A Day in Paraguay

The Iguazu Falls are shared by two countries,Brazil and Argentina, but a third is just over the river, Paraguay. Our new friend, Marcelo, explained many people in the neighboring countries go to Paraguay for shopping. The goods are much cheaper and tax-free. Therefor some will buy large quantities of items to bring back to resell. The governement does not approve. For this reason, police generally search each vehicle leaving the country, so traffic is very slow moving. He advised us to walk across the border instead of taking a car. The three countries have an agreement to allow their residents to freely move across the three borders without stopping at immigration. But foreigners do legally need to be stamped in and out. The good news is that there is basically no wait and they are so used to people coming for the day, they didn't even ask us any questions. 

We were coming from Brazil, so our first stop was Brazil migration to be stamped out. Then we walked over the river on a bridge with a sidewalk that's protected from vehicles. I had read online that theft is a problem in the area, and that sometimes people hang around on the bridge with no security monitoring, so I chose not to bring my camera. Turns out not one person was waiting on the bridge. The few people we encountered were moving quickly to cross the border. 

Looking down over the Brazil side. 

Once across, we stopped in to Paraguay Migration to be stamped in. Just as easy of a process and again, no wait. Ciudad is the border city, known for great shopping. Not only are there tons of stores, but the streets are lined with tiendas and individuals with items for sale. 

We headed straight for the Parque de la República, which Marcelo suggested as a fun place to see some wildlife.

This Park has a large lake with a trail that circles it crossing thru forest, marsh and lakeside habitats.

The kids come up with their own games while waiting as I look at birds. Here they are challenging each other to a bottle flip contest. Looks like Journey is winning.

We spotted a few of these guys, which we initially thought might be a rat of some kind. Turns out these are wild Brazilian Guinea Pigs! Journey, of course, found them adorable.

Interesting habitat here. Hard to tell, but Asher is looking out at a Yacare Caiman that we spotted!

Since I didn't bring my camera, that one was too far out for a photo, but just around the bend, we spotted a second one on the bank near us. This shot is with my cell phone held to my binoculars.

This patch right here on the west side of the lake held so many birds, including a couple lifers and birds not found anywhere else on the lake. Great spot! In hindsight, I think I would have preferred to start here and bird all the way around to end here again. I ended up finding a total of 41 species of birds!

After a few hours of walking around, we were ready for food. There was a mall across the street with a food court, so we gave Mostaza a try. Our Israeli friends say the USA eats a crazy amount of cheese, which I do agree with, however we've been surprised by the level of cheese we've been seeing here in South America. I mean, have you ever seen a cheeseburger covered in cheese before? Not me! 

Check out that bill, 182,000.00 Guaranies! Relax. At an exchange rate of about 7500 to $1USD, this dinner of 5 burgers, 4 fries and 4 drinks cost just $25.10 in USD! You can also see the prices in Brazilian Reales and Argentinian Pesos listed at the bottom. Very helpful.

After dinner, it was time to head back to Brazil, as we wanted to be home before dark. The migration process was just as simple the second time. 

Welcome to Brazil {Parque Estadual da Cantareira}

 

Our arrival into Brazil was a little rough. We left Cusco around 7pm and flew to Lima before connecting to São Paulo for a 7am arrival. Unfortunately our Airbnb wouldn't allow us to check in until 3pm, so we found a storage locker for our backpacks, and got a ride to Parque Estadual da Cantareira (Cantareira State Park). It's a very large park with three separate districts. We chose to visit the Núcleo Cabuçu section. 

This is the Atlantic Forest, a precious part of the world with biodiversity ranking with the Amazon, within the borders of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. It was once the second largest rainforest in the world. Tragically most of this forest has been cleared for housing, industry, and agriculture, leaving only about 15% of the original forest today! 150 million people live within this forest, mostly in the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

In this tropical forest can be found 2,200 species of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, and 20,000 species of plants. Half of the trees, almost all the amphibians, and 200 of the birds are endemic, can not be found anywhere else in the world! 

This Southern Lapwing was hanging around the lake's edge.

Check out that camouflage!

Birding in the Atlantic Forest can be challenging with such thick vegetation. I could hear this Star-throated Antwren calling while flitting low in the bamboo, but getting eyes on it was tough, and this is the best photo I could manage. It was an exciting chase! 

Ruddy Ground Dove

It was in the 80s, which felt even hotter coming from 11,000ft in Cusco, and our lack of sleep. Daddy and the kids napped on some picnic tables while I went looking for birds. When I came back, there were Howler Monkeys in the trees above my family! 

Check out these enormous fungi!

We first thought someone left candy wrappers on the ground, but when I investigated further, we discovered these were tree seeds with a clear plastic-looking edge.

We planned to check out another section of the park a different day, but ran out of time. I hope to return to bird this area more in the future.

25 species of hummingbirds?! {Manu day 4}

 

Rufous-booted Racket-tail

On our last day, William met me for some early morning birding around the Lodge before our long drive back to Cusco. We had success walking the road where we found a new hummingbird, the Black-eared Fairy! It's so striking with that black and white tail, green back and black mask! I also got a nice shot of the Blue-headed Parrot. During our three night stay at Guadalupe Lodge, I ended up seeing 53 species of birds on the property!

My favorite caterpillar in Peru!

After breakfast we said goodbye to Guadalupe Lodge and began our journey on Manu Road to Cusco. William had planned some great stops for us to see some birds and stretch our legs along the 7 hour drive. Our first stop was a return visit to the feeders at the Cock-of-the-Rock Cabins. Here we found another new hummingbird for me, the Wire-crested Thorntail.

Our next stop was at Mirador San Pedro. There are no signs, but this place not only has an excellent view of the canyon, but fantastic birds coming to the feeders. This is the view of Manu Road from their location. Once you enter the property and climb the hill, there are stumps to sit on to watch birds coming to the plantain feeders on the horizontal sticks. We also spotted a Solitary Eagle fly over the canyon!

Above: Spotted Tanager and Violet-fronted Brilliant

Below: Golden-naped Tanager, White-bellied Woodstar, Saffron-crowned Tanager

 It's very difficult to know which season Peru is in. The birds are the indicators. When certain birds arrive, you know summer is coming. I'm used to long range migration (North America to South America), but here they experience an altitude/vertical migration, hummingbirds go to higher elevation in winter and lower elevation in summer for breeding.

Above: Speckled Hummingbird

Below: Orange-bellied Euphonia, Golden Tanager

Both hummingbirds above are Violet-fronted Brilliants, and below is an Azara's Spinetail, a quick bird, hard to photograph!

We ate lunch at the waterfall again. Here you can see our van in the background.

As we climbed in elevation, we entered the aptly-named Cloud Forest. 

A short stop at the entrance to Manu National Park gave us a chance to pick up a few more birds, while everyone used the restroom. I marked our path in purple (bottom of the map). The purple spot is around where the research station is. See how we barely touched the place? 

Now we were clearly out of the jungle, beyond the cloud forest, into a high elevation zone.

As we got closer to Cusco, we drove past a street market. Check out the woman in the last photo carrying a load on her back wrapped in a brightly colored cloth. These are strong women!

And just like that, our adventure in the Peruvian Amazon is over. 

I ended up seeing 179 birds, including 25 species of hummingbirds, and 54 were lifers! This was not even a birding-focused tour! Imagine how many one could see on a birding tour, spending all your time birding along Manu Road!

Non-bird sightings:

Capuchin monkeys, Squirrel Monkeys, Howler Monkeys, Wooly monkeys, Titi monkeys, a Capybara family, Rainbow Boa, Agouti, bat, Bamboo rat, whip scorpions, butterflies, spiders, caterpillars. 

William is such an amazing guide! He's very kind and knowledgeable and he's an excellent birder! I initially considered trying to organize a visit to Manu on my own, but after being there I realized how remote it is and how extremely difficult it would have been to arrange lodging, transportation, food and tours on my own. So happy with our decision to hire Eco Peru Tours to handle everything, plus Jesus did an amazing job tailoring the trip for our interests. 

Back for one last night in Cusco. 

The next day we enjoyed one final meal at Avocado and Toast before our evening flight to Brazil!