Today we have part 2 of Athayde Tonhasca Júnior’s photos of the rainforest of Brazil (part 1 is here). The captions (indented) are his, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them. Most of the species were unidentified, so if you know them please post the IDs below. Thanks.
Horned toad:
Jaguar footprint (Panthera onca):
Leaves trapped in a spider web:
White-necked hawk, Leucopternis lacernulatus:
These photos were taken at the Reserva Natural do Cachoeira, Paraná State, Brazil (I included a map):
The city of Morretes, photo 1:
Wikipedia notes that Morretes “is famous for its restaurants, especially a traditional dish called barreado.” So of course I looked it up, and here’s what it is:
Simply stated, barreado is a delicious mixture of stewed beef, cooked in a clay pot for over 12 hours with bacon, bay leaves, and spices, served with manioc gravy, rice, and sliced bananas. Barreado’s genesis was as a dish that could be prepared easily and cooked slowly while people attended Carnival festivities. Like all good stews, barreado tastes just as good when reheated a few days after it’s prepared — just the food to maintain a long weekend of celebration.
Barreado literally means “covered in mud” in Portuguese, and the name references the way that the lid of a clay barreado pot was traditionally sealed with a mixture of manioc dough and ash before its cooked over a fire. The dough-sealed clay pot acts as a rustic slow cooker, trapping the meat’s succulent juices inside the pot as it stews over a low flame.
JAC: I found a photo and video. I want this!:
How to make it:
The city of Morretes, photo 2:
Phobetron hipparchia, the monkey slug caterpillar:
Puma (Puma concolor) caught by wildlife camera:
Puma scratchings:
Pyrrhura species:
Saffron finch, Sicalis flaveola:
Snake:
Trail:
Trogon species:
Cool photos! Thanks for sharing these. Do you live near this area, or was this a vacation trip?
Thanks, jblilie. I worked in the forest for a few years. Wonderful place!
Beautiful, beautiful photos!! Wow, Morretes must be an amazing place to visit, let alone to live. And I heartily concur with our fearless leader: I want some of the barreado and all the sides that come with it!! I wonder if there’s anywhere in the Miami area that serves it…
Thanks, Robert. You may find barreado in the US, but probably a time-saving version from a pressure cooker. I don’t expect much enthusiasm for a dish that takes 2 days to prepare on a wood stove…
I did a fairly assertive Google search and couldn’t even find any in my area that listed it. It’s very sad…but I did make myself hungrier.
Thanks for the beautiful pictures of exotic wildlife. Do you know what the snake is? Looks like a rattler to me, but I can’t see the tip of the tail. The barreado sounds delicious.
Thank you, John. I’m not sure about the snake, possibly a snake-eating snake (Dipsas sp.). Not a rattler; too damp for them.
Not much to go on, but I would suppose the snake to be either a Bothrops jararaca, very venomous! Or perhaps a Xenodon which is a rear fanged Bothrops mimic, a fierce snake even if it is not deadly!
Hi. I don’t think it’s a fer-de-lance (Bothrops sp ). It was way too fast. Fer-de-lances get away slowly, if they bother at all.
Thank you. This is such a wonderful post. I would love to go!
That jaguar footprint must have been so thrilling to see. It looks like he/she just left the area.
What a place to visit! The photos make me want to go.
You’d love it, Debra. So much to see and hear in the forest. Sometimes you can tell that a jaguar or a puma has been around by the stink they leave behind.
Very cool stuff! I would love to go there. The frog in the first picture could be the smooth horned frog. An amazing dead leaf mimic.
Indeed, Mark. You don’t see most of the creatures around you.
That barreado looks amazing! I want to try some 🙂
It does, but the vegetarian here cannot offer an opinion about its taste…
Either Blue-winged or Black-=headed Trogon.
Thanks, Lorna. There are not many of them, but I struggle with their id. Males/females/juveniles of different spp. can look alike. But I love trogons: they follow you quietly in the forest, as if checking what you are up to.