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| Posing parrots. |
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| Butterfly on a feeder. |
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| There's some nice depth to this exposure. |
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| More butterfly action. |
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| Despite appearances, not an airport. |
We were nearing the end of our adventure, with only a trip to Rio de Janeiro left. It felt like we'd been away forever. Later that day, there would be drama in Brazil, but first, we went to see some birds.
The park was actually a walkable distance from the hotel, although nobody had considered this when building the local infrastructure as there was no official footpath. That said, it was once again crazily hot and humid, so perhaps driving there in an air-conditioned car would have been a saner option.
It was hard to tell how big the bird sanctuary actually is from outside. While we had plenty of time to start with, I was also aware that we needed to shower and pack for our flight to Rio afterwards. So while the birds at the start of the labyrinthine route through the place got my fullest attention, those near the end were lucky to get a glance. I do the same thing with museums, what can I say?
While time was on our side, this was a great place for photography. The more colourful birds got the most attention, but many others could be seen picking their way through the undergrowth. There was a huge variety of species too. As the path snaked its way around the 40 acres of Atlantic rainforest, an airlock-like system of doors allowed access to different habitats.
Parrots featured heavily as you may expect. They were very popular and were also very patient subjects. Some of the smaller birds had a tendency to flit away just as you were about to take your shot, but the parrots generally just hung around. One green parrot (pictured in the last blog post) in particular was completely unbothered by the attention and I got some great photos of it. Thanks, little green parrot!
It was cool and slightly surreal to see toucans around. Most of my experience with toucans comes via Guinness adverts, so seeing them in the flesh (in the feathers?) was akin to going to a farm and coming face-to-face with the laughing cow from the titular cheese spread. Then again I had just spent ten days looking at penguins so maybe my sense of whether a bird looks funny or not was somewhat skewed. Toucans really do look like a cartoon of themselves though.
There were too many species to name them all even if I could, but the highlights were as follows: parrots, flamingos, toucans, cranes, herons, owls, hawks, ibises and hummingbirds. The latter I didn't manage to get a photo of, but we almost bumped into one while turning a corner. I hadn't even noticed it was there until Liz pointed it out, hovering in the air close by. It was such a delightful experience that I don't really mind it not hanging around for a photo shoot.
There was also a section containing butterflies. I was keen to try to photograph them flitting around in 3D as I imagined that would look neat. It did. However I was not quite prepared for the sheer volume of lepidopteran traffic within the area. They were absolutely everywhere, and since we were now part of their environment, that meant they were on us too. They kept flying at me and I did not like it. As cheerfully colourful as butterflies are, I'm less keen on them close up, and especially don't want them landing on me. I was also concerned that I would accidentally squash one. I've read that Ray Bradbury story, and although I hadn't travelled through time to get to South America, who knew what consequences stepping on a butterfly in Parque das Aves would have? I'd already got some nice shots of them, so I retreated to the less hectic world of the birds.
I bought yet another fridge magnet from the gift shop and we left for the hotel. On the way I paused to photograph the aeroplane that was improbably parked across the road. There is an airport nearby, but I think this plane is part of the helicopter tour company it's parked next to. It was now around midday and the sun was really beating down, with no shade to hide in. I hastily wound the film on to take another bracketed shot and noticed with a sinking feeling that the shutters were open at the end of the cycle. Uh-oh.
This wasn't a complete surprise. My View-Master camera had over time developed a defect where the winding cycle would leave the shutters open, ruining the film for that shot and, if left for too long, taking out the edges of surrounding shots too (the camera uses a custom format which shoots half-height images along the top and bottom of the film.) I have tried to diagnose this with some expert help before, but ultimately had found that it only happened when I wound the film too quickly, ie hastily whipped the winding knob around. This caused something in the mechanism to slip. So my solution had been to wind more mindfully, and so far this had worked. I hadn't experienced the issue since. Until then of course. I tried winding it on carefully and this time it was fine. Had I been winding it too hastily before? The heat was making me careless, perhaps. I took another photo and wound it again, slowly. This time the shutter popped open at the end of the cycle. Well, fuck.
The problem was definitely real. My worry at this point was that it had been malfunctioning all the way through the trip. Obviously and thankfully that was not the case. However the problem would recur for the rest of the trip, meaning the photos from Rio are heavily abridged. There are enough for another two blog entries though, so I hope you'll join me for the final leg of the trip, which starts with some luggage drama which was no doubt precipitated by stepping on a butterfly.
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