Each day during
the summer school Damian will text an update of
the groups progress as eco-tourists in the Pantanal
region of Brazil. The updates will appear on this
page each day during summer school so be sure to
check back again soon!
Following the live link about the Jaguar hunt we heard the large male growl across the road and dashed to see if we could catch a glimpse. We arrived just too late to see a rustle of vegetation and a trail of jaguar tracks disappearing into the undergrowth. What irony - had we not been engaged in transmitting the livelink to Knowsley about the jaguar hunt we may have seen in the flesh the very animal we were talking about! We returned to the JER to pack, say goodbye to Eduardo, Lehrinho and his family and to make ready our journey to Pocone to meet the Mayor of Porto Joffre and to make our case to save the Pantanal.
We are due to fly to Rio on Friday and then to visit the Casa Jimmy a refuge for abandoned street children to make a presentation and meet some of the children who will benefit from money we raised as part of the Knowsey 3 Peaks Challenge (
www.knowsley3peaks.org.uk) before sightseeing and returning to the UK on Monday.
Returning from Porto Joffre we paused at the side of the row to view a troupe of Brown Capucin Monkeys who were systematically stripping leaves from the trees whilst whilst precariously balancing on the thinest of twigs with their prehensile tails. We were so consumed by this activity that we ignored the advancing wild brahma bull which took an unhealthy fancy to Tim, our only escape was to wade through piles of smelly mud! We arrived back at the JER only to find in our absence that Doug Trent, the President of Focus Conservation Fund, had seen a large male Jaguar at 9.00am cross the road at the very site we had set our camera up. Searching feverishly though the tape revealed that it had elapsed at 8.55am! Lets hope we have more luck with the night hunt.
Eduardo's cousin Fabricio was celebrating his 20th birthday in traditional pantanterio style - a BBQ prepared from a freshly slaughtered cow and smoked over an open wood fire on sticks. Being vegetarian, I decline to participate prefering to eat bananas and rice and beans. This has proven to be a valuable habit as both Dermot and Tim have both suffered severe stomach pains and dehydration as a result of eating under-cooked Piranha fish when in Vila Bela at the weekend.
