Diane

We had an uneventful flight home- even tho we were in middle seats and not a window seats. It did make me appreciate window seats even more. Jennifer got stuck overnight in New York, New York USA after sitting on the plane on the runway for 2 1/2 hours! Turns out that only one flight left JFK (New York City airport) today and it left about 7am. Jennifer was able to get a flight for tomorrow.

Update- Jennifer makes it home safely tomorrow.

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.

More rain today!  I’m so happy we have our rain gear- if we hadn’t have gone to the Subantarctica Islands ‘on they way’ to here we wouldn’t have rain gear and would have been very cold.

Today we had hoped to go to a place with hummingbirds but because of the rain, the road wasn’t passable and the hummingbirds probably wouldn’t have be there anyway.  We went on another back road but there was so much rain and water and very few birds came out so we went back to the lodge after a few hours. 

When we got back to the lodge, we had some excitement because there is a winter storm in the US and many flights were cancelled.  Delta (our airline) sent out messages suggesting we change our flights.  We thought about saying another day but ended up changing flights to go thru New York trying to outrun the storm. 

After lunch we walked to the hide again- it’s a nice place to sit and watch for birds to come to the hide plus we get to stay dry.  We were excited to see a coati and then even more excited to see a covey of quail.  Very fun.

After the hide visit, we walked back to the lodge and had our last lodge deck viewing, last caparhina, and last dinner have because we’re leaving 6am tomorrow heading to the Golden Lion Tamarin reserve and airport.

Another full day of birding in the rain. We drove off to Três Picos State Park and stopped a couple of times along the way to see if we could find any birds. Mostly the birds were hiding from the rain so we didn’t see as many as we would have if it was sunny.

We had lunch in the parking lot of the park- there was only one other car their and they arrived after we did and left before we finished lunch.

After lunch we went on a short hike- it was so rainy and there were so few birds we bailed early from the hike and drove back to the lodge where we watched a few birds at the feeders before dinner and going to bed.

Our lodge is near the town of Nova Friburgo which is known as the undergarment capital of Brazil. There are lots and lots of lingerie stores and folks are always stopping to take pictures- here are the pictures we took:

Today it rained pretty much all day and we walked and birded on the trails around the lodge. We went to the bird blind on the white trail to see if we could see tinamou- and we saw two species! We were out most of the morning and came back to have lunch at the lodge. After lunch and a short rest, we went out again for the afternoon. We didn’t stay out too long- the birds weren’t calling or coming out to be seen so we walked back down to the lodge, had tea & cake and birded a bit from the deck. Then it was time for dinner and bed.

We expected we would be wet from sweat but instead we’re wet from rain. It’s been cloudy and wet instead of cloudy and humid. We were worried we wouldn’t have enough t-shirts but it wasn’t a problem since we’re wearing our long sleeve shirts and rain gear. When we packed we figured we’d put away our cold weather clothes when we got to Brazil but instead we’re still wearing them.

Today we spent the entire day birding. We left the lodge about 7am and drove around the lower elevations. We would stop along side the road, get out of the car, bird along the road and get back in the car and drive to the next spot. Granted we were on the small country roads and not the main roads. There was hardly any traffic.

We had a bagged lunch along side the road on a hillside.

It was raining at the lodge and our guide was hopeful it wouldn’t be raining lower down and it wasn’t- well it was a little bit.

We saw 94 species of birds today. I think I missed a couple but for sure Jennifer saw them all.

We were pretty tired when we got back to the lodge and went to bed shortly after dinner.

Today we start our adventure in Brazil. We will go to Itororo Lodge in the Atlantic Cloud forest for a few days and then go to the Golden Tamarin Preserve on the day we leave Brazil.

Our driver and van picked us up from the hotel about 9am for our 2 1/2 to 3 hour drive to Itororo Lodge.

It was the quietest drive- hardly anyone talked the entire drive. We stopped once for a bathroom break at a nice convenience store. Jennifer and I picked up cookies. Some of the road signs were interesting- especially the ones with photographs of animals

We arrived at the lodge about 11:30am and were shown to our rooms after a cup of tea and slice of cake. We sat on the deck watching the birds come into the feeders until the drizzle started and at 13:00 we had lunch.

We are the only guests at the lodge right now. It’s a small lodge that has 8 rooms.

We sat and watched birds after lunch too. It’s pretty fun to just sit there and watch fancy colorful birds fly into the feeders. Then we went to the room to organize and rest but the birds were out and about so back to the deck we went.

Actually Tibor spent the time between lunch and dinner wandering on all the trails around the lodge. He made a nice map/track for the lodge.

It was almost dark when we started dinner at 6:30pm. Our caipirinha drink was a bit strong but after the ice melted a bit we enjoyed it. After dinner it was back to the room to get ready for tomorrow.

Today we only had to go from Santiago, Chile to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

We had a nice breakfast at the hotel and took the 8:30am shuttle to the airport where we checked-in, went thru security and found a very nice Latam lounge where we waited for our 12:20pm flight to Rio de Janeiro.

After about a 4 and a half hour flight that went over the Andes mountains we arrived in Rio. Very straightforward immigration and customs. We didn’t have too much trouble finding the shuttle pick up spot other than a little confusion about whether or not we had to call or not. Turns out the shuttle comes every 20 minutes or so.

It was a regular nice hotel close to the airport. Jennifer had drinks and dinner at the hotel bar, Tibor walked to a BBQ place on the beach and I had a granola bar & water. We were all happy with our choices.

Tibor and I watched Match of the Day and then it was time for bed.