Wednesday, Sept 29 - The Bamboo Trail

(Pics:  Bothrops jararacussu, a hillside farm, crossing the stream,  Bufo marinus)

Breakfast at 6:15 and off at seven. The sky was mostly cloudy with bits of blue which looked very promising! We headed up hill in the van for about 20 minutes and turned off onto a paved road opposite the Theodoro Trail.

As soon as we exited the van we came upon a beautiful golden toad, Bufo marinus, which we took to be a good sign. We slowly hiked past some small houses and gardens one of which was guarded by a particularly fierce pair of Rottweilers, fortunately behind secure fencing and then we were harassed by a Jack Russell terrier with a reputation of nipping at one’s heels!

We entered the park and the trail became very narrow and overgrown. We reached a stream bordered by very slippery rocks where Cirilo, our local, excellent birding guide, and John pulled us across one by one. I managed to sink my foot into the water, but considering all the cameras, binoculars, and packs we are all carrying it’s lucky someone didn’t fall in!

We continued on through a forest of bamboo with bamboo vines with claw-like hooks catching on our clothes, siliconized bark that grabbed at our clothes like Velcro, and vines underfoot trying to trip us up!. The trail was very narrow in places with a precipitous fall down to a stream below, requiring constant attention to avoid being ripped, tripped, or cascading downwards! John and Cirilo kept producing great birds, most of which are unique to this Atlantic forest area. John can identify bird calls from far away and then with his I-Pod plays their call and they usually fly in. We got great views of the Bellbird again, and my favorite, the Blue Manikin, a little six inch metallic blue bird with black wings and head topped with a brilliant red-orange cap!

This was supposed to be an easy half day, but we had been walking and birding without a break for five hours and had covered only two miles - birding is very slow going! John finally turned us around and we got back in one hour more for a late but good lunch. He has actually given us the afternoon off! And we are dozing and watching the fruit trays from our room. I could use a Jacuzzi right now. But it was a fabulous morning nevertheless!
Just before dinner I saw several people by the pool/Ethernet connection, and walked over….at the foot of the steps to the p
ool was a fat, meter-length poisonous snake, later identified as a Jararacussu Lancehead. Bothrops jararacussu…I’ll have to be more careful when I trot out there after dinner to post my blog!!

We did the bird list for the day, drinking Caipirinhas and then had bean, rice, fried local fish and cabbage. For the sobremesa (dessert) we had a really delicious passion fruit mousse!

Right to bed because breakfast is at 5:45 for an early departure and a long day!

Tuesday, Sept 28 - Birding the Portão Azul and Macae de Cima Trails

(Pics:  the Brazilian Tanager, "my" Highlands Coral Snake,
Birding in the rain, and beautiful pink lichen)








W got up at a leisurely 5:30, but to rain, and went down to breakfast of coffee, fruit and HB eggs. The tiny bit of laundry that I did yesterday morning is still wet!! This place has incredible humidity! I’ll have to take the hotel advice book more seriously when told not to do laundry in one’s room!!

We set off at seven and climbed up the hill in our van to the crest and down into the valley containing the lingerie-manufacturing town of Nova Friburgo. It stretched along the valley floor for many miles with fancy hotels, factories, government housing, parks and a row of snazzy and sleazy lingerie shops that I was dying to visit, but this is, after all, a birding trip!

There is a lot of road construction going on trying to repair all the damage done by the 20” rain the state of Rio received last April so it took us an hour and a half to reach our destination on the far side of the city. We arrived at a dirt road outside the town and set off in light to moderate rain for an hour, getting quite wet and not seeing many birds. It was surprisingly cold and we finally piled into the van and drove further up the road. By eleven the rain had tapered off and it became much more pleasant and the birds began to emerge. We hiked up the dirt road for several hours. One of the most memorable birds was the Gilt-edged Tanager, a bird with turquoise breast, yellow-olive head and black and gold streaked wings - we saw a flock of these exquisite birds feeding on a fruit tree.

But the morning was long and it was after two PM before we stopped for a snack. The Lodge had packed sandwiches for us, to order, but no drinks….next excursion out: remember to bring water, napkins!

We drove back through town and pulled off onto another dirt road that climbed up and overlooked a valley of second growth forest. John amazingly immediately spotted another Bare-throated Bellbird on the far wall and we got better views of this very white bird and heard its amazing call! It was still cool and getting dark at 4:30, so we headed back to the Lodge and quickly took hot showers before the water became tepid!

I dashed out to the dark pool area and sent off yesterday’s blog and set the computer to download photos for tomorrow’s before heading in for today’s bird list and dinner.

I also checked my photo of the coral snake in the guide book and it turns out that “my” snake is actually a Highlands Coral Snake and quite rare!! Cool!

Monday, Sept 27 - Birding the Cedae and Theodoro Trails

 - Birding

(pics:  lingerie as, explained below!!,  Green-headed Tanger, Our lodge)

Well I walked out to the pool last evening, and found the cable next to the BBQ pit and plugged it in. It’s slow but usable, but there’s competition from other birders as it’s the only access!

 

We had nice dinner of stewed beef and beans and rice, preceded by Caipirinhas, the national, and very potent, drink. And then I had a tepid shower and to bed. It was drizzling all night and quite cool, but we slept pretty well.

We got up at 5:15. I did a tiny bit of laundry and put the rest in a basket which I hope will come back in two days. We met for breakfast at six and had hard boiled eggs, coffee, toast and fruit. Unfortunately Bob is still pretty sick (and it’s his birthday!). He decided to go birding today as that’s why he’s here, so we joined the others and set off in our van for a 20 minute drive up the mountains to an elevation of 2700’ and pulled off the dangerous highway with its slow large trucks and fast passing cars onto a dirt road where we set off in the drizzle through beautiful second growth forest.


We hiked slowly down into a valley, logging in birds. John Rowlett is an excellent leader; very patient and calm and doesn’t get frustrated when one of us can’t locate a bird but makes sure we all see most of them. Among the Atlantic forest endemics we saw were
Oustalet’s Tyrannulet, Rufous-Headed Tanager and a magnificent Spot-billed Toucanet(!),

Bob spotted a Buff-bellied Puffbird (also an endemic) high in a towering tree even though he was staggering with fatigue and aching all over. And I spotted a beautiful Atlantic (we think) Coral Snake slipping through the undergrowth! It rained for a while and then got a little brighter. We returned to the Lodge at one for lunch and then relaxed until 2:30 PM when we set off again, this time to an elevation of abut 3700’. Bob was finally beginning to feel better!!

We took off at 2:30 and drove further up the road, past some lurid bill boards advertising the wares of Nova Friburgo, a town famous for its lingerie manufacturer! Xmas presents anyone?? We walked along an old railroad bed on a concrete surface alternating with a muddy trail. We heard the wonderful bell-like chimes of the Bare-throated Bellbird and finally saw one far away on the top of a tall tree: a large pure white bird with blue skin on it face. Even far away it was amazing!

It was getting late and I was fading fast; we finally turned back about 4:30 and got back to the Lodge at 6:15. The Lodge only has solar heated water so there is a rush for the water when groups return at the end of the day. I, of course, have my blogging duties, so I skipped my shower hoping that the cool weather will let me last another day!

We gathered for dinner at seven. I went over to get a beer and the lights suddenly faded…I thought: Oh, great! No lights!” But it was the lodge and John bringing out a birthday cake for Bob! How cool was that! Bob had told me not to tell anyone, and I hadn’t, but I guess with all the info they need for international travel, they found out his birth date!

Pleasant dinner of roast chicken in wine sauce and yummy vanilla cake with dulce de leche filling and whipped cream frosting!

Sunday, Sept 16 - Arriving at Tres Picos State Park

We got up at 6:30, I was much recovered, a few stomach cramps, but nothing more. Bob, however, relapsed and feels as ache-y as I did yesterday. Delores picked us up at 8:15 AM and we raced off to the airport. We immediately spotted two other birders by their nifty semi-military outfits and introduced ourselves.

John Rowlett, our leader, was off in another terminal to pick up some others and we waited there for the American flight from Miami that was supposed to be an hour late. Finally all of us (two couples, five single men) assembled and got into our van. We drove south to get onto Niterói Bridge, passing through a heavy industrial area and then cut over farm and ranchland for about an hour until we finally reached the edge of Tres Picos State Park and the vegetation became lush and green. It also started raining!

We arrived at Serra Dos Tucanos Lodge, a small lodge off the highway run by a charming Englishman, Andy Foster and his wife, Christina. We got, I think, the best room upstairs with a large balcony, overlooking the lawn surrounded with hummingbird feeders and fruit trays! Although being a very rural place we can’t put toilet paper in the john but into a waste receptacle….fortunately we’ve been to Costa Rica and are used to that!

We assembled downstairs for a buffet lunch of typical rural South American starch: spaghetti, mashed potatos, rice and meatalls.
 It tasted good after my fast of yesterday!
As it rained all afternoon, we sat on the wide sheltered verandah and logged in beautiful birds….hard to photograph in the dim light.
The Ethernet cable is out by the little swimming pool which I am going to try to maneuver to in the rain before drinks, the daily bird list and dinner.

Saturday, Sept 25 - A Lost Day in Rio...

Bob was somewhat under the weather yesterday, but we obviously got a lot done and had a great time!

This morning, however, I awoke at five AM with a feeling of unease, which progressed down to my intestines and whatever the name of the chief who was around when the Portuguese arrived…got his revenge! The weather was overcast but pleasant and we had planned to walk into downtown Santa Teresa and explore it thoroughly. Also, Bill and Sue the B&B owners, invited us to share a cab over the mountains to the Botanic Garden to see a special orchid exhibit! Fortunately we didn’t have to make up our minds, as I stayed in bed all day sipping coke, reading a book and watching TV.

Poor Bob walked down to the grocery store and bought some Toblerone, Cheezits and other healthful snacks for his lunch and dinner! He also birded the pool and saw a beautiful orange-throated Toucan!

Once while we were sitting out our terrace, the family of Mamosets came by for a visit. They are very polite and waited around for fifteen minutes while Bob went downstairs in a vain search for a banana! One very large monkey turned out to have a tiny furry scarf around her neck that turned out to be a baby!
Too cute!

Tomorrow Delores picks us up at 8:15AM to take us back to the airport where we will meet up with John Rowlett, our Field Guides leader, another couple, and four other men.

From there we will drive about two hours to Dos Tucanos Lodge, a birding lodge in the middle of a national park where we will bird for the next eight day. No idea as to the quality of the wireless so if you don’t hear from me, it’s because there is no signal, or because we get back to the lodge so late that all we can do is fall into bed!
Hope to write to you soon!!!
XXX, Katy

Friday, Sept 24 - Downtown Rio on our own

How's this for great grafiti!!

I got up at 7:30 to clear skies and went down stairs to find our English next door neighbor feeding bananas to five or six marmosets! I had coffee, dulce de leche jelly roll and fruit, and eventually Bob came down to join me.

At ten we loaded up our maps and packs and set off on foot down the hill a ways to catch the bus to downtown. I stopped at a correio to buy postcard stamps and collectables for Gail, but the lady seemed amazed that I would want such a thing - maybe she only handles packages??

Anyway, we crossed the street to where we had been told busses stop and along came one with the fare written right on the front which made things simple ($R2.35 or ~$1.38). The small bus took off like a bat out of hell considering the bumpy cobblestones and windy streets and we tore off downhill and shortly were in the center of town where we disembarked. Delores had marked up our map and told us a list of “must sees”, and as she is going to drive us to the airport to meet our bird tour on Sunday, we wanted to be able to give her a good report!

                                          
We were right next to the Catedral Metropolitana, a very modern stone pyramid rising over 300’ that is truly amazing when you enter it. It is quite dark inside with a huge translucent cross at the apex and long shafts of stained glass each dominated by a color, one red, one green one blue and one yellow, running down the sides from the cross arms to the floor. The whole cathedral was beautifully reflected on the walls of a mirrored office building across the street.

We walked over to the large open Carioca Plaza filled with straw hat vendors and political sign and walked around trying to find the way to reach two small churches on a small hill, Morro de Santo Antonio, on one side of the plaza. At the bottom of the hill we found a dark tunnel marked “Igreja” (church) and walked down it to the end and found a tiny elevator. Feeling rather like Alice-in-Wonderland, we entered and the attendant, who took up most of the space, closed the door and we very slowly rose upward and were released onto a narrow construction corridor. At the end of the corridor were several Franciscan monks chatting so we felt we were in the right place!











We entered the Church of the Third Order of São Francisco, tiny chapel, every surface of the walls of which were covered with very elaborate gold Baroque carvings made in the early 1700’s. I’ve never seen so much gold in one small place before! Right next door is the 400 year old Church & Convent of Santo Antônio, a slightly larger and more austere church decorated mostly with what looked like Delft tiles of blue and white. Our mysterious elevator entrance had disappeared but we found a staircase that led down to a green metal door that was open and we returned to the modern world.

We were feeling peckish by then and found our way to Delores’ recommended Confeitaria Columbo, a wonderful one-hundred-year-old sweets shop/tea room.  We passed by cases of pastries and were seated in a two-story mirrored hall filled with small marble-topped tables and ordered a club sandwich, chocolate-hazelnut tart, beer and coke. The tart arrived and quite a while later an enormous sandwich made with three layers of thick toast, mayo, lettuce, cheese, tomato and two kinds of ham arrived, fortunately with an extra plate. There was no way one could fit that into one’s mouth, so we attacked it with fork and knife - quite good! The tart was creamy and delicious.

It was starting to cloud up but fortunately didn’t rain as we hadn’t’ brought our umbrellas. We set off to see the gilded interior of the Municipal theatre but it was closed, and we found the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes (free admission for old folks!) and saw an excellent exhibit of Brazilian 20^th century art, and just as were leaving, happened on a wonderful exhibit of maps and natural history paintings and prints of Brazil dating back to the 16^th century which made Bob very happy!

We were tapping out by then and found the Bonde tram station. There are only a few bonde routes remaining for these charming electric trolleys. They are yellow, very narrow and high and all the tracks lead right into Santa Teresa, conveniently enough. The route takes you out of the station and onto the top of an old aqueduct over a highway with very little fencing at all - hard to imagine that a few passengers haven’t been lost at that point in the past. The tram slowly rambles up hill, with everyone shouting “Whoa” when someone grabs at the side bars and tries to climb aboard! We figured out which our stop was and clambered down and set off up hill to our hotel, arriving about 4:30, tired and grubby, but pretty happy with all the stuff we had managed to accomplish!

At 6:30 we set out back towards the first bus station where we had spotted a little German café that had been recommended. We entered the tiny café, Mike’s Haus, and got good veggie soup with tortellini and then had big plates of sausage, German potato salad and saukerkraut. A nice guitarist played during diner and we walked back home by eight. Delores had wanted us to return to downtown where on Friday nights a street is closed and restaurants and bars are open and people dancing salsa!! Sounded cool….

Thusday, Sept 23 - Exploring Rio de Janeiro with Delores!

I was just going to sleep last night when Bob found “30 Rock” on TV so I had to stay up! Managed to get up at 7:30 this morning and stumbled down to good coffee, fresh bread, guava jam, fruit and yogurt. The marmosets didn’t show up, however, which was a disappointment, but considering my mishaps with monkeys in the past it was just as well!


Delores showed up at 9:45 in a open topped VW buggy and we took off to tour the city. Rio consists of a large point of land with a convoluted, citified coast surrounding a large national park, in fact, the first national park in the world (really simply a watershed protector at the time; the park declaration came later- RRZ) . Emperor Pedro II, in 1880,realizing that the growing population of R de J wouldn’t have enough water shortly, bought out/pushed out the rich coffee growers that had covered all the mountains with plantations and re-vegetated them with native trees, so that wherever you are in this enormous city, you have views of forested mountains and views of beautiful coastline! Both the rich and the inhabitants of the favelas (slums) share incredible views.

we also passed by some of the famous and elaborate  grafiti!

We drove up through the park to a heliport pad from where we could see the statue of Christ high on a peak above us. From there we continued until we came to small car park where we had to board a bus to nearly the top of Corcovado peak. From there we took an elevator and two escalators and finally arrived at the foot of the famous statue. Previously one could drive up to the top which created a real log jam, so this complicated routing keeps things a bit more peaceful. Cristo Redentor is a very impressive statue, covered with a fine mosaic of stones from different parts of Brasil and with an arm spread of 30 meters. As Delores pointed out, there is no blood or pain depicted, just a peaceful embrace of the city below. It was formed on site with the head and hands manufactured elsewhere and somehow transported here and installed in 1931. The air had a marine haze so our views of the beautiful coastline weren’t as crisp as I would have liked for photography, but the whole scene was very impressive nevertheless.


We headed south and west through a 2.5 km tunnel - not great breathing air for an open car! - and eventually arrived at the Chinese Pagoda, a concrete structure painted to look like bamboo, from where you could see north to Ipanema beach. A sudden shift in the weather created a fog bank that swooped in and enveloped us - freezing! After a summer of fog in Santa Barbara, I expected hot tropical sun??

We arrived at the long expanse of famous southern beaches and the fog gradually lifted. You can arrive at the beach with nothing but a string bikini and a smile! There are people with beach chairs for rent, snack bars, umbrellas, towels for sale, everything! We were starving, and stopped at a beach shack and got tasty hot cheese and ham rolls and herby empanadas and fruit soda, and then cruised the beaches of Impanema and the even more beautiful Copacobana: a wide white beach backed by a palm-lined boulevard, big hotels and the national park mountains behind. The beaches are free and open to all and have a wonderful happy atmosphere. We passed by a bunch of rather snappy “minimum 4-hour” motels, around a bend and headed back into the city. Delores was very anxious that we not miss anything in the city and stopped by several lovely small cathedrals, a totally tiled, colorful stairway that an artist, Selaron, has been working or for 20 years (rather like the Watts Towers) and finally back to Santa Teresa and our hotel.                        Delores above!

We collapsed for a bit and then as it was five and we really hadn’t eaten much all day, headed across the street for another wonderful meal at Aprazivel. We arrived without a reservation, and managed to get a table, although we didn’t see another soul the two hours we were there. We started with the famous local rum drink: caipirinhas, rather like a mojito, but with a brandy-like rum, lots of lime and no mint. To go with that we ordered a bread basket for two: Wow! Herbed flat bread, cheese popovers, dark bread served with dishes of shell fish in vinaigrette, peppers in oil, and potted eggplant. Bob then had Uruguayan beef rump with shaved manioc with cheese, egg and corn and I had salt-crusted lamb with polenta, another bucket of beer, and finally, a hot chocolate molten cupcake with vanilla ice cream and almonds! We slowly staggered up the forty steps to the street and crossed the street to our bed!

Mon-Wed, Sept 20-22 Getting to Brasil!!

W started our latest adventure on Monday evening as we grabbed a delicious dinner at Los Agaves in SB - Chiles en Nogada- a wonderful dish from Puebla, Mexico, that I’ve been looking for forevah: a poblano chile stuffed with meat, spices, and raisins in a pool of ground walnut sauce and sprinkled with pomegranate seeds - in honor of the 200^th anniversary of El Grito - the start of the Mexican Revolution. Great way to start a trip to Latin America! We returned home to finally finish packing, set off for LAX, and got a room at the Sheraton where we can park our car for two week at a one night charge.

We got up at 5:45 AM on Tuesday and took the shuttle to LAX where Bob had a full body scan and pat-down, almost starting the trip off on the wrong foot! (Definitely the wrong foot! RRZ.) We grabbed breakfast, got on our flight to Miami arriving at 5 PM and managed to amuse ourselves for six hours with a good Cuban dinner at the famous La Carreta restaurant and riding the new Sky Train atop American Airlines‘ nicely revamped Concourse D.

Finally we climbed aboard our 767 to Rio de Janeiro at eleven which wasn’t full so we moved around and both sat next to empty seats! I popped an Ambien and immediately went to sleep while Bob had a pasta dinner and only got a couple hours of shut eye. On Wednesday at 9:45AM we finally landed in Rio, got through immigration, and out to the crowd of waiting people and there was our driver and guide, Delores, holding a “Katy” sign!

She was recommended by our B & B host and is an exuberant booster of the “Marvelous City”!
We hopped into her little red car and she took off driving south, confidently and aggressively, on a freeway into the very large city of Rio de Janeiro. Downtown she bullied her way onto the surface streets and into the neighborhood of Santa Teresa, which lies a mile inland from the harbor on a steep hill lined with cobblestone streets, picturesque old houses, art galleries, restaurants, and bars. She climbed up an almost sheer face of limestone with houses literally stacked on top of each other until she came to Um Meia Tres, our B&B!

We climbed a flight of steps and were greeted by one of the English owners, Bill, who showed us the honor bar (always a pleasant surprise!) and took us out on the breakfast terrace to feed chunks of banana to several tiny (¾ lb.), adorable monkeys , Tufted-Marmosets - a new mammal, apparently doing well in an urban setting!! Then he led us up two more flights of stairs to the top floor and a terrace room with an amazing view of Rio to the NE. Since we really are on the face of a cliff, the swimming pool, is, yet, another flight of steps above our room!

Bill showed us the complex system of keys to the house, gate, room safe which we tried to memorize, but our brains were getting addled by then. And it was already 1 pm and we needed some fuel so we packed up and walked down to the street, warning each other of irregular steps and trying not to make any major mistakes. We were going to walk down the steep hill to an area of bars and cafes for lunch, but we found right across the street from our B&B is one of the best restaurants in Rio, Aprazivel, and the gate was open so we said What the Hell..why walk any further?? So we climbed down very steep and narrow steps to lovely, leafy, small restaurant of many different levels and corners and were seated at a table surrounded by ferns and trees with more chirping marmosets tearing around, and had one of the best lunches of our lives!!

The food had all the classic Latin American ingredients; shredded beef, manioc, shrimp, bananas, tapioca, rice, cheese, etc, except it was some of the most original and delicious cooking we’ve ever had! We ordered four appetizers so we could try a lot of different things which worked out well. We started with an “ecologically”-harvested fresh roasted heart of palm presented in a 15” split piece of bamboo and served with a pesto of olive oil and cashews - just amazing! A casserole of sweet potato puree with dried beef and melted cheese - chipped beef never tasted so good!! This was followed by herbed crab meat presented in a ceramic crab shell and another casserole of puree of manioc, shrimp and cheese.

We asked for beer and got a bucket of ice holding four beer bottles which were replaced as we drank…who knows how many we consumed? Had to have dessert: tapioca ice cream with acai fruit topping. After espresso we rolled upstairs and back to our room for a nap and decided that after that we would just stay in for the rest of the day and recover from the travel and eating binge!