Cats: New Video by Photo in Natura

Our new video clip is online! Two minutes with the cats that share Photo in Natura’s home and office with us. Enjoy : -)

(With YouTube making things way too difficult, I opted for sharing the videos on two other servers for you to choose from: Vimeo or Yahoo! Video). Personally, I found Vimeo’s quality much better.

The cats of Photo in Natura on Vimeo.

The Cats of Photo in Natura on Yahoo! Video.
.
.

The day I taught Indiana Jones how to ride a horse

.
.... and I had to teach HIM how to ride a horse...

This week the blog broke a boring record: the longest period without any posts... usually this happens when I’m in the middle of nowhere with no internet access, but this time is because I have been dedicated to office work. Nothing very exciting going on in front of my computer screen... So, to compensate the delay, here we go with a funny post about a story that took place 14 years ago.

We were somewhere back in 1996. I worked at the Caiman Ecological Refuge (Pantanal) when we got the news that actor Harrison Ford was coming over to spend some days with his family. It was an enormous thrill, we had to build a strategic plan to ensure comfort and peace for our honorable Indiana Jones. We knew that they had come to Bonito and were not very happy with all the harassment from the press and other curious folks, so that our responsibility became even higher.

Our honorable Indiana Jones among Caiman’s staff.
Photo of unknown authorship, 1996

With us it wasn’t any different: the phone kept on ringing all the time, including fake journalists talking in a very poor English, claiming to be a “member of the actor’s staff” and requesting permission to enter the ranch. Others gathered at the front gate hoping to make a scoop. No way...

As the field supervisor at that time, I was assigned to join Mr. Ford on his field trips. And so came the day when we were going for a horse ride!

Picture this: Indiana Jones sitting still on a pantaneiro horse, me standing on the ground adjusting his stirrups and giving the standard speech of safety and procedures. As I talked, kind of strained with such a surreal situation, the images of our #1 adventurer galloping across bridges on fire over mile-high abysses under an attack of arrows kept coming to my mind.

The scene was abruptly interrupted by one of those famous grins that he does in the movies, followed by a humorous phrase: “young man, you’re talking to a Wyoming cowboy!”. It was hilarious, everyone in the group (including me) laughed, but I had to accomplish the protocol before we left. Not galloping over burning bridges, but riding slowly across the Pantanal fields while searching for wildlife. It was a memorable moment, not only because I was leading the raider of lost arks, but due to the fact that Harrison Ford is a renowned conservationist, who had come to the Pantanal to see its beauties and help on its protection.

Leaving behind the past of intrepid adventures, it is nice to see such an influential character devoted to environmental conservation – at least one thing we share in common :-)

Watch below the video clip where the actor waxes his chest for the benefit of our forests.
.
.
(Post dedicated to José Sabino!)
.