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 our live link at the Macaw site we discussed with Eduardo the arrangements for the Jaguar hunt on Thursday. We have already seen signs and tracks and heard the low territorial growl that they make. We decided that it would be good to see if we could locate a trail, which we did and then set up a video camera for 2 hours to see if a jaguar passed by - we will let you know the results on Thursday. We then discussed with Lehrinho the ex-jaguar hunter the how he attracts the jaguar with a sound box called a guica and went on a night hunt with him in the car. Having heard a growl, we stopped and saw a shape disappear into the undergrowth, it was a Tapir - a large horse-like animal. On our return to the JER the searchlight pick out a cat-like animal 20m away which turned out to be an Ocelot which we videoed. Lehrinho explained that the Ocelot had killed all of his wife's chickens recently. We are going out again tomorrow in Eduardo's 4x4 in search of Jaguars...
11:40 - Trip to 280m high waterfall took 10 hours. Involved hike through jungle where guide Belmon kept pausing to scrape bark from various trees with machete as it had medicinal properties. To enter the Lost World we had to strip off and swim 100 m through a narrow gorge. We dumped most of the gear and placed the rest in rubber bags. Belmon tied his to his head. As we swam small fish nibbled at our feet and large blue Morpho butterflies fluttered overhead.
11:48 - At the end of the gorge we were greeted by an amazing view of colossal towering rock walls either side of us. Three 3km into the canyon our next challenge was to scale 60m waterfall with no climbing gear which we did luckily without incident. We paused at the top to look back down the amazing view of the gorge. We paused for lunch but a swarm of giant ants 2cm in length cut short our stay. To reach the waterfall from our perch required overcoming one final problem. Before us our way was barred save for a rock traverse. Belmon instructed us to take our shoes and socks off and climb barefooted. Thankfully we all reached the end of the 30m traverse without plunging into the stagnant water below. Finally we stood there in an enormous natural amphitheatre, the first Europeans to witness this awesome sight – a 280m waterfall. It was a mere trickle due to the dry season. We did not loiter long due to the overpowering stench of dead and decaying birds which had fallen from the cliffs above. This and the arrival of several King Vultures circling above persuaded us it was time to retrace our steps.
The return journey though lengthy was uneventful but for me being bitten by a parasitic insect which burrowed into my leg causing Belmon to gouge it out with his knife. We returned to our hotel exhausted but exhilarated.
It would appear that everyone in Vila Bela knew we had arrived as when we returned form our trek we were informed that the Mayor and Chief of the Council wanted to see us to discuss our visit, ecotourism and education links. This proved to be a very useful meeting as Badu and Belmon are part of a cooperative of Guides called Optervibe and we were able to promote them to the Mayor and convince him that he could do more to develop ecotourism perhaps by linking with Focus Conservation Fund as the Pantenarios had done in the Pantanal. The event turned out to be a high profile affair with the exchange of gifts, photographs and an audience with the Senator for Matto Grosso who just happened to be in town! The photographer knew all about Colonel Percy Fawcett's expeditions in the last century and was researching the same lost city as Simon Chapman's expedition. We left Vila Bela impressed by the hospitality and friendliness of the people and committed to return again.
Met up with the guide – Badu – and had the most wonderful evening in his house with his lovely family. He was touched by the gift we gave him.
He is a very dignified man . The whole experience was very humbling. His teenage son is guiding us up to the Lost World Plateau to view the 280m high waterfall Jatoba. This will be a 12 hour trip in the scorching heat so up before dawn. On our return we will swim up the gorge at the bottom.
