Dec 19 2006
Brazil Trip Diary: Day 6
It is not a long day per se but quite interesting. We went to another ranch/farm about 60 km away (again being tossed around in the small chevy). This time, it is a place called Jaguar Mouth (or Boca da Onca). The visitor center is very nice: situated on top of a hill and surrounded by tropical plants, one can relax in front of a swimming pool full of local fish (both filmed and ate). In the distance, palm trees and bamboo clusters dotted rolling hills in bright green color.
We hiked about 3 or 4 miles in the woods and passed about half a dozen water falls. It is still early in the rainy season so the streams are thin and threaded.
Because the water comes out of limestone mountains, it is full of minerals. Somehow the minerals react with the plants and their seeds pretty well and form dams along the way. The dams are so even edged that for a while I thought it was man-made. The little pond then provides a fertile ground for trees to grow. Sometimes, the dams could be so large that it could collapse at its own weight.
Before they collapse, many of them form nice lagoons. We swam in one.
When we reached the jaguar mouth fall, it started to rain. It rained hard but defintely not as hard as the one in Zhang Jia Jie. That was pretty much it.
Andre showed us some of the pictures he took in Pantanal and here. They are just amazing. Andre is one of the most technically advanced tour guide, or better put it this way, he is one of “us”. He has a Nikon D70, a 200-400 lense, an Apple notebook and GPS. He is a tour guide/travel companian for a Swiss living in the U.S. A retired physicist used to work for Cern, travels to Brazil every year and tapes his days for his kids from three marriages, has two college aged girlfriends here.
Landless people: not sure what/who they are. But they just live along side the roads in huts like Gypises or Aussie aborigines. Then I realized that all the people I met so far are well to do middle class folks who can afford $100 plus a night in hotels. They are almost all light-colored and many speak some English.
Andre also told us about the jaguar mouth reserve: it was almost claimed by the government but the owner invested heavily to make it private reserve first. The entrance fee costs about 100 real or close to $50: enough to visit all the national parks in the U.S.
Also read the Brazil tour book published by Discovery. It talked about Brazil being an accidental nation: no founding mystery or founding father figure (also confirmed by Andre). Plenty of military interference and coup in the past but overall the political contest has been mild. One thing stands out is how powerful the cattle ranchors are. They are called “barons” in the book and conducted assassinations. That is certainly not surprising after this trip.