A slight lie in was allowed today - up at 5.45 - then we left at 6.15am, after a pre arranged and necessary coffee, for a walk along the river near the hotel to continue our search for the elusive Brazilian Merganser - it remained elusive but I got some good sunrise pictures through the early morning mist.
The walk was a lovely start to the day particularly knowing we had an 8 hour drive ahead to Caraca. We returned for breakfast and were all packed up and on our way by 8am. We stopped for lunch in Belo Horizante, just after the Fiat factory - their biggest in the world - at a great restaurant where it was buffet style with a difference.You could eat as much as you wanted but you paid for it by weight -so having selected your food you went to have it weighed and a bar code and price was put on the chit you had received when you entered and which you handed in and paid for as you left. It was brilliant - I had salad which interestingly included brussel sprouts, cauliflower cheese and a small hot grilled cheese - it was yummy- I returned and went through the same process with dessert - what was great was I could try a spoonful of several which allowed me to explore a number of deserts without needing to be wheeled back to the car! All in all it was a very different experience with great quality food. Apparently the previous owner was in jail for cocaine smuggling and laundering his money through the restaurant but the current owner had expanded the chain and made it into a great place to eat.
The loo door could catch you out though as it opens automatically as you arrive - as the door went away from me I expected someone to emerge from inside but they didn't - the same thing happened on the way out.
Another quirk I have noticed is that almost everywhere Brazillian toilet seats tend to be soft - I bet they get a shock when they come to Europe - they also have plumbing that requires, as any visitor to Southern Europe knows,all paper in the waste paper bin not down the loo!
We continued on our journey to Caraca - an ecological reserve at the centre of which is a 17th century monastery - where we stayed. This was a really unique experience. We arrived at about 4pm and once we had settled in we went for an evening walk to see what we could see - I photographed the resident dusky legged guan, and finally got a picture of the rufous collared sparrow - they are always on the move and never still long enough to get a good focussed shot, and the rufous bellied thrush - we also saw cavie - they look like dark brown guinea pigs.
All the meal times at the monastary are set, so we made sure we were back and ready for dinner at 6.45 ( it starts at 6.30 and finishes at 7.30). Again a buffet style with all the dishes kept warm over a hot fire and a seperate salad bar. After the main course there was a lovely rice pudding which I had a portion of and followed it with a small black coffee. Everything was DIY but very tasty. As it was Friday night it was quite busy with weeekend visitors so we made sure we got our warm clothes and a seat in wolf square quite quickly as the renowned maned wolf feeding starts at the end of supper. Indeed it was late starting as dinner finished late and one wolf was already wandering around the car park waiting for the tray to be rattled. The first wolf to arrive was tall slender and very striking - the maned wolf can best be described as a fox on stilts - they are clearly well adapted to pampas and forest living. Sadly this wolf also had a haematoma type lump under its throat ( apparently they had tried to catch it so a vet could treat it but failed - that was 10 days ago and this was the first night it had returned.) We saw 4 different wolves - 3 climbed the steps to the meat tray in the square and one stayed at the bottom and left with the wolf it arrived with - we were left surmising that it could have been a mother and youngster. All the wolves were striking by their size, colour and all round appearance.
The feeding was started several years ago by one of the priests and has continued to this day allowing people to see one of the most elusive animals in Brazil, apparently researchers have looked at the impact of the feeding and found it adds very little to the overall food consumption of the wolves and it has minimal impact on their life and daily cycles - indeed they still prefer live kills - this is just an occasional supplement. John gave in a little earlier than me - I waited until 9.30pm but saw nothing else so went to bed where my human hot water bottle waited - he claimed I was the coldest I have ever been - gloves and a really warm pair of trousers would have helped but importantly my body and feet felt fine. A great experience and we had another night to go!