Hato Piñero near El Baul, Edo. Cohedes, Venezuela
Well here we are finally at the Hato Piñero in the room called
Loro (Parrot) with a dog named Nena that is very lucky to be alive.
While we were on our tour this morning, two of the three resident Jack
Russell terriers followed the truck out into the farm. They ran behind
the truck for miles through three gates as we crossed the savannah looking
at birds on our way to a boat ride on the Rio San Geronimo. When we
got to the river, our guide Orlando asked if we wanted to fish for piranha
and several people did. Orlando pointed out some small caiman in a pool
around the bridge. Meanwhile the dogs were running here and there all
around us. All of a sudden Valeria screamed and then I heard the terrified
barks of a dog in trouble. When I turned around I saw one of the dogs
struggling to get out of the river clawing its way through the mud to
the bank. Several people saw the caiman attack Nena. When she finally
got out of the river, we saw she had a 5 inch gash on one shoulder and
two puncture wounds on the other shoulder. It looked as though she had
been cut with a straight razor.
I got her calmed down and we washed her wounds as well as we could
with water from the cooler and poured alcohol on them and applied some
Betadine and then I put her in the truck. When we came back from our
boat trip, she was shaky but OK. The other terrier had climbed the steps
and gotten onto the back of the truck. So on the way back here after
we had seen an ocelot, they dropped Nena off at the biological station
a mile from here where there were some students staying and supposedly
a veterinarian. We came on back here for lunch.
After lunch when I went to take some clothes that needed washed back
to the workers rooms, I saw poor Nena huddled against the wall outside
shivering and looking dazed. She had walked the mile or so from the
research station to the house to be back at her home. No one had washed
her wounds, no one had done anything and from my viewpoint, no one was
planning to do anything. The wounded area was hardening and was full
of dirt. Rather than leave the situation that way, I asked if someone
could get me some soap and some water and a fellow who said that he
worked here got me a bar of soap. Someone else hooked up a hose to a
slow running faucet. Nena cowered in my lap with her head buried in
the crook of my arm. She didn't whimper even once as I probed the wound
with Q-Tips and pulled out bits of leaves and dirt.
Then Mario who had gotten the soap sat down beside me and with the
scissors from his Swiss Army knife, I cut the hair away from the wound
and got peroxide from the van and after washing the wound with soap
and water and getting as much of the debris from the wound as I could,
I flushed the wound with peroxide using a syringe Will had gotten me
from the van. She flinched when I first poured on the peroxide but then
became calm. Right now, Nena is huddled against the wall in our room.
When Les wakes up, I will see if he has some needles so we can give
her a dose of Rocephin.
The vet (Flaco or Skinny) who I suspect really isn't a vet but has
some training in treating farm animals wanted to use a spray on the
wound that they use when they castrate bulls and then sew the gaping
wound up. From my experience with my own dogs and from what Les told
me they did in Viet Nam, I suggested leaving the wound open and keeping
it cleaned daily with soap and water and then peroxide. Les woke up
and gave her 500mg of Rocephin and I saved the other half of the vial
for use 4 days from now after we have gone.
So now let me back up to this morning. I awoke all night long almost
hourly since we had to get up at 6AM and leave by 7AM from Mataclara
where we stayed yesterday to get here to Hato Piñero by 8AM to
start our tour. The roosters started at 3:30AM and again at 5AM. Dogs
barked through the night.
I got up at 6AM and after getting the van in order so Will could get
ready, I went out for some shots of the guacharaca or noisy bird which
was in the tree behind the unused sorting pens. After saying goodbye
to the Fernandez family and writing a message in their guest book, we
left Mataclara at about 6:50AM.
We drove straight over to the next hato which is Hato Pinero. The
road, unlike Sunday, was dry and good but with some ruts. This time,
we arrived at the gate three miles in with reservations so the gate
was opened for us. We drove the remaining 9 miles through those strange
round-edged green grassy hills that are prevalent in this area and after
getting out of the hills we crossed savannah with herds of cattle every
so often. We went through three gates on the way to the farm. Finally
we came to an airstrip which was right by some of the farm buildings.
There was a beautiful bird on the fence at the corner which we later
found out was the Vermillion flycatcher. We drove up the drive under
mango trees to some attractive tiled roof buildings. We were welcomed
by our guide Orlando.
After meeting him, we were taken inside and shown a map of the hato
adjacent to the living area. The hato is 86,000 hectares or some 200,000
acres owned by a man named Antonio Branger whose family came from France
to Panama and then to Venezuela several generations ago. The hato is
so large (800 square kilometers) that it has outlying fundos or workers
lodgings spaced around the ranch. The borders of the hato are rivers
on all sides. The Cohedes river that we camped beside in El Baul is
one of the borders. We are at least 15 miles north of El Baul and 12
miles east so this illustrates the immensity of the farm. They run 40,000
cattle on the farm and their income is primarily from meat.
After looking at the map, we are shown the bar which is included with
the room and then we are shown our rooms which are in a separate wing
of the spacious house. The furniture is stone and concrete and sounds
strange but is very practical. The couches are painted concrete set
in place. There are large stones set in place in the floor to serve
as seats. There are many pictures on the walls of jaguars, ocelots,
coracoros (ibis), caiman, snakes and other animals. The doors are solid
wood and hand carved. The windows are small and have blue shutters.
After showing us around, we immediately are asked if we want to start
out tour now to which we say yes.
We are shown outside to a Ford truck that has been converted to carry
as many as 15 visitors at a time safari style. Built onto the back bed
is a platform with bench seats on the sides and high, bench seats on
the front and the back. The front ones have a grab bar and foot rests
which stick out over the cab of the truck. There is a short ladder on
each side to climb up into the observation area. There is a cooler with
cold drinks in the middle for anybody anytime. I have my bird book with
me which Orlando recognizes. It is actually the book of my neice Debbie
Britt who bought it when she was in Venezuela some 15 years ago working
on a project with the Nazarene church. The book at that time cost Bs
260. Now the book costs Bs 30,000 or about $45. The Bolivar when Debbie
was here was about 15 to the dollar. Now it is 690 to the dollar. Debbie
passed away in 1996 but I felt that she was with me on this tour today
since her book was with me.
Immediately we are off on our tour. First we leave the hato on the
road we came in on and pass the airstrip. Two of the dogs take off after
us at a run. Orlando orders them back and they hang back but still follow
the truck. Then we turn left into a long avenue of a bamboo-like plant
which Orlando tells us was planted some 35 years ago and now arches
over the road with the shape like a Gothic cathedral at least 30 feet
high at the center. At the end of this curving avenue, there are some
more farm buildings�a service station for the farm, mechanical sheds,
storage areas and such. Next comes a research station where students
from all over the world come to learn about the llanos.
We pick up some students there from the US and the UK who will accompany
us on our tour which today is to be a boat ride on the Rio San Geronimo.
We see many birds on the way to the river�caracaras, ibis, cattle tyrants,
hawks, flycatchers, storks, egrets, herons---there are more than 700
species of birds on this farm and it is not unusual to see 100 species
a day. The dogs are still behind us and when we stop to take a picture,
they act like they aren't even following the truck but rather have just
come across us in the road as they were wandering by!
We get to the river and people are asked if they want to fish for
piranha and some do. I walk around and take pictures instead. There
is a Yellow-faced Caracara in a tree above the river. They eat the garapatos
or ticks that prey on the livestock so they are called Garapateros.
There is a Ring-necked Kingfisher there catching fish and a caiman showing
its teeth. Above in a tree is a vine with a flower called �labias de
la negra� locally and it is a fushia color. It is at the bridge that
the near death of the dog Nena happens. She decides that she wants to
take a swim in a river teeming with piranhas and caimans. We hear her
terrified yell and watch helplessly as she claws her way to the shore
and through the mud still yelping from the pain from the caiman's bite.
After cleaning the wound with water from the cooler and calming her
down, I put her in the floor of the truck. The wounds are ugly but not
deep and no vessels were severed so there is hope for her.
We are then asked to board the boat which will take us up the river.
The river is not very wide�perhaps 20 feet with trees crowding its shores
and larger trees shading parts of it. We immediately hear paired hoatzins
croaking complaints in the trees at being disturbed. We see lots of
birdlife, flowers, orchids in the trees, strange fruits called monkey
coconuts and butterflies. We go along the river and see a giant iguana
in a tree sunning itself. There are numerous turtles also sunning themselves
on logs that flop lazily back into the river as we approach. There are
bee nests in broken branches. Here and there are caimans posed Disney-like
with opened mouths half out of the water that do not do anything as
we approach.
The Great Ani, a large black bird with a long tail fly in pairs along
the waterway. Above us squawk Scarlet Macaws as they fly or perch high
in the trees. We look for Capuchin monkeys but don't sight any. And
all along the side we hear the complaints of the hoatzins�one of the
most primitive birds in the world. They eat only leaves so they have
a three chambered stomach to digest the cellulose. They always nest
over water so the young are born with the unusual abilities to swim
and dive which enable them to flee the nest if in danger, fall into
the water, then swim to shore, climb the tree where the nest is using
a special primitive claw along the front of the wing and find their
way back to their squawking parents. But what a bird!! The adults are
the size of a turkey hen with red eyes and a beautiful display of feathers
on top of the head. They seem ungainly and don't fly long distances
but when they display with their wings opened, it is a beautiful sight.
We came upon a fallen tree hanging out into the river with a nest at
its end. We were able to position the boat to watch the parents who
guarded the nest. It was truly a remarkable sight.
Finally we get to a point in the river where we can proceed no further.
A tree has fallen across the river and blocked our path so we turn around
and head back. Once out of the boat back at the bridge, we re-board
the truck and start back to the guest house. We see a Jabiru stork and
a Wood stork along the way plus a Savannah hawk and a Roadside hawk.
We also see a Little blue heron, a Tiger heron, the Great and the Snowy
Egrets, a Red and White Cardinal, a Green Ibis which actually looks
black and a Great Blue heron and finally a Striated Heron. Then we see
the Galina de laguna or Jacana with its long toes delicately walking
on water lettuce searching for food amongst the floating vegetation.
They are sort of plain brown birds with dark heads when stalking for
food but once they fly, they are a riot of color.
We see a Snail kite and the large snails it eats. Evidently it is
a good snail catcher since the road here is littered with empty snail
shells. As we slowly make our way back, we come around a turn and see
an ocelot crossing the road. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera ready
so I missed that once in a lifetime shot! After the missed ocelot, we
see the thorn bird which builds the large stick nests that you see hanging
from the trees everywhere, the lesser kiskadee and a fork tailed flycatcher
on the way back plus a Tiger heron. The thorn birds nests are so large
because they are not combative. If another bird usurps their newly built
nest, they will just build another one below it with a new entrance.
Sometimes the nests reach a meter in length with multiple entrances
and indeed multiple occupants since up to three species of birds use
thornbird-built nests as their own.
At 4:15 we leave Nena in the locked room and head out for our second
tour of the day. This time we head to the outer edge of the hato on
the Rio Cohedes. We see a Two striped Thick knee�an unusual bird that
sits down with its legs in front of it balanced on its knees and its
tail feathers�.truly strange. It takes us till dark to get to the river
where there is a stand of mahoghany trees above a dugout canoe which
is floating in the river. At sunset we head back to the guesthouse with
a spotlight in case we come across any animals along the way. We see
many green cow eyes, one caiman, some white tailed deer and two rabbits�
but no ocelot or jaguar or tapir or anteater.
We arrive back at the guest house, have supper at 8PM and watch an
episode of Nature hosted by George Page on TV that featured the llanos
and in particular Hato Pinero and then back to the room, clean Nena's
wounds and take her a snack from the kitchen of chicken pieces, chicken
bones and rice which she devours. She leaves the milk for a midnight
snack. She even wags her tail a little! I am elated at her progress
so I go to bed.
