After 37 hours of cars, taxis, buses and planes, I arrived home from Brazil tonight. The trip wasn’t quite what I had hoped for — problems with the itinerary, tour company, guides, etc., but mainly I just didn’t have my usual luck spotting wildlife. That being said, I did see this fine looking jaguar. But then again, a full five days of the two weeks were dedicated to spotting South America’s largest cat and I fully expected to see at least one. After several days on the river, however, I was beginning to lose hope. Other guests would arrive back at the lodge excited about how they spent two and a half hours watching a single young jag as it lounged on the beach, swam in the river, pounced on imaginary prey, etc. Somehow, my boat kept on missing these opportunities even though my guide was outfitted with a radio that was supposed to be used to alert us if any of the other boats had a sighting. I guess my boat’s radio wasn’t working. This series of near misses went on for several days until we finally saw this animal walking along a small cliff at the water’s edge. The trees, vines and roots were so thick, however, that it was difficult to get a shot in the open — especially with the mixed lighting of shade and bright sun. The jaguar kept on appearing and then disappearing but finally came to this open patch of full shade and looked out at us on the river. It actually seemed for a moment that it might come down the cliff to either take a drink of water or cross the river, but then thought better about it and disappeared back into the forest. Over the next two hours I would see three other jaguars, but all fairly quick glimpses (I was, however, able to get a few additional shots and an okay look of one in the open walking across the beach, which I’ll post on another day). Right now, though, time for some sleep.