The day dawned bright and fresh - when up and dressed I went outside to look at the birds making a noise - more curassows, chachalacas and on exploration of a tapping noise I found a very pretty pale breasted woodpecker (endemic)- which I watched and tried to photograph for ages - when they are intent on moving and tapping its quite difficult to get a photograph in focus. At 6.40am we went off to breakfast - Fabricio arrived at 7am after a night helping his w...

At 0630am we left our hotel in Belo Horizante and headed for the airport to catch our flight to Cuiaba - the gateway to the Pantanal. Interestingly the taxi we had from the airport booked at a taxi counter cost 54 Reals whereas the taxi hailed by the hotel cost the standard rate, we now know, of 35 Reals! Nobody would have made out of the first deal - except the company as we paid by credit card - so I put the 19 Real difference down to a misunderstanding and my ...

Today we set off to the privately owned ecological reserve, about an hour from Caratinga, which is famous for its population and conservation of rare northern Muriqui monkeys. Enroute we stopped the car once to view two vividly coloured orange/black/red and white birds in trees along the roadside; they were two beautiful campo troupial. Back to the muriquis; they are the largest primate in South America and a threatened species due to habitat loss. This reserv...

Today we were allowed another lie in as we had a long day ahead of us; after lunch were had a 4-5 hour drive to Caratinga our last stop on this leg of the trip. So it was up for breakfast at 7am - today I decide to warm my roll and fill it with slightly melted cheese, fried banana and honey -it was really yummy and to be recommended! This morning we went off to look for more birds and to see if we could see the Titi monkeys and marmosets again - we went along ...

We were up and out for a pre breakfast walk around the grounds by 6am but due to the coolness and the cloudy conditions not a lot was moving about - guan, rufous collared sparrows and a long tailed tyrant made brief appearances alongside a few others but that was it so we decided to be the first into breakfast at 7am and then start our next exploration by 8am. Breakfast at Caraca is a new experience - everything is self service including cooking your own eggs on ...