We got up early, had a quick breakfast and were on the road by 6:05am. We drove a little over 2 hours to a field by a forest where we got out of the car and met a ranger & guide who would walk us into the forest to search for the Golden Lion Tamarin. A few of the Tamarins that have radio collars and they use an antenna to find them. I started my fitness tracker for an outdoor walk figuring we’d have a nice long walk before we saw any. After one-tenth of a mile, we saw a family group! It was so fun to see the young tamarins playing- jumping around, piling on each other, and stealing food from the adults. We watched them for about 45 minutes before leaving and driving to the park headquarters. At this point we were happy we’d had days of rain since we were pretty hot and the bugs were biting today because it was warm & muggy because there was no rain.
At the park headquarters, we went to two overlooks. On one we saw the areas they have replanted. The other has a view of an animal crossing bridge over the freeway. The organization is trying to create connected forests out of old pasture land. The crossing bridge connects a plot of 500 hectares with a plot of 5000 hectares. We walked thru a replanted section- it was 7 years since it was replanted and it already had lots of trees and vegetation.
While waiting at the field, we got a notification that our flights were cancelled! Tibor and I were rebooked on another flight that left early on Sunday got into Minneapolis about 9pm. Jennifer’s didn’t seem to have been rebooked and was just cancelled.
After the park headquarters, we drove to a local caterria to have lunch- we got to have Brazilian BBQ. It was delicious. On the 2+ hour drive to the airport we tried to change our flights but had no luck. At the airport, Jennifer was able to change her flight to get home at a good time. Tibor and I booked a hotel room for the night.
At the hotel Tibor and I spoke with Monica and we decided to change our flight to go to San Jose and not visit Monica and Jake. We were worried that the storm would cause more disruptions and we wouldn’t have much time with Monica and Jake. We were sad but I think it was the correct decision. I wasn’t able to change the flight from Rio de Janerio to Minneapolis but I was able to change the one we had scheduled to go from Minneapolis to San Jose to go from Rio de Janeiro to San Jose. Very odd. We now leave Rio de Janerio tomorrow at 7:15am.
