Another full day dawned - we set off out of the reserve to Macae de Cima which comprises of an area of montane forest reaching an altitude of 1400m - we stopped at several different altitudes looking for zone specific birds en route to the orchid reserve of the renowned orchid expert David Miller who died last year. We spent a couple of hours birding around his 'hansel and gretal' type house set in a forest clearing. We also ate our packed lunch while watching b...

Another early start but today we were walking the local wetland walk from the lodge and were joined by Chris and Sal who wanted to see what they had missed from their DIY walk yesterday. After breakfast I sat outside and did get to see the tufted eared marmosets feasting on the bananas. We saw lots of forest and wetland birds and yet another sloth, which looked like a brown ball, sleeping in a secopia tree, (see bird list on 30/7/12 for all we saw) When we got ...

Up at 5.30, breakfast at 6 - lovely fresh fruit,yogurt, scrambled egg and toast enough to set us up for a days hike and birdwatching. We went on the waterfall trail with the couple from Taiwan and a an excellent guide ( he spoke very little English which was unnoticeable as he knew all the birds names in English!). The other English couple -Chris and Sal, who were from Greenwich and escaping the Olympics having unsuccessfully tried to get tickets and feeling cons...

Up at 1.00am to be ready for Geoff who was collecting us at 2am and taking us to the airport (LHR terminal 5) for our 6.15 flight to Madrid where we were connecting with our flight to Rio de Janeiro. We made good time to Heathrow arriving around 3.30 and along with a growing handful of travellers we sat and watched the airport wake up and ready itself for day one of the Olympics. None of the check in counters opened until 5 am - a lesson for the future - so 2 hou...

Our last morning started as every other - brilliant sunrise- the only difference was we were packing and leaving after breakfast. The 3 hour landrover trip back to Ruckomechi enabled a whirlwind tour of the national park but importantly we got to see the pools that make Mana pools famous - including the biggest - long pool - lined with crocodiles and hippos. On arrival at camp we walked the last 100 metres as the jeep sustained another puncture....just grateful ...