Back to the quack..

So it's less than 2 months to go now which means it's the dreaded docs for jabs again. I was horrified to find out it's the worst one for me that's run out.... Yellow Fever... not happy.
Booked in for this Thursday and I have a sneaky suspicion that means that my Typhoid and Hep A have also run out.


Chaco chachalaca bird

Took my camera out to Rais Wood yesterday and am so relieved my loyalty held and I wasn't tempted to go with a new Nikon. Everything is so familiar with my Pentax and it performs well. It's a massive improvement on the gear I had when I last went to Brazil, as are my skills, but right now I am more excited about simply seeing, hearing and smelling it all again... the kites, the kingfishers, the giant river otters and even the smelly bats. The dusty roads and endless water pools with hyacinth floating all the way to the horizon, the Jacaré performing their awesome territory calls each morning - I can't wait to be woken by the incessant Chaco chachalaca birds - the noisiest of them all.

I am travelling a day early this time too - in 2007 we started off badly with flight delays and severe sleep deprivation which I never really recovered from. So this time I will be travelling a day early, alone, and spending the first night in a very nice hotel close to Cuiaba airport to relax and prepare - so very excited.  The one thing I am not looking forward to are the biting insects... I know with my apparently intoxicating blood I will never win the war, but round two of this particular battle is mine - after the last trip to the region I returned so battered, bitten and swollen, that in hindsight it was a good thing the hot water and heating had failed in my house, as the UK winter cold numbed the pain (a memory I can't seem to shake).
This time will be different - I am armed with an obscene amount of vitamin B12, a supply of DEET sufficient to melt my entire collection of lenses and, of course, marmite now comes in a squeezy plastic container and so is also coming with me. To the bad-boy bugs of Brazil - me and my blood are ready for you - you will NOT be sucking more than is fair on this trip.

Fazenda Barranco Alto - Pantanal Lodge: Top of the food chain

Fazenda Barranco Alto - Pantanal Lodge: Top of the food chain

http://pantanal-lodge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/anteater.html

The seven year itch

Having decided to revisit breathtaking Brazil for a second time (The Pantanal) I have been justifying the decision to myself for weeks now with all sorts of reasoning... different time of year, considerably greater chances of seeing Jaguars, I will be better prepared this time, I know what to expect, blah blah blah... but now that I have made the decision and bought the flights etc. I have been struggling with something else instead. Yes, it will be the end of the dry season this time around, and the camps will have come on somewhat since the experience seven years ago, but I am slightly ashamed to say I've been considering infidelity, the seven year itch maybe? (surely I'm way too young for a mid-life crisis - and if I'm not, it's acceptable in this case to lie to me). I've been a loyal Pentax girl for close to 20 years now so this period of indecision bothers me - Is it time to buy my first professional camera? Is it time to ditch the Pentax and move to Nikon? Because if so, now would be the time to decide. Only 8 months to go and a demanding job provide precious little practise time (and of course endless rain and a new sofa giving me lame, but frequently used excuses to stay indoors).
I love my camera, I love my telephoto lens and the three of us have a long history together, we are comfortable together and they are so familiar to me. So why am I even considering it? Have I really reached the limit of what I can do with the K5 IIS? - of course not. I think it might just be time to get the manual out again and remind myself why I chose it in the first place.