Retired Nomads: Ilhabela, Brazil

9-Feb Fri

Here I set up a private birding tour with Ciribaí Turismo de Aventura with Alex. We had our first port day with no rain! Ilhabela is a beautiful picturesque island.

It was a tender port and we got on the first one but the tender boat just started going in circles. (slowly) I think it was down to one engine and it took them a while to get us going. We all joked that thank goodness it wasn't an actual emergency, since the tender boats are the life boats.

Finally we made it to shore and our bird guides were there waiting for us. Very nice couple, but it became clear quite quickly that the young lady didn't speak any English and Alex spoke very little. (his emails were in English...probably used Google Translate)

tender boat

Celebrity ship in port to

We took a short walk along the gorgeous waterfront to get to their vehicle. Wait until you see the photos of our transportation that we managed to get in and out of several times durning the day. It was the smallest car I have ever seen. It didn't really have a back seat, but more like a place to put stuff. We crawled into the back and if I sat sideways and put my legs and feet in between the 2 front seats (while avoiding his stickshift) I could make it work. Greg just did the "man spread" and made that work. No windows other than the windshield and once when he went around a corner the drivers' door fell open. The front seat belts didn't fasten and to avoid getting a seatbelt ticket they held them in place. Rick, it would have made the car we had in Santa Marta look like a mini van and you could not have made any seat in this one to work.

our guides for the day - Alex & Vilma

sculpture garden

see if you can see the back seat - we couldn't, but we sat there anyway....

We made a short stop for some shore birds and then got back in the car as gracefully as one could.
Our first trail was Ribeirão das Águas which has some of the richest flora and fauna in the Atlantic Rainforest.

we parked here to do our first trail

Hook-billed Kite

Ruddy Ground Dove

Blond-crested Woodpecker

nests

Maroon-bellied Parakeet

woodpecker nest

Mealy Parrot

trail

Versicolored Emerald

Marron-bellied Parakeet

Lesser Woodpecker

White-spotted Woodpecker

Long-tailed Tyrant

Sivilant Sirwstes

Green-headed Tanager

Lesser Woodcreeper

back where we parked the car

We saw quite a lot of new birds, unfortunately since they didn't speak English we only got names in Portuguese. They did have a brand new bird book on the birds of Brazil and at first they were pointing them out in the book and it had the names of the birds in both languages. Later in the day at our last stop, they even stopped doing that.

We haven't sorted through the photos yet (not a lot of "keepers", but hopefully good enough for identifying them).

We stopped to have lunch in town at a nice restaurant on the waterfront called Pimenta de Cheiro.
We both tried 2 different steak dishes. Both were very tasty. The couple had fish dishes. Since we didn't know each others languages all that well, conversation was not that possible and a bit uncomfortable, though we did manage a bit.

Steak with fried garlic and fried banana

Steak in Gorgonzola sauce

view from the restaurant

After lunch we went to see a lovely waterfall and do a short birding trail at Parque das Cachoeiras.
Then, we made one last stop and found quite a few new birds. We parked the "car" and walked along the street and saw many in trees and then passed a stream and ended in some grasslands where we saw quite a few more "seedeater" type birds and a couple of parrots.

Striated Heron

short, but steep hike

Olivaceous Woodcreeper

Brazilian Tanager

back in the car

last birding area of the day

Saffron Finch

Picazuro Pigeon

Tropical Parula

Masked Water-Tyrant

Grassland Finch

Common Waxbill

Mealy Parrot

Vilma & Alex

Southern Lapwing

We then said it was time to return to the port as I wanted some time to find my token magnet for the new port.

They were very surprised and pleased when we tipped them at the end of the day. I'm sure if they do tours in Portuguese that they do a fine job. (taking their vehicle out of the equasion as I don't know who would be pleased to sit in it.)

Start of our walk and wander

me on the steps

waiting to tender back to the ship

Greg said if we ever find ourselves here again he'd like a "real guide". They were super nice people. It really was a very pretty island and we did see quite a few new birds and we can sort out what types once we are home with fast and free internet.

Despite the obstacles of the tour we had a great day.

Brazilian Coastline on the way to Rio: