January 27, 2015, Ilhabela, Brazil 鈥 A local birder named Rene Santos picked me up from Guto鈥檚 house in Sao Paulo at 4:30 this morning and the two of us headed east in his 17-year-old Jeep, toward a coastal island called Ilhabela (鈥渂eautiful island鈥) where Rene had arranged for us to stay at a friend鈥檚 house. The island is several miles long and mostly covered by rugged lowland Atlantic Forest, and we planned to spend the day birding there.
The drive took longer than expected, and, by the time we鈥檇 navigated about ten thousand speed bumps (they call 鈥榚m 鈥渟uspension breakers鈥 here, and it was 鈥渟houlders of the bull鈥 in Argentina), taken the ferry to the island, stopped for breakfast, and found the house, it was 10:30. This being the hottest month of the year in Brazil, it was already meltingly humid, and morning bird activity was toast; we wandered around halfheartedly for a few minutes then decided to go have lunch in the little town on the island. Here things felt almost Caribbean: All board shorts and flip flops and tans, lots of palm trees around a sandy beach, and, according to Rene, some excellent local surfing (though it was pretty laid-back on a Tuesday). We prolonged our siesta and didn鈥檛 gear up for birding until 3:30 p.m., sweating hard for just six new birds as we trekked around the forest this afternoon.
Rene and I are well positioned for one last day in the Atlantic Forest tomorrow, with some interesting possibilities, before I head to the Pantanal the day after. Even better, tonight, for once, I should get a full 10 hours of sleep, so good night from the beautiful island!
New birds today: 6
: 596
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