South Pantanal Lodge – day 1 – Allison's Trips and Travels

It was an 80 kilometer drive to the South Pantanal Lodge on a dirt road, which took 3 1/2 hours. We stopped often.

The driver saw the anaconda crossing the road. We got out to see the snake tracks, and noticed fresh jaguar tracks next to it.

We walked a little way from the van, which – as one of our companions pointed out — maybe wasn’t a great idea? With a jaguar somewhere nearby?

We stopped a few more times to take pictures and see the birds.

Then we arrived at our lodge.

Sheila checked out the pool, but said the water looked a little iffy.

The river in front of the lodge was very low.

Our rooms were large, air conditioned and had Internet access – very luxurious. We had lunch, and I spent the afternoon sorting through my photos.

At 5 pm, we headed out to the ocelot hide and waited. (Saw a Common Potoo along the way, fast asleep — it’s a night bird.) It was a short walk. There were about 20 people (including a group of 12 birders and the five of us) and a few guides.

Although SouthWild makes a fuss about their “secret technique” to get the ocelot to the viewing area, the secret is … chicken. (They set all this up for a National Geographic film crew a few years ago. Yes, a lot of those wildlife sequences are staged.)

This was the blind we sat in – there were three levels.

We got there at about 5 pm, and the manager there turned on the light at about 6:00, right when it was getting dark. At about 6:15 – the opening act! A crab-eating fox showed up and gobbled down some of the food.

You could tell the fox clearly he was the star – he kept turning around a looking at the audience

We waited 10-15 minutes more – then people started whispering that the ocelot was coming. I gather he was sitting, waiting, at the edge of the darkness.

He slipped into the clearing, checked the log and eating the chicken, and left. Pretty cool!

The manager walked out and put more food on the log, and we waited some more.

First the fox name back, and a comedy ensued. The guy would chase the fox off, and the fox would be back before the man. The guy tried to throw sticks and stones at the fox, but he just ran over to where they landed, expecting it was chicken.

Another 10 – 15 minutes and the ocelot was back. She and the fox clearly didn’t want to share with the other.

The ocelot finished eating and left. The fox still waited for his applause. We left and headed to our dinner.