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 ou...

Today we set off for the lower part of the Canastra park - before entering we searched much of the Sao Francisco river hunting for the rare Brazillian merganser duck but despite much searching it remained elusive. We also stopped at other locations looking for birds seeing amongst others, the guira cuckoo, buff necked ibis, the scaly dove, the squirrel cuckoo, a magnificent king vulture perched and in breeding kit! When we reached the park we walked from the ent...

The morning arrived and it was very cool demanding long sleeved shirt, jumper and body warmer to keep warm. Breakfast was a buffet of fresh fruits, cereals, cakes, meat, cheese and toast. Plenty for all tastes - there was even a toasted sandwich maker if you wanted hot fillings! After breakfast we set off at 6am even though the park didn't open until 8am as there were some good birding stops, which didn't disappoint, enroute. First stop we saw saffron finch, wa...

We left our hotel in Rio at 7am on 1/8/12 for a 30 minute taxi ride to the airport - enroute we saw the iconic symbol of Rio ie the hill with the monument of Jesus on it - it had been shrouded in the cloud the day before. The hotel said the taxi to the airport was 80 Reals - when I took out 100 reals to pay the taxi driver said it was 99 but when I challenged him he gave me 20 reals change and rolled his eyes. This was the only time someone tried any sharp practi...

I awoke in the Ramada airport hotel at Belo Horizante - to a happy birthday from John and a card he had brought all the way from the UK. Today was also the day we started our next adventure in Brazil. We had a leisurely breakfast and watched the Olympics in the restaurant while eating and then I followed the triathlon on the Olympics website luckily just after Andrew Brownlee won we had a call from Fred our guide for the week to say that he was in reception. I ho...