I have finished uploading the Praia do Forte photo album, with images of the village, its beaches, its natural pools and its turtles.

A charming square with a chapel right by the beach.

The wonderful natural pools.

Where you don’t have to get your feet wet to have fun following the little fish comings and goings.

The Projeto Tamar and its environmental preservation work.

Where you will be able to see sea turtles from a very close distance.

And the Garcia d’Ávila castle in the vicinity of the village.

If you have any questions about Praia do Forte, you can leave your comments at the entry destination: Praia do Forte.

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During the subtropical winter, penguins appear along the Brazilian on a regular basis. There is hardly anything unusual about a penguin found along the coast of São Paulo, for instance. From the border with Uruguay up to the state of Rio de Janeiro, Magellanic penguins are spotted on a regular basis.

The incredibly unusual fact widely reported by the media this year is the appearance of penguins in far away places as Salvador. On a single weekend, 25 penguins were rescued in the Salvador area. Penguins in Bahia are a very rare occurrence.

Most of the penguins found are chicks. They come from the Argentinian Patagonia and migrate to the south of Brazil in their search for food. Scientists believe that due to global warming and the melting of the poles the Malvinas current is stronger and taking the penguins farther north than ever before.

If walking outdoors is your kind of thing, you are likely to come across a couple of quero-queros (Southern Lapwing, Vanellus chilensis), a very common bird in South America outside the Amazon basin and the Andean region.

Quero-queros build their nests on the ground. If someone comes close to the nests, they defend them very aggresively. Quero-queros gave us a bit of a rough time at the Lençóis Maranhenses last year. We were unlucky enough to find ourselves strolling along a succession of quero-quero nests for more than an hour. During that time, we were mercilessly harrassed by the birds, having to duck the entire time to avoid being hit by their spurs. When we left the proximity of a nest in the belief we were now on safe ground, we would invariably enter the proximity of yet another nest, being the target of yet more low-level flights. It was quite an unpleasant experience although completely understandable.

If you ever come across a couple of quero-queros defending their nests, go away as far as you can. They mean business.

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I am presenting my very own personal list of 10 moments lived in Brazil filled with emotion. They do not follow any particular order.

1. a huge turtle (up until then you had never stopped to think how large turtles can be) swimming placidly next to you, in complete silence; suddenly a shoal of fish swims by right in front of you while you approach a sunken ship where thousands of colourful fish rejoice. Diving in Noronha has to be one of the most intense experiences you can live in Brazil.
   
2. up to four or five dolphins jumping out of the water simultatenously, while dozens of them follow the small boat from where you contemplate the amazing display. Encountering dolphins in Noronha is joy at its purest.
3. in spite of the pushing and shoving; of the endless queue of tourists all waiting to take exactly the same snapshot in front of the statue, arms opened; in spite of the awful mood of the professional photographers; in spite of the street vendors; when you reach the balcony of the Corcovado mountain and the whole of Rio unfolds in front of your very own eyes, your heart and mind are transported somewhere else.
   
4. the ceaseless rhythm of the percussion, the tune you will not stop humming even after you’ve gone to sleep, the festival of colours and dazzling costumes, the bumba-meu-boi festival in São Luís is pure magic.
   
5. from the top of the sunset dune in Jericoacoara there is a terrific panoramic view of the sea and the dunes. When the moon is full, it will appear right at the same time as the sun goes down, turning the experience into an unforgettable moment.
   
6. think of the wildest rollercoaster your mind can imagine and then take all safety devices out of the picture. That’s what a buggy ride on the Genipabu dunes feels like. Your stomach will turn, you will bid farewell to friends an family endless times, you will swallow tons of sand, and your heart will be tested to the limit.
   
7. everything in the village is special, but watching the sun go down behind the Serra do Mar from the harbour in Paraty is an unforgettable moment that can open the door to never-ending passions.
   
8. an endless succession of dunes and green lagoons, absolutely no one around, the merciless sun being your only companion. A walk through the Lençóis Maranhenses is intense to the extreme.
   
9. there is something unreal about that intense red colour. Because of that, contemplating the scarlet ibises near the Baronesa beach in Alcântara is an activity where the notion of time quickly vanishes.
   
10. the roaring of the waters and its spray are felt from afar, but the real power of the place is only truly manifested when you reach the mighty Devil’s Throat at the Iguazu Falls. Don’t be surprised should you find yourself leaning dangerously towards, such is the power of the enchanment [the observation deck for the Devil's Throat is actually in Argentina, but most of what you see from there it's on Brazil].
    

I want to close my list with a very special emotion, that can be experienced anywhere on Brasil, but only once in a long while. In terms of strong emotions, few things can compare to the explosion of joy that follows the conquest by Brazil of a soccer World Cup. The last time it happened I was lucky to be here to witness it, it was 2002.

Here are all the Top 10 lists published in the blog so far.

There are dolphins all along the Brazilian coastline, as well as a river dolphin, pink in colour, that lives in the Amazon, the boto (Inia geoffrensis).

A few places where dolphins can be seen real close:

Fernando de Noronha

From the viewpoint at the top of the Baia dos Golfinhos you can contemplate on a daily basis the evolutions of a large group of cetaceans that spend the day at the bay. The number of dolphins ranges from 50 up to 300. They spend the day jumping out of the water and running from one place to another. Most guides recommend getting up really early to see the dolphins entering the bay – we don’t feel it’s necessary, they stay at the bay the entire day.

There is a boat trip outside the boundaries of the National Park where the chances of seeing the dolphins are quite high. They usually follow the boat for a while (see photo above). The best time to see the dolphins on the boat trip is when they are either getting into the bay or leaving the bay. The NGO that looks after the dolphins maintains a bulleting board at the harbour where they record the number of dolphins present at the bay every day, the time they got in, and the time they left.

As well as the two places mentioned above, in Noronha there is also the chance of encountering dolphins while diving on the open sea.

Pipa

At the Baia dos Golfinhos, near Pipa, a few dolphins pop up every day, usually in the morning. If you seat on the sand, you’ll see them chasing fish. When I was swimming at the bay one day, I had a dolphin at less than 10 meters – I didn’t see it, I was looking the other way.

As well as the places mentioned above, where I have seen dolphins, there are other places where they are spotted on a regular basis:

• on the Amazon river
• on the southermost tip of the state of São Paulo
• on the coastline of the state of Rio de Janeiro (Paraty, Ilha Grande, Arraial do Cabo). If you are very lucky, once or twice a year a group of killer whales get very close to the urban beaches in Rio, a real event that usually makes it to the news.

As ever, the best thing is to ask the locals.

At the Parque das Aves (bird park), on the Brazilian side of the Iguazu falls, you can get so close to the toucans, free to roam inside huge cages, that you can’t help fearing for the safety of your zoom lens and some of your fingers too. Just as well toucans are inquisitive but not aggressive. Ah, the beak is made of a very light material, otherwise the bird couldn’t possibly fly.

The scarlet ibis (Eudocimus ruber) is one of the most beautiful birds that can be found along the Brazilian coastline. A small crab, present on the ibis’ staple diet, is responsible for the strong pigmentation of its plumage. It is not hard to spot scarlet ibis in Alcántara, state of Maranhão. They are always in groups, and are easily scared. A powerful zoom, absolute silence, and quite a lot of patience is needed to photograph them.

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I have been to scores of places in Brazil where I’ve been able to see and photograph wildlife. These are the top 10 places (in no particular order).

1. scarlet ibis in Alcântara, Maranhão [chances of spotting them: high - at the Praia da Baronesa and a nearby wetland. The scarlet ibis go to the shore to feed when the tide is out]
2. dolphins in Fernando de Noronha, Pernambuco [chances of spotting them: high - on the boat trip around the island or from the Baia dos Golfinhos viewpoint]
3. turtles in Fernando de Noronha, Pernambuco [chances of spotting them: medium - snorkelling at the Santo Antônio harbour and at the baia do Sueste]
4. fish in Fernando de Noronha, Pernambuco [chances of spotting them: high - snorkelling in most of the island beaches and definitely diving]
5. fish in Bonito, Mato Grosso do Sul [chances of spotting them: high - snorkelling in the Sucuri river and the Rio da Prata]
6. dolphins in Pipa, Rio Grande do Norte [chances of spotting them: medium - at the aptly named Baia dos Golfinhos in the morning]
7. toucans in Foz de Iguazú, Paraná [chances of spotting them: 100% - at the Parque das Aves]
8. monkeys in Vassouras, Maranhão [chances of spotting them: high - there is a forty-odd colony of monkeys living near the huts, ask the locals]
9. scarlet ibis in Caburé, Maranhão [chances of spotting them: medium - near then mangrove in Caburé when the tide is out]
10. macaws in Bonito, Mato Grosso do Sul [chances of spotting them: medium - at the Buraco das Araras]

N.B.: in actual fact, the toucans at the Parque das Aves in Foz do Iguaçu are not in the wild, they are kept within giant cages.

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