Bird Park a must ! :)
Another quick note before I get home... I am currently at Amsterdam's Airport (very nice, very spacious, lots and lots to do, one of the best airports I have ever seen I must say)... I hardly slept on the plane, nor the night before (one of my blisters on my foot had got infected as my shoes got so soaked and so dirty, so I had to try and do some 1st Aid throughout the night to keep my foot from swelling, phew). So, so far I have had very little sleep and won't be home for another 5 hours (the downside of landing at Terminal 4 meaning extra delays, yuk). Plus I will have to face the fact I have no food in my fridge, not even milk for breakfast tomorrow and I am not even sure I will want to go out again shopping when I get home... (15mns walk instead of 2mns walk now I have moved to St John's Wood).
ANYWAY... my last morning in Brazil was superb. Well, the weather was rather dull to start with so we started with the Bird Park and of course, I had the worst speed film on yet again (only 100ASA which was NOT good enough to zoom out - and I tried to use my tripod to compensate but the rain yesterday was so bad that it ruined it and some parts have since come unstuck, sigh) but when I changed to 400 ASA I was able to take some great close ups...
This Bird Park is supposedly the best in South America but to me, it is the best in the world... I had forgotten just how wonderful it was. It was almost as special as going back to Iguacu for one last glance because the Bird Park is so well done. They have managed to replicate a lot of their original habitats and the aviaries are so huge, you barely notice the cages sometimes. The birds are SO used to tourists that when you walk along the path they will come right to you and the toucans in particular, were fascinated by my tripod. If I leant it against a fence, they would automatically fly down to inspect it closely with their bills. Close up these animals look even more beautiful, their eyes are a very deep blue and they look so puzzled and yet cheeky (they are not as nice as they look actually as they will eat other birds' chicks so we should not be fooled by their toy-like appearances !). I had the BEST time.
My driver had suggested I spent an hour there but I was so totally enthralled that I spent 2 hours. I was able to take some great shots of so many birds I had seen at the Pantanal but had not got quite close enough to to do that kind of shots. In fact, they told us that this place is visited by most of the great photographers of this world as it is such an ideal place for close up of bird life. This is all the more facilitated by the fact that the birds are shown posing on branches of trees that would be found in the Pantanal / Amazon / wherever... so you would never know these pictures were actually taken in a zoo as such. They had some smaller cages where they put breeding pairs together as they have a very successful breeding programme for endangered species - again, because the park is so beautiful and looks so close to the real thing that even the birds are fooled ! :) But as breeding parents will kill any other birds that gets close to their offspring all the pairs with chicks were kept in separate enclosures to protect all the other birds who might unwillingly get a bit too close for comfort...
The last aviary is the macaws' and you are surrounded by about 30 of them flying all around... they say ' enter at your own risk' as they can be a bit dangerous and they are SO loud, boy... deafening. Most people left after 10mns because the noise was just too much... In the very last section they allow you to stroke one and to have your photo taken with it... which was a must, of course.
We then drove an extra 10mns to Iguacu and I brought my tripod with me again this time and I tried to think of new angles but by then I only had 6 shots left on my film. I did feel frustrated that I could not check the results there and then... in situations like this it would really help. The sun shone its brightest just as I had to leave... sigh. I treated myself to a souvenir mug with a coati on it (since I need to buy mugs for my new nest anyway !) and to another book that celebrated the beauty of Iguacu with some pictures from the air that I could not take myself... though, as with most tall wonders, you actually appreciate the width and height from the bottom looking up.
At this time of the year the Brazilian side actually looks better because the finale is pretty much as good as it is during the rainy season. The trails are also easier to manage. On the Argentinian side because you pretty much walk all the way over the falls on iron bridges they can get VERY slippery. This is another thing that did not help my moods yesterday... I was worried sick about slipping and pulling a muscle, it really is bad.
I was really sad to leave... but it is good to know that Iguacu will always be there in my lifetime for me to go back to should I ever want to and should my health and finances still permit in the future -- none of which I ever ever take for granted.
When I got to the airport I asked a TAM airline operator how much the domestic and international departure tax and I was quoted 16 and 77 respectively which meant I just did not have enough money left at all - I was down to 15 ! So I had to withdraw an extra 150 reals (as I needed to eat too) but it turns out that I was never asked for any departure tax ! So I am now stuck with a $35 worth of Brazilian money that I do not want as I could not find any films at the Duty Free shop (another downside of not switching to digital, I noticed that very few places sell films anymore... ahhh).
I will get my films developed tomorrow, have them put on CD and hopefully can email some shots over by next week-end or so... it will depend on Janet's availability since I cannot do anything like that from public places or at work... the downside of not having my own internet connection (a real pain for things like this).
Anyway, back to reality now... work will feel WEIRD. Gotta sign off, my connection expires in less than 5mns! AND I have my last (10th!) plane to catch ... Bisous... Sylvie xxx
Another quick note before I get home... I am currently at Amsterdam's Airport (very nice, very spacious, lots and lots to do, one of the best airports I have ever seen I must say)... I hardly slept on the plane, nor the night before (one of my blisters on my foot had got infected as my shoes got so soaked and so dirty, so I had to try and do some 1st Aid throughout the night to keep my foot from swelling, phew). So, so far I have had very little sleep and won't be home for another 5 hours (the downside of landing at Terminal 4 meaning extra delays, yuk). Plus I will have to face the fact I have no food in my fridge, not even milk for breakfast tomorrow and I am not even sure I will want to go out again shopping when I get home... (15mns walk instead of 2mns walk now I have moved to St John's Wood).
ANYWAY... my last morning in Brazil was superb. Well, the weather was rather dull to start with so we started with the Bird Park and of course, I had the worst speed film on yet again (only 100ASA which was NOT good enough to zoom out - and I tried to use my tripod to compensate but the rain yesterday was so bad that it ruined it and some parts have since come unstuck, sigh) but when I changed to 400 ASA I was able to take some great close ups...
This Bird Park is supposedly the best in South America but to me, it is the best in the world... I had forgotten just how wonderful it was. It was almost as special as going back to Iguacu for one last glance because the Bird Park is so well done. They have managed to replicate a lot of their original habitats and the aviaries are so huge, you barely notice the cages sometimes. The birds are SO used to tourists that when you walk along the path they will come right to you and the toucans in particular, were fascinated by my tripod. If I leant it against a fence, they would automatically fly down to inspect it closely with their bills. Close up these animals look even more beautiful, their eyes are a very deep blue and they look so puzzled and yet cheeky (they are not as nice as they look actually as they will eat other birds' chicks so we should not be fooled by their toy-like appearances !). I had the BEST time.
My driver had suggested I spent an hour there but I was so totally enthralled that I spent 2 hours. I was able to take some great shots of so many birds I had seen at the Pantanal but had not got quite close enough to to do that kind of shots. In fact, they told us that this place is visited by most of the great photographers of this world as it is such an ideal place for close up of bird life. This is all the more facilitated by the fact that the birds are shown posing on branches of trees that would be found in the Pantanal / Amazon / wherever... so you would never know these pictures were actually taken in a zoo as such. They had some smaller cages where they put breeding pairs together as they have a very successful breeding programme for endangered species - again, because the park is so beautiful and looks so close to the real thing that even the birds are fooled ! :) But as breeding parents will kill any other birds that gets close to their offspring all the pairs with chicks were kept in separate enclosures to protect all the other birds who might unwillingly get a bit too close for comfort...
The last aviary is the macaws' and you are surrounded by about 30 of them flying all around... they say ' enter at your own risk' as they can be a bit dangerous and they are SO loud, boy... deafening. Most people left after 10mns because the noise was just too much... In the very last section they allow you to stroke one and to have your photo taken with it... which was a must, of course.
We then drove an extra 10mns to Iguacu and I brought my tripod with me again this time and I tried to think of new angles but by then I only had 6 shots left on my film. I did feel frustrated that I could not check the results there and then... in situations like this it would really help. The sun shone its brightest just as I had to leave... sigh. I treated myself to a souvenir mug with a coati on it (since I need to buy mugs for my new nest anyway !) and to another book that celebrated the beauty of Iguacu with some pictures from the air that I could not take myself... though, as with most tall wonders, you actually appreciate the width and height from the bottom looking up.
At this time of the year the Brazilian side actually looks better because the finale is pretty much as good as it is during the rainy season. The trails are also easier to manage. On the Argentinian side because you pretty much walk all the way over the falls on iron bridges they can get VERY slippery. This is another thing that did not help my moods yesterday... I was worried sick about slipping and pulling a muscle, it really is bad.
I was really sad to leave... but it is good to know that Iguacu will always be there in my lifetime for me to go back to should I ever want to and should my health and finances still permit in the future -- none of which I ever ever take for granted.
When I got to the airport I asked a TAM airline operator how much the domestic and international departure tax and I was quoted 16 and 77 respectively which meant I just did not have enough money left at all - I was down to 15 ! So I had to withdraw an extra 150 reals (as I needed to eat too) but it turns out that I was never asked for any departure tax ! So I am now stuck with a $35 worth of Brazilian money that I do not want as I could not find any films at the Duty Free shop (another downside of not switching to digital, I noticed that very few places sell films anymore... ahhh).
I will get my films developed tomorrow, have them put on CD and hopefully can email some shots over by next week-end or so... it will depend on Janet's availability since I cannot do anything like that from public places or at work... the downside of not having my own internet connection (a real pain for things like this).
Anyway, back to reality now... work will feel WEIRD. Gotta sign off, my connection expires in less than 5mns! AND I have my last (10th!) plane to catch ... Bisous... Sylvie xxx
posted by Sylvie at 10:43 AM
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