After the sloths we were back in the pickup and heading to San Miguelito. The land is flat agricultural area, similar to southern Thailand but with none of the palm sugar. We have arrived in the dry season, they only have two seasons and I imagine the wet season here sees a lot of flooding but now it is parched and dusty.
Jorge points out an intensive cattle ranch where the animals are packed in together on bare earth! This is a far cry from the way our beef is farmed and horrible to contemplate.
Eventually we turn off onto an unmade road, dusty and uneven. This is a main road and a route to Brazil. The fields have crops of drying sunflowers and sorghum growing in them, the latter is harvested with combined harvesters.
We start to see birds and Jorge starts to point them out. He tells us birds are not his forte but he’s learning, he is more into reptiles apparently. He also tells us that he had been a fire fighter and during that time had rescued many reptiles when his colleagues weren’t so keen including rattle snakes.
For my Dad I will provide a species list later but for now I’ll mention a few things we saw.
Roadside hawks (yes that’s it’s name), burrowing owls, Reas, and various Vultures, which are one of Jaynes areas of interest. We actually saw them eating the carcass of an anteater.
Stopping at a small pond we saw our first Caymen crocodiles. These can grow to 20 feet but we only saw smaller ones. They eat mostly fish and amphibians.
The beauty of Jaynes photography is that you can see the detail of the animals and in this case the Cayman’s eye.
I’m sorry about the quality of my pictures, I’ve had to photograph the digital display on Jaynes camera as there is no way to download her pictures now.
We arrived at San Miguelito Ranch and were greeted by our host Duston with fresh lemonade.
The farmhouse was comfortable and there was a huge table set for dinner.
The food was amazing! Fresh juices or nut drinks all unsweetened. The food prepared by two cooks who explained what everything was. You know me, food is for fuel and while I love good food, I really don’t pay attention to it. What I remember though was more Yuka (pronounced Yooka). I had a little of everything.
The ranch is a Cattle Ranch and is promoting sustainable farming methods and Big Cat conservation. And the Jaguar is what we came to see and top of Jaynes list.
San Miguelito does not allow hunting on their land and as a result all the prey animals of the big cats are available. This prevents predation of cattle. They also allow for wild areas.
After lunch we had a walk around the ranch and to a pond with beautiful views. The ranch is situated on a fault line and the land suddenly starts to become hilly.
Within minutes there were Capuchin monkeys in the trees.
There are lots of birds, the names are coming thick and fast and I can’t remember any of them!
After the walk we head out, standing in the back of a pickup to a neighbouring farm. This farm is owned by a Mennonite farmer. Apparently they are good farmers, often to the detriment of the wildlife though. However this neighbour Wil is a little different as he makes breaks between the fields as refuges and leaves wild areas with water for wildlife.
AND Jaguars live here, in fact they live all over this area.
Anyway the light is wonderful and we start to see animals immediately. A herd of Peccaries at the edge of a field, these are prey animals for the Jaguar. We saw lowland Tapier, small anteater, Capybara and three banded armadillo and crab eating fox amongst many.
Jorge suddenly says something like ‘I hear a frog in distress’ (no really he did!) and dashes over a ditch, into the bushes and comes back with this! Unfortunately the frog was supper!
Then, the light is gone and then we start to drive along tracks with the guides shining lights onto the edges of the fields catching the occasional glint of eyes. Then all of a sudden in the far distance and almost too dark to see are two Jaguars hunting a Rea (a bird).
Jayne cannot see them, we swap binoculars but still she cannot make them out! They are such a long way off and no chance of pictures. What a disappointment for her, I felt so sad for her as the jaguar is why we came here.
Well that’s the end of an unbelievably busy first day.
The Travelling Bee 