Up at the usual time albeit the first chachalaca called at 4am - they are the earliest birds I know. At 6.25 we walked to breakfast and as it wasn't out we walked up the path looking at the birds in the garden. We noted a new car outside the gate so reckoned Sergio had arrived. A few moments later a tall slim middle aged Brazilian approached us and introduced himself - this was Sergio our guide for the next 3 days - he had arrived at 2am after a day guiding in the mountains where he lives just outside Cuiaba. We obviously had a slower start today as he needed to get all the things sorted out and he drove to the dock slower than Fabricio - which meant we had time to see more of the marsh - area including our first marsh deer - quite impressive with a small set of antlers, brown with a black tail - even so we were still on the water by 9am. Today we had a local boatman piloting the boat - which at least made Sergio's job easier given his probable sleep deprivation due to receiving a maximum 4 hours sleep.
Before leaving dock I got some more photos of the beautiful hyacinth maccaws - it's hard to believe they are endangered as you see and hear them frequently in the Pantanal - but this is their last stronghold.
It turned out to be an otter day - we travelled alongside a group of otters for 10-15 minutes watching them swim, eat fish, run along the waters edge and eventually stop at their holt - where they ran up and down a bank and frolicked beneath some bushes - occasionally emerging to sit and preen - it was the best otter viewing we have had. Later John spotted a lone otter eating a fish which we also watched for several minutes before it made off and disappeared from view.
Several boats including the BBC film crew passed us with thumbs up meaning they had seen a jaguar - so we were hopeful. Having passed the spot of our second sighting on the first day - where we spent 3 hours getting hot, being consumed by passing horse flies - waiting for and luckily getting much anticipated glimpses of jaguars - we turned around and started to head back - no jaguars for us today - they must have gone inland - so we resigned ourselves to a hotter otter day !
We stopped for lunch on a shady beach before setting off again downstream.
I was at the front of the boat in a single seat day dreaming - and then I saw a bookend of jaguars sitting right on the river bank - in a hushed (well sort of) excited whisper - I alerted the others. As there was only us we anchored in the middle of the river and watched them for 5-10 minutes before the female moved off and the male duly followed - we drifted downstream and found them again again sitting close to the riverbank - the next time they moved off they disappeared completely into the undergrowth never to be seen again - by us! ....but our final treat was our best unobstructed views ever. I was able to check with my photographs from yesterday and confirmed it was the same pair we had seen not far away the day before - their fingerprint is the markings between the eyes.....and they were identical to yesterday's pictures. The male was definitely showing signs of fatigue - all this mating was taking its toll - he was losing condition and had small injuries on his face - one very noticeable gash to his lip looked to have been caused by an amorous claw!
We wended our way back to dock not believing our luck 11 jaguar sightings in 4 days - some people get none.
The river was remarkably empty today - no big cameras with long lens and no American accents..... compared to the 16-18 boats yesterday there were only 6-8 today.
Enroute back I finally got to see the yellow chevron on the aptly named yellow chevroned parakeets - it's a yellow bar on their wings.....so that's another bird for the list.
We got back to the lodge at 4.15 ish; we showered and had a cup of coffee.
Evening meal was a BBQ outside to celebrate a Dutch girl's birthday - the cooks also made a lovely chocolate cake to celebrate - yum.
Off tomorrow after breakfast to our last Pantanal lodge -Araras - John is packed I am not I will do it in the morning - it should only take 15 minutes !