Transpantaneira km 41 - 145, On the road to Porto Jofre

At 4.30 a.m. we leave the pousada for our walk along the river. The sun is already rising but the air is still fresh.

We walk along the open fields where we had our fire yesterday at night. Gianluigi is curious about a group of vultures not far away from us. They are feasting on a dead cow.

Soon we enter thicker vegetation, the symphony of birds envelops us and we walk in silent awe.

The knocking sound of a woodpecker brings us back to reality. Two Treecreepers were a nice match for Gianluigis cameras. They creep very rapidly up and down on the branches. in fact we saw lots of them, beside other woodpeckers, white, red crested, pale-crested and field woodpecker.

In the dry branches of a tree Julinho shows us a Great Potoo, Urutau is the local name, it means 'spirit'. It has the sun behind, so itis not so visible. The Urutau is a very fascinating bird. Nocturnal, during the day it camouflages itself, his plumage resembling the texture of dry bark. It stays motionless, with its eyes shut, to avoid being seen by the reflection of light in the same. It's not easy to spot it, it really looks like a broken branch of the tree .

Now the woods clear up in front of us, the trail now runs along the river. The soil is full of dry leaves and Julinho grumbles about the 'bloody' tracking boots all tourists insist on wearing, he always advices to wear sneakers because they make less noise, but beside me nobody has followed his advice..

A small cotia crawls into the woods, some capuchin monkeys jump from tree to tree, rapidly out of our sight.

Julinho shows us other medicinal plants and tells us about their properties.

At 7.30 we are back to the pousada Rio Claro in time for breakfast. Afterwards we were planning to go horse riding or have another boat ride on Rio Claro, but the friendly staff of the pousada had mixed up the requests and both were occupied. Julinho was slightly angry but our guests were so easy and comfortable that we decide it wasn't a problem. We would have another walk along the river. When observing wildlife there is never the problem of doing the same thing more than once, every time is a surprise because you don't know what you will see and it's never the same. Luckily the Bafico's were really great travel companions and Julinho soon relaxes too, relieved.

So we have another 2 hours walk and nature doesn't disappoint us.

When the sun is up high we return to the pousada. It's time to pack our stuff, we will be leaving after lunch.  A quick swim in the small swimming-pool for me and Aldo where we meet the dutch-men from the night before. It looks as if they spent their whole journey at the pousada...it's always a mistry to me how people come to travel to such remote places and stay at a hotel pool.

After lunch I say goodbye to all the nice persons I've met here and there we are on the burro-xucro again on the road, direction Porto Jofre.