Northeast Brazil - Part 3

Ancient pictograph rock art

In case you missed it: 

Northeast Brazil - Part 1

Northeast Brazil - Part 2

eBird Trip Report

Day 8 - Lençóis to São Domingos. This was our longest travel day of the trip, using up pretty much all day. The guys did stop occasionally for some brief birding and leg stretches, but we had a lot of distance to cover. The birding and scenery to come would be worth the pain. We rolled in near sunset and birded for a while from the bridge over the São Domingos River. It was lovely. 

Seeing this along the route was not on my bingo card for the day.
Apparently this is standard in the parking lot for this chain store.

Birding the river at sunset

White-throated Kingbird

Nacunda Nighthawk flyby at sunset

Day 9 - São Domingos. We had a full day of birding this area in the foothills of the Serra Geral Mountain range with its limestone outcrops and caves, Cerrado, and dry and gallery forests. The highly endemic and localized Pfrimer's Parakeet was high on our target list, among so many others. In a beautiful area like this it wasn't just the great birds that caught our attention. 

Limestone outcrops and gallery forests

One of the limestone caves we visited while birding. And it was huge!

Another cave

Buff-necked Ibis, atop the limestone outcrops

Buff-throated (Lafresnay's) Woodcreeper

Yellow-rumped Cacique

Black-fronted Nunbird

Pfrimer's Parakeet

Southern Antpipit

Jandaya Parakeet

Burrowing Owl

Curl-crested Jay

Chapada Flycatcher

Fork-tailed Flycatcher 

Black-tufted Marmoset

Large-billed Antwren

Red-shouldered Macaw

Yellow-faced Parrot

Day 10 - São Domingos to Cavernas do Peruaçu National Park. Another painfully long day of travel, but that's what it takes to reach these amazing destinations. This would put us at a remote location that was worth all the time spent, the amazing limestone caves of Peruaçu. We did arrive early enough for a dash down to the river for the very localized endemic Bahian Nighthawk at dusk and a few other goodies. The species list for this late afternoon outing had 61 species, so it was more than a few...

Leaving São Domingos

Hanging out on the river awaiting nighthawks

Stripe-necked Tody-Tyrant

Short-crested Flycatcher

Chotoy Spinetail

Greater Rhea

Bahia (Plain-tailed) Nighthawk at dusk. An absolute garbage photo, but it's the memory that counts.

Day 11 - Cavernas do Peruaçu National Park. While doing pre-trip researchnearly two years ago, Susan discovered that not only was this area special for birding, but for scenery and native rock art as well. If you've followed us for any length of time, you know how much we like rock art, and will seek it out whenever possible. When asked if we could add some time to the itinerary to see these special places, Brazil Birding Experts said of course, we can do that! So instead of just getting few hours of birding for the specialties, we spent an entire day being tourists (and seeing birds too). And what a wise choice it was. The rock art was phenomenal and the scenery incredible. Our guide Ciro has been birding this area for many years, but almost none of his clients have ever asked to see the sites. In fact, this was only his second visit to the first cavern we explored. And for guide Lucas, this was a life experience for him. To say we all had a wonderful day would be an understatement. This was one of those days that is remembered forever. 

We started by visiting "The Big Window," a partially collapsed limestone cavern that is several miles long. We would only have time to see the first mile of it, but that was incredible enough. Even in this remote location, visitation is very limited by the park, no more than 60 per day. I'm not sure how often the limit is reached as we didn't see another human until we were coming out at the trailhead, and that was just a few people. If this destination was in the U.S., hundreds or thousands would flock to it daily. It's that amazing. Unfortunately the views were so immense that photos cannot do it justice. I will share some below, but just understand that this is one of those scenes that has to be seen in person to believe. It was truly remarkable. 

Right at the beginning of the cavern was a fantastic pictograph rock art panel that was easily 50 to 75 feet long. Our local guide said some of the rock art dates back more than 9000 years. Incredible. From here we descended down into the cavern through the Big Window and walked along the stream bottom. The ceiling collapse was intermittent, so there was lots of light but also the clear feeling it was a cavern. It was immense, with a Japanese Garden feel of vegetation growing along the route. Stalactites, stalagmites, and draperies were numerous, as you would expect in a limestone cavern. We've seen many caves and caverns, but nothing like this. 

On our way to the cavern

Our destination is behind these trees in the wall of limestone

As we approach the entrance to the cavern was this amazing wall of ancient rock art

Susan is in rock art heaven

The Big Window, and the entrance to our cavern destination. Hard to judge scale, but this is easily over 100 feet high

Inside the cavern, one of the "skylights"

A stalactite

Walking along the cavern stream. The blue hardhats were mandatory (and smart) for entry

There are some tiny birders in the photo for scale

A lovely reflection 

Ciro and Lucas enjoying the scenery 

After lunch we went to two more smaller caves but with even better rock art. 

This wall was at least 100 feet long and 15 feet high

A petroglyph!

The small cavern nearby

From the second of the afternoon caves we could see across the valley to our morning destination at The Window

I guess Hugh Hefner was around 9000 years ago 😀

There were a few critters to be found on our cave day. 

Moustached Woodcreeper

Cliff Flycatcher deep inside the cavern

Rock Cavy, a small rabbit sized rodent

I really need to stop here as this post is already too long. But we're only half way through the trip, so stand by for more!