Brazil is a special place. The wildlife here is some of the most incredible you will ever encounter in our magical wildlife world. I love everything about this fantastic place, and I truly feel honored that I get to spend so much time here. It never feels like it's enough time, though. I leave always wanting more.

Sadly, they were working on re-cabling the internet at our hotel, so it was not working properly, which meant I could not share as much as I usually do for a trip like this, which kills me because something was going on every day. From troops of capuchin monkeys feeding and hanging around our hotel to giant anteaters seeking out food in the fields we were driving by on our way back to the lodge at the end of the day, to ponds filled with caiman, and we are talking about 200 plus caiman on the river banks. This place is just amazing.

We did have some magnificent snake encounters this season which was the main reason we visited Brazil. We ran two trips back to back. During our first week out there, we had one big female and a few male anacondas. Our female had recently eaten a capybara or a tapir, and she was so full she could barely move. It is impressive to see how her skin can stretch to accept prey that big in her body. Mind-blowing really. We spent a few days with her, but we were respectful and were careful not to stress her out. She was so lethargic from having eaten her meal that all she wanted to do was sleep.

Snapping an image of our big girl. You can see a bit of her face on the left. Image by Daniel Degranville

We found three big females and a dead one during our second week out there. While on the river, we found a dead six-meter snake in the river. Juka, our boat captain, saw her the previous week with some severe injuries after trying to catch and kill a peccary. Peccaries live in family groups, and the snake was mortally wounded by family members trying to help their kin escape, while our snake was trying to kill it - sadly she did not survive the encounter… it is the circle of life.

Juka snapping our big dead girl. Kinda filthy, but still cool.

After we saw that snake, we were all gutted, thinking that this would be our snake encounter for the day. But we continued searching the river for more wildlife and found another snake ( alive one of course), basking in the sun on the river bank. We spent an epic two hours with her. It was the kind of encounter you dream of having when you plan a trip like this. It was so great.

I really wish I had better signal while I was out there, because damn what an adventure it was. One of our best Brazil outings to date.

I am sharing this photo album I put together of both the wildlife and Behind the Scenes images of the fantastic moments we had out there. It was such a great trip. A huge thank you to our friends who joined us out there and made it special. Love you guys.

One of the highlights of the trip was crawling into an anaconda snake hole and capturing unique images of a resting snake.

Today's Image is a Toco Toucan. I captured images of this bird during our Anaconda diving expedition off Bonito, Brazil. The wildlife here has a special place in my heart. Everything about the wildlife here is fantastic. As a kid, one of the most common sights in our kitchen was the cereal Fruit Loops. And the mascot was Toucan Sam. So I grew up with this iconic animal always a part of my life. I remember as a kid seeing one in the Zoo and getting very excited about it.

Fast forward to our anaconda trip. I was sitting by a bird feeder at our host hotel in the early morning, waiting for our van to pick us up and take us to the river to begin our search for snakes. I was watching a very wet motmot zipping around, grabbing fruit left for them on the feeder. Next, a purple jay came in and grabbed some fruit. I snapped some images of him. The motmot images came out horrible, so I'm not going to share those.

After snapping a few jay images, I looked at the pictures I had just shot and decided to change my settings. The light was getting better, so I was able to drop my ISO some more. When I looked back up to the feeder - I froze. There less than ten feet away from me, was a Toco Toucan. For a moment, I thought I was dreaming. I had to blink, and then I remembered I was holding a camera. It was so beautiful; the colors on them are so powerful. My hands were shaking; I had to steady myself. I was star-struck when I saw it. I started shooting, holding my breath, trying to keep my camera from shaking. I remember talking to myself, "Please be in focus, please be in focus!"

The toucan was eating fruit, and I was hoping it would stay for a while. With birds, you never know how long you will get with them. Thankfully the toucan remained for a good three to four minutes, and I captured so many pictures of this bird. It flew off, and I ran to tell the rest of our group about the bird. They were already making fun of me because I am bird crazy, and they did not have much interest in Brazil birds, but this animal is unique, and I felt it was important to share. Sadly the toucan did not return, but I was happy I snapped a bunch of images of it before it flew away, and more importantly, it left me with a fantastic moment etched in my memory forever.

Thank you for reading!

Anaconda Diving 2021 Photo Gallery

Photo/Story of the Day - In love with Toucans!