right now i am sitting quite comfortably in what might as well be a tempur pedic bed in Curitiba, Brazil in a place where Catholic clergy stay near the college campus where we will study. we got into the city last night after a very full day of travel.
where do i even begin to describe this trip so far...oh my. completely overwhelming, exciting, sensory overload, challenging...fab-U-lous!
long, 13 day summary to follow...
we were out of contact while in the rainforest, no internet and power by generator for only a couple hours per day. we stayed in the BDFFP (Biological Diversity Forest Fragmentation Project) research station, a couple hours north of Manaus. we landed at the airport after an uneventful flight from miami (the best kind). my seat on the plane was next to Alex, who coincidentally was on the Coral reef trip with me back in march. we immediately separated our forest things and got in a small tour bus to drive straight north for an hour or so. we then pulled to the side of the road and switched all our things into somewhat ancient looking 4-wheel drive toyota pickup trucks. the ride from there was 45 minutes of bouncing and what felt like hydroplaning through mud...totally fun though. the camp was pretty basic, a couple shelters, kitchen, bathrooms, and a "classroom." there were hammocks for sleeping, beds would be impossible because of the mildew.
our days consisted of sweating, lots of hiking through different parts of the forest in the morning, sweating, lunch, more hiking, sweating, Siesta!, dinner, which looked just like lunch, and hours of card games, bananagrams (scrabble-like), star gazing, and of course getting to know each other. everyone here is really great and i believe that we have such a wonderful group of people. each person is so different, interesting, smart, funny, and entertaining.
but alas, this is a research trip (honors even, gasp!) so we did work. it was nice though, we were pretty much given free range to study something in the forest that we found interesting. Lily, one of the girls on the trip from Chapel hill, and i decided that vines (from here on out to be referred to as Cepos) were about the coolest things we could find. all the different types were really cool and we even had a very scientific, weight strength test that consisted of us swinging from a few and climbing a few others (pictures to follow). we concentrated on the vines mainly at the first campsite, Camp Collosal, and did a separate project at Camp 41, where we stayed for the last four or five nights in the forest.
we of course were not out in the jungle completely alone. Sandra, a grad student from outside of Sao Paulo and studying at the university in Manaus stayed with us the whole time and i had the greatest time getting to know her. there was also Junior, who pretty much made sure we didn't get lost, kill ourselves, or be stupid. he was amazing and knew so much about the forest, species, trails, etc. our cook for the time in the forest was Don Edwarda, a very sweet lady who spoke not one word of english but could fix a mean chicken casserole.
the second camp was much farther into the forest than the first. one of my favorite parts was the second to last morning. one of the groups did their second project on different bird calls and i wanted to go with them. we got up at 5:00 and were hiking by 5:20. we heard (i'm told by the bird nerds) McCaws, parrots, the captain of the forest, howler monkeys, and a few other things that i can't remember at the moment.
the howler monkeys were about the coolest things in the world to hear. i dont know how to describe it, google them. one thing i will not miss about the forest, however, is the smell of everything i owned, including myself, after, oh i don't know, 2 days. mildew is a very pugnant smell. industrial soap is needed to remove the stench. everything. everything. was. wet. all. the. time. my "quick dry" shirts laughed at me when i washed them and hung them on the clotheslines to dry. towels were perpetually damp, shoes dirty, and i'm pretty sure the smell of the hammock after 5 or 6 nights repelled bugs better than my mosquito net. we had running water in a stream at the second night and washing clothes in that really helped with the dirtiness though, and it was fun to "shower" in a stream-pool.
i'm tired. it's an hour ahead here and we have a tour of the city tomorrow starting at 8:15. hope you enjoy this, i'll update again tomorrow with the rest of the story from the amazonas and the first day or so in Curitiba.
i am having an absolutely wonderful time here in brazil. everyone we meet is hospitable, nice, welcoming, and a complete pleasure to be around. i am really looking forward to some time in the third largest city in the country.
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