himself, and I suggested that we bought him a fishing rod, or perhaps just a spool of line and some hooks, for his birthday – but he declined saying you couldn’t just go out and fish, he would need to join a club, etc, which wasn’t for him. But who knows, when he gets home, he may have another go.

While Colin was casting his line (!), I noticed the centre of the river seemed to be “bubbling”, and some of the eddies were flowing the wrong way, upstream to join other currents in further eddies at the bend. The sky too had suddenly become laden with dark black clouds, driven downstream by a swift roaring wind, making a load “rushing” sound. It was very peculiar. Lico said this sometimes happened when there had been high rainfall. Soon after we decided to pack away our things and head back to the ranch before any rain came. The journey back was under darkened skies and the water looked black and menacing but completely still. There were a couple of places where the sun peeped under the clouds and cast its orangey glow amid the black shadows. A caiman was lying on the beach when we landed, and we managed to get very close to take some photos. His mate was floating just a little way out from the bank, keeping his large yellow eyes on us. When we arrived back at the house, Valeria told us it had been raining quite heavily at the farm during the afternoon, and looking up at the sky, in the direction of where we had been on the beach, it looked like it might well be raining there too now. We luckily seemed to have missed a soaking.

We showered again (three times a day is becoming a habit, but everything gets sticky and damp in this humidity), and changed before taking our places in the dining room. There were a few midges buzzing around tonight, even before we sat down to dinner, and later Colin found that he had been bitten several times round the ankles - the bugs were out again in force. Tonight’s repast included both beef – with diced potatoes - and chicken, and a very tasty dish of vegetables in a creamy sauce with cheese on top. Dessert was a mango and mint mousse – tasted more lemony to us, but apparently there are different types of mango out here with different flavours. Also there was papaya skins – the matt green variety, soaked in a sugary confection – not the usual burnt sugar syrup – which tasted better than the fruit to me – papaya is probably one of my least favourite fruits, but they grow abundantly on the farm.

We finished dinner around 21.00, and went to look at the stars and get an update on the moon – just in the first throes of waining (or is it waxing?). The Southern Cross was very bright tonight, surrounded by hundreds of stars – but we could still only pick out Orian’s Belt and the pale myriad of minute white dots of the Milky Way!. I also visited the small church next to the house – it is always lit up at night, and the stained glass windows look beautiful from outside. There was just a simple altar with several statues of saints, and four rows of bench type pews. There was a plaque and a picture commemorating the church to Thomasina, who died aged 70 – I thought we were told the church was dedicated to a young girl! Ariane had told us that no services were held here now which seemed such a shame – but I don’t suppose there’s too many spare priests around here these days.

I had time to blog and Colin to “read” for an hour before readying ourselves for bed. My back was aching again tonight, and I wondered if it was the jolty ride in the jeep yesterday afternoon, or just another vaguery of old ….. er age. But I am back on the pills again.