Caratinga part III

I woke up a little earlier this morning. I didn't want to keep anyone waiting for me. There was a new researcher here this morning, well, new for me anyway. Her name was Ingrid and she seemed to speak and understand english the best, though it was far from fluent. She asked if I wanted to join her and Zito in the forest and I did. Their study group is further away and we had to drive there on a steep and rutted road. We found their group and followed them up and down some steep hills. The group stopped to rest around noon so we did too. We were there for a while and didn't hear or see the group anymore. We looked for them but couldn't find them. While we were looking for them, we weren't on a trail sometimes. We were bushwaching our way up very steep forested hills. I rested when Zito and Ingrid did and hiked when they were ready. I never needed any more rest and they called me very strong. We waited and listened for muriquis for over an hour. Though we weren't hiking up and gruelling trails, it was just as difficult waiting due to the insects. There were tons of mosquitoes, small biting flies and other flies that don't bite but crawl all over you. I had brought some citronella repellant but it didn't work well. There no restful moments. We were all constantly swatting and slapping some bug or another. I liked to be on the move, because it took a few minutes for the bugs to find us once we stopped.
     After a while, Zito and Ingrid, who were 24 and 25 and also married, admitted that they lost the group. We would go to a few lookout points and then back to the jeep. The lookout points were great and bug free! We spotted a troupe of muriquis later but they were on a steep hill were thick brush underneath. Too thick for us to follow. As we walked back to the jeep,we heard chirping like calls. It was the call of the tamarin, a tiny primate and the only species I had yet to see in Caratinga. They were hyper active and bounced around the trees being hard to photograph, though I managed a few ok shots. They look like a crazy clown with a white face, bald head and orange hair coming out of the sides of their heads. Even though it wasn't a great day for muriquis, I was more than happy to finally see the tamarins.
    Once back in camp a group of capuchins and a group of muriquis came through camp. I always looked camps where the wildlife comes to you. Taty came back saying she saw a cobra, the portuguese word for snake. I grabbed my camera and we went off to find it. The way I understood the story was that she was washing her face in a small, clear flowing stream when the snake appeared in front of her and chased her up the bank of the river! It was a very poisonous snake so, she was obviously scared. The snake was still there, coiled up on the bank. It didn't react to us at all. Zito got it to move. It was light brown with some dark brown markings and about 1m long. I'm not sure what it was, but I might be able to identify it when I get home.
     That night we hung out in camp. We watched local news, which I only understood a bit. After that it was only soap operas on TV, which are very popular here. They shut off the TV and played cards. They invited me to play but I wasn't up for trying to learn a new card game in a language I barely understand. It was ok though. I had my ipod to entertain me.
   It was around this day that a guide showed up while I was showering. No one had said anything about a guide. I didn't know if I needed one or not. Early that day Ingrid had said that they never take tourists into the forest with them. I was special, she said. I'm not sure why they took me into the forest but I was glad they did. I was saving on guide fees. It was about $30 a day for food and a bed here. Which isn't super cheap but it's under my budget. I had a feeling maybe the researchers were stepping on the guides toes so to speak because they were taking me out. Thing is I didn't ask to go out with them and I didn't ask for a guide. Maybe they didn't know what to do with me! I was the first Canadian they had ever met. I looked through the guest sign in book. It was all Brazilian visitors. I had to go back 4 months to find someone from outside or Brazil who had visited. My guidebook said this Caratinga was remote and little visited. It was right and that was one reason I wanted to come here. It's a full days journey from the nearest large city and I guess most travellers aren't willing to make the trip out here just to see a rare monkey. I'm a different story, I loved the place and the further away from civilization the better. I had comtemplated skipping the place because it was so far and I would have to come back the same way, but I really wanted to see more Atlantic rainforest and I'm glad I didn't miss Caratinga.
   For being a rainforest, the place was pretty dry. Leaves crunched under our feet. Ingrid said it rained a lot last week and now it began to rain tonight. It rained really heavy overnight.