A Moment of Pure Excitement on the Road to Passos (3 August, 9:58am, 2014 somewhere between Goiana and Passos - Brazil)

3 August, 9:58am Sunday, 2014 somewhere between Goiana and Passos

We are on the way to Passos right now. I think we might be about half-way there – we have been up since 6:18 am when we left Goiana. The drive to Passos is about 7.5-8 hours, so we have a ways to go yet.

The thing that I really want to write about before I pick up where I left off, is something I am really excited about, a brief glimpse of what may or may not be ahead of us in the up-coming days….

We were driving and were probably about two hours outside of Goiana. Everyone else in the car was dozing; Mom in the front seat, Dad behind her, Natalia next to me, head resting on my shoulder, Renusa (Natalia’s mom) behind the wheel listening to Brazilian pop music, doing a good job of staying awake and making good time. The red flaming embers of the rising sun were already in the white glow that it would remain at for the rest of the morning.  We were driving through the countryside; a countryside full of sugar cane, bamboo, palm trees and various blooming trees which were dotted with either yellow or pink flowers.

Sun rising on the road to Passos

 I don’t remember what was in the field at that exact moment, but it was held by a parentheses of shadowy trees in the distance.  The field was punctuated by the same menagerie of trees that I had been seeing leading up to that moment. Two palm trees were silhouetted in the foreground, next to the road. I caught sight of some movement in the closer of the two trees, so looked up to see what it was, and that is when I saw it, just flying, going about its day. 

It was unmistakable with its all-black body paired with its large, red, yellow, and orange bill that was the same size, if not larger, than the body. 

I saw my first wild toucan.

It was, obviously, a very exciting moment for me. The toucan is one of the animals that I really wanted to see while here.  The other is the anteater.  There are several that I would love to see, but I figure those two are the more common of the animals for the region we are in – the cerrado.  We will see what animals I see in the park tomorrow, but I am happy with my toucan moment.  Now I can buy the toucan travel pillow I keep seeing places and love so much, but felt kind of like an imposter buying it without seeing one. 

Dad grabbing some breakfast on the road

Later that morning on the road

Even closer to Passos that morning