Up a Lazy River
The Arcana Mundi documents describe this day thusly: “25 June: SouthWild Pantanal Lodge – Jaguar Retreat. Breakfast. Observe abundant fauna around the lodge, breakfast and 7 am departure in an open-sided, roofed safari truck or a closed, air-conditioned van to the end of the road at Porto Jofre. Stops along the Transpantaneira to see wildlife, with arrival at the end of the road by 10 am. Then take a search boat for the 90-minute, 44.7-kilometer trip upstream on the Cuiaba River to Jaguar Retreat. Lunch. This afternoon, a 4-hour boat outing. Dinner and a scientific lecture. Overnight in Jaguar Retreat. B, L, D.”
What follows is how I describe it.
Up before six, packed, ready for coffee but it has yet to be made. A visit with a toucan pair, many other birds—you cannot imagine how many birds of how many species are here—a capybara and the sounds of wildlife awakening help me pass the time until my blessed coffee is ready. Breakfast is scrambled eggs, fruit and much more. “I’m gonna go out on a limb and say these aren’t today’s,” Gene said as he took his first bite of a pastry from the ample basket. After breakfast, Tom and a guide take me to a spot fifty feet from my room and point out a discolored spot on the grass. "Here a jaguar took a capybara early yesterday morning. He drug it off that way," they matter-of-factly told me.
Gene is a man just slightly older than I but much more traveled than I am or probably will be. At somewhere over 150 countries visited, Gene tells me that I must get to Borneo, Bali, Tibet, Sri Lanka and many, many more. He is, of course, correct.
We board our roofed safari truck and set off up the road (the Trans Pantameira Highway), stopping for photos of this and that and once for bridge repair before arriving an hour late at Porto Jafre which is both a bump in the road and the end of it.
A flat bottom outboard search boat lies in wait for us as we need now to head up the Cuiabá River, past the junction with two other rivers and then continuing on until we reach Jaguar Retreat, a rustic permanent encampment on the river bank consisting of—I think—four three-bedroom suites. Tom and Gene and I are assigned to one. We are, for tonight at least, the only guests here. A group of fourteen left this morning—we saw them on the Trans Pantameira heading for SouthWild.
The number of caiman here is staggering. They are everywhere where there is water. At first you see two or three and then more and then more still. Once we began counting and I said, “There are a dozen.” Tom said, “No there are twenty-two.” As we continued to scan, the decided there were three dozen at and around this one pool. To me, it appeared that the pool could not accommodate enough fish to keep this many caiman fed but a Brazilian zoologist I am not.
Also the Trans Pantameira we pass multiple very different ecosystems ranging from dry scrub to swamp to forest to cattle range and savannah. The change from one to another and the contrast from one to another is startling.
After Port Jofre along the Cuiabá River, the banks teem with birds and, yes, hundreds or thousands more caiman. We weave left and right, dodging vegetation clumps that are being swept downstream but only an occasional boat full of like-minded adventurers.
Gene and I have, multiple times, remarked on how fortunate we are to be a group of only two. Beyond that, our group is one of only a handful. Humankind has not much found the Pantanal. It is as unspoiled as can be. There is no evidence of human activity much of the time except for the dirt road upon which we travel. There are people but not many and certainly no residents to speak of.
Yesterday, we saw people fishing from time to time. Today, only a couple of guys with a dozen dogs and a handful of vehicles heading the other direction distracted us from unspoiled and untouched nature. For most of the Trans Pantameira, there were no power poles; I cannot imagine how dark it is here at night.
Upon arrival at Jaguar Retreat, we tie up our searchboat, watch as our luggage is offloaded and make our way past a lone sentry—a caiman—to our assigned suite of rooms. There is WiFi and electricity (from satellite and generator) so we log on and plug in before lunch. Chicken, vegetables, rice, more vegetables and a wonderfully cold beer are served. We are to meet at 2:30 for an extended boat outing in search of what we came to see: the jaguar. That leaves me time to write what you now read, upload a photo or two and see if I can publish this chapter of this adventure.
