Gilia's Travels in Brazil

last entry: contemplation on volunteering in Brazil
Thursday, September 26, 2002, 05:40 p.m.
Rio Negro Farm
I felt like I'd stepped into the past there. The house is an immense and creaking old wood structure. There must be ghosts too--a huge swarm of bees swarmed around one night, and in the morning, a dead bat lay on the ground at the front entrance. There is also a family chapel and a little cemetary out near the main capybara bog. I found a candle lit at the little graveyard, right at dusk....and nobody else was around. So, this kind of mood set the tone of my stay. Magical Realism at its best!

The staff is pretty good. Not as affable as the incomparable Eduardo Falcon and family. It was not long before I felt as if I'd also stepped into the Pantanal telenovela too. The earthwatch group made up the bulk of the guests, but it was good to see other Brazilians there--a family of 5 from Sao Paulo. And the former Mexican environmental minister also stayed for 5 days (as guests, not volunteers). The men who accompanied her drank 5 bottles of tequila too. They were a very raucous group at night. They were investigating the prospect of setting up a similar eco-lodge/research station in Mexico. But they knew how to party when the sun went down.

Food is excellent, and the desserts are likewise. The cattle raised on the farm are for consumption by the Fazenda's guests and staff, and I saw a cow slaughtered right as I arrived. This also helped set the mood of stepping back into time, when men (or women, as I met an amazing Pantaneira) killed cattle with their own hands, and not on some agro-factory slaugherhouse line. Linda, another who has been lucky enough to visit the Jaguar Ecological Reserve, swore that the food at Eduardo's was better. I would agree that the Rio Negro food was at least as good as Jaguar's.

Rooms are excellent, hot water and power anytime you need it, and a laundry service if needed too. I did my own in the big sink out back and hung my stuff on the clothesline. Despite the fact that this is a pretty fancy rustic hotel, I got the feeling of utilitarianism. Meaning, if there were places off limits to us, I didn't know, because it felt as if we could all share in the labor. The cooks DID hang a sign on the kitchen door asking us to not enter and exit to get drinks at will...this after a few days of a regular conga line of guests going in and out to get beers and sodas. I understand their need to work in peace, and have some control over their kitchen. But for instance, as volunteers, we could wander just about anywhere, under the auspices of helping out, going to work. This, I liked very much. I felt it gave a sense of really helping run the place; a more intimate view of the day to day operations of the Fazenda than a regular guest might have.

Incidentally, I had my own room. this is not normal, and I am grateful to Alexine for arranging it. Volunteers shared rooms. Two to three per room. Couples stayed together. Hours were 5 or 6 am. to 6 pm, with a big lunch at noon. Long days...with some rest in the heat of the afternoon. There is a lab at the farm, which is very clean and brightly tiled in white. From time to time, this place was also off-limits, mainly to protect the curious children wandering around, but if you asked, the researchers were more than happy to let you watch them work.

So, the work! It ranged from baiting rodent traps along transects, to helping Alexine tranquilize and radio-collar a peccary, to helping Don measure depths in salinas and oxbow lakes, to taking mammal surveys along the river, or by jeep around the farm's propertylines. Also checking camera traps and stopping for coffee breaks with neighboring farmers. Some of that neighborly fraternizing that is vital for research. There were also jaguar and bat researchers who left the day before I arrived. I heard they were very wonderful to work with. A number of these research projects are just started, also. So, if you go within the next few years, you may get to work with some of these amazing people! The work was very physical and dirty, no surprise there.

I particularly liked working with Alexine, who will be there for some time, and her husband Don. Also Vitor and his girlfriend/colleague Natalie, who are rat researchers. His team of researchers were not as fluent in English, but that was fine, because I practiced my Portuguese! The rest of his team was likewise very young (Vitor is 27). Their work is also terribly interesting: collecting rats and other rodents and small marsupials from traps in the morning and then taking samples in the afternoon. They had this assembly line of dispatch in the lab. This means they killed little cute mice every day, which was fascinating to watch, but must get to them after a while, all that killing. They had to take so many individuals for all their studies: genetic, disease, census, ecology, management stuff. Vitor's funding came from a variety of sources, so he had to take a lot of data.

Animals: there are giant otters on the river, which sadly, i missed seeing by minutes. My timing with them was always off, despite going on the river several times. However, I saw another tapir (dashing out of a baia as we drove round in a jeep), another 2 giant anteaters, lots of deer, rheas, hyacinth macaws, black skimmers, king vultures, peccaries, neotropical river otters, and a tortoise. So, the wildlife is abundant. Not many primates to speak of, though I also saw some howlers on the outer edges of the farm. As a volunteer, you see a lot just while you're out working. I liked this part: having over a week to just hang out and let things reveal themselves, rather than going out in cars and looking for stuff day in and day out.

The group of volunteers I joined were also fascinating. George Benson, 75, is an Earthwatch regular. He goes on at least 2 trips per year with Earthwatch. He's an incredible fellow, very kind and funny and amiable in an old odd uncle kind of way. I count him and Linda among my friends from that stay. There were several teachers too--from England, and from the U.S. Teachers of art, English, science, kindergarten! A teacher's organization sponsors a scholarship to send people to Earthwatch expeditions. Very cool. Also HSBC gave Earthwatch a huge grant, and sends some of its employees on trips. A fellow from India and a fellow from the Philippines were on our trip. This rounded out the international feel of things very nicely. It would have been wonderful to see more Latin Americans or Asians, but the group we got was great.

Although I was a volunteer interloper, I was tucked into the rotations of the daily activities and was busy just about every morning and afternoon. Also, in the evenings, researchers gave little talks and slideshows on their work, explaining their goals and some of the data collected. Despite all the hard work, there was plenty of fun time--rowing on the river, sleeping, strolling around the farm, with the house in view (didn't want to wander off and get lost), or just getting to know some of the staff better.

Fazenda Rio Negro
Thursday, July 25, 2002, 05:31 p.m.
hello!
I am on my way home now, via Campo Grande, capital of Matto Grosso do Sul state. This is a pleasant city with ties to the Pantanal which are most apparent in the proliferation of agricultural supply stores.

Just finished up a week volunteering with researchers at the Fazenda Rio Negro, an old southern Pantanal Farm that was purchased 2 years ago by Conservation International. The Farm now operates as an ecotourist inn, and research station for mostly Brazilian researchers doing work on mammals, aquatic life and bird surveys. I dropped in on an existing Earthwatch volunteer program there to be the interloper volunteer. Must say I would recommend a vacation there to anyone. It was fantastic.

First of all, the old ranch house is huge, and magestic. The food was delicious, the staff....well, the staff was pleasant enough, but my experience of them and their lives there was not without major soap operatic overtones. And the researchers, wow, what a bunch of characters! They were:

Alexine, an American who grew up in Sao Paulo, learned portuguese on the streets and now researches peccaries and feral pig ecology in the Pantanal. The day I arrived, her pig pen trap, never a success since its installation last fall, finally earned its keep. She caught a pack of 12 (!!) peccaries! She radio-collared two of the animals. And two days later she caught a collared peccary, the species that has eluded her traps for 2 years. And then two days following, another collared peccary! Alexine is a kick-ass woman--tiny, savvy, funny, and very candid. She is also a mom to two great kids who ran around all week in the Fazenda, variously hitching rides on the backs of jeeps and frolicking in the river.

Don aquatic researcher and Alexine´s husband, also American. Very mild-mannered and friendly guy, super nice, has lived in Brazil for 8 years and still gets razzed by the other Brazilians over how bad his Portuguese is. Had volunteers making transects of lakes in the reserve and taking fish censuses. I threw a cast net into an oxbow lake and set the record for fish catch: two large catfish and 3 small caratids, one a lovely irridescent sheen. We threw the fish back.

Vitor and his Carioca six-pack
Twenty-six (almost 27) year old guy from Rio and his youthful and intimidatingly good-looking pack of fellow biologists, and a vet, also all Cariocas. Of course all of them were very friendly too, but they were still like the cool group in highschool, you know? This team arrived in a borrowed Land Rover Defender and set up over 260 traps to catch rodents. Their day consisted of getting up at 5 am, setting out at 5:30 after breakfast, and checking and rebaiting traps. If they caught any variety of rats, oppossums or mice, they brought the poor little animals back, put them in small cages and lined them up in the Fazenda´s lab. They made no bones about the fact that they had to collect enough specimens of each species to reach a critical mass for disease, DNA and diet studies. This means they operated a, well, dispatching assembly line in the afternoons. Very fascinating. More about this later.

Cesar another young Brazilian, ornithologist doing bird surveys in parts of the reserve. Due to the chronic breakdowns of most of the vehicles (not including the afore-mentioned pristine Land Rover), he had few days with volunteers. Mostly set out on his moter bike to far off areas of the reserve and then made up for lost time by hanging out with the mostly American volunteers. His English improved very much over the course of the week. I teased him about his commitment to birds when, one afternoon, I was out with Alexine´s research assistant doing radio tracking, and we spotted 2 pairs of king vultures, rarely seen at the farm. Cesar, upon hearing this only half an hour later, did not immediately jump on his bike to go take a look.

Ellen Chinese-Brazilian Ph.D candidate in zoology, conducting mammal and fruit surveys on the farm. She was very funny and a perfect host to the volunteers and foil to the other researchers. Despite her working years in the field and knowing her country´s bugs very well, she still wore cute tank tops and cut offs into the field, thus suffering numerous bug bites. But she looked good in the field! If anyone has heard the NPR program´ Savvy Traveller episode on the Fazenda Rio Negro, but the guy who recorded it is her boyfriend! I have added the link to the page at left.

Marion prickly South African cowgirl, Alexine´s field assistant who works at the farm full time monitoring Alexine´s pigs. She did Alexine a favor and took me out with her two days in a row, and put me through the tough girl paces. I finally had a break through with her after hitting off with a nearby landowner (in Portugues) who is breaking in her horses, and by not taking any of the "I had rather not be driving a volunteer around today, my work would be much easier by horse or moterbike, in other words, ALONE" bait she threw my way. By the end of the day, we were making in-jokes with each other!

I will try to add more to this, as there are more characters....including the volunteers and other guests (I haven´t even started in on the former Mexican Minister of the Environment and her two companions, who went through 4 bottles of tequila and 3 of rum, in 4 days), and resident animals.

tchao!

Rio Hiking
Sunday, July 14, 2002, 06:24 p.m.
Hello! I am just returning from a great day at Pedra de Gavea. Click on the link I provided with today's entry and check out the hikes. If any of you are EVER in rio, do yourselves a favor and go for a hike with Rio Hiking. They are great and the guides are all young, friendly experienced Carioca guys.

Speaking of Carioca men, I must now eat my words about Brazilian men being ho-hum. So, I agree to meet my guide at 9 am on Sunday morning, and who shows up at my hotel but a tan, lean, 21-year old Heath Ledger lookalike (think curly longlish blond hair, fit, big green eyes) named Bernardo; to top it off, this part-time student-guide-surfer-rock climber has the sweetest disposition! We laughed our way up and down the Pedra and now my picture of Brazilian men is more adjusted to reality. Perhaps the nice-looking ones are to be found doing out-doorsy activities, which would make sense in Rio, since it is very much like Los Angeles in its sun and surf and mountains locale. Also, there is a pretty high value placed on aesthetics here....Oh, but Aaron, this guy didn't hold a candle to you!

So, the view from the Pedra is pretty spectacular. You can see 360 degrees around to the north and south of rio and out to the islands just off the coast. And you know what, the stuff to the south is pretty nice. There are a really nice couple of communities along the beach which are cleaner and more neighborhoody than Copacabana and Ipanema. But that area is also less mountainous and dramatic than the famous areas. Anyhow, to hike to the Pedra, you drive up some winding residential streets which look a bit like the winding streets of Hollywood hill residential streets, and park at a small dirt lot. Then you start climbing through the jungle. The area surrounding the back side of Rio is all national park, and the more you climb, the more jungle you can see. On our way up and down we were serenaded by little marmoset monkeys, who darted around in the trees and vines and fed on big fruits of one of the tropical trees here.

There's some steep rock scrambling to do on the way up, and I steeled myself through my vertigo and got up. I had to repell part of the way down, and was pretty lousy at it, having never done it before! Proceeding from the top of the rock climb, you hike up through more higher altitude brush and then through some trees. Quite a bit of the climbing is done on roots, and the trail is only partly eroded in parts. Hundred/s of people do the hike each month, rather than thousands (we saw only 10 other hikers on the trail for how close it is to the city), so the trail has some longevity potential. Also, it's short but difficult for some because of the steep ascent. I'd say it's about 2 miles up? It took us about 1.3 hours, with a rest, to reach the top.

There are views from almost everywhere once you get halfway up. And the jungle is very beautiful too, with places where you can see out over the tops of trees, through a cascade of vines growing from above. Bernardo pointed out a few places on the landscape, including this abandoned military building that looked like an old barracks, rising right out of the jungle. He said it was a place for doing mountain training for the army, but I think it's a left-over torture center from the military regime (and of course I have no verification of this, it just LOOKED sinister).

There were some nice things in the landscape too, like the hang-gliders, the soaring black vultures, the swallows zipping around the cliffs, and the clouds swallowing up the landscape in the distance. YOu can see the whole Rio city from there, and even out to Terezopolis on good days (to the west, higher and cooler than Rio). I'd liken the view to Mount Si or Mount Pilchuck...but why compare. This place is rather incomparable.

We had a late lunch of a sandwich and fresh juice at a great little beach side kiosk in the Praia de Ipatinga (I think that's the name), and then drove back to town along a very pretty highway that hugs the rocks. One side is favela looming above, the other side, ocean. Then, boom, out of the tunnel and back in Ipanema. Bernardo dropped me off at the Ipanema sunday market where I bought a few souveneirs of Brazil. If you're ever travelling, hold out for the markets! They're a better deal and you can find nicer and cheaper stuff at them. Plus, they're interesting people watching.

good night for now! Tomorrow's the Primate Center outside the city where I'll learn about reintroduction projects around the country. Followed by Sugarloaf and Corcavado. Think I'll try and time Sugarloaf for sunset.

Tchao!

Rio de Janeiro
Saturday, July 13, 2002, 07:40 p.m.
Now in the truly spectacular city of Rio de Janeiro. Right now it exists in a particularly evocatively legendary state: it´s misty, with dark rain clouds overhead, making the city seem like a secret shangri-la that emerged from the sea and the mountains. You really feel the scale of this place just by walking on Copacabana Beach, or around the Lagoon behind Ipanema. Corcovado and Christ the Redeemer rise above you, and to the north, Sugarloaf marks the end of Copacabana. At night, twinkling lights float up and up on hills you can no longer see, and the sea creates the constant soundtrack of waves crashing. When I flew in, our plane landed at the city airport. The landing patterns go over the city and hug the Corcavado very tight and low, meaning you get a spectacular view of the place before landing, if a little dizzying. It was the most breathtaking landing ever, partly because of the dramatic setting, the landing speed and the proximity of the hills around the plane. Quite an entrance this place makes!

I haven´t been talking much here, since I am here alone. It´s nice to be quiet and just look at things. Such as the teams of young volleyball players lined up along Copacabana Beach, doing their jumping jacks in formation, readying to play a Saturday night match. Or the soccer match up the beach, with bare-foot players flying in face-plants in the sand. The referee seemed a bit happy with the whistle, everytime a player tripped in the sand, he´d tweeeeet! the whistle. A crowd had gathered to watch. Or to observe the gaggle of Carioca ladies, decked out in their jewelry (brazilians like jewelry, lots of it, stones, gold, BIG) and their makeup, tight pants, teetering around in high heels looking at tchlotkes in the antique fair of a city mall, while a lone musician plays musaac-y renditions of familiar background music such as an up-tempo ´strangers in the night.`

People exercise here...mostly running and biking along the beaches. Older grande dames walk briskly in chic sweat outfits and humongous sunglasses; a tiny compact black woman in a mini-skirt walks a dog almost as big as she is; men go for walks in their swim trunks, which have only slightly more coverage than speedos; young Carioca men walk along with their surf and boogie-boards heading to breakfast after a morning´s surf. I too took a run yesterday, along Copacabana and down to the top half of Ipanema. It would be easy to get used to this place.....

My evening will probably consist of having dinner at a nearby buffet place & churassuaria (sp?), and then retiring to my hotel, the only slightly musty Copacabana Rio Hotel, where I´ll consolidate my luggage, watch some Esperança (telenovela), and Big Brother Brasil (their amusing reality TV show where the dishy blond and the perpetual base-ball hat wearing dude have struck up a romance even though the afore-mentioned dishy blonde really likes the surfer dude who wears a do-rag on his head.). Then to sleep. My plans don´t get all that ambitious in a city I don´t know, and as a lone female, I´d rather not be repeating ´no me molesta´ all evening long. Fortunately, I have not had to do this even once yet. A simple `nao falo portugues´ or ´nao moro aqui´(I don~t live here) usually does the trick. That or a dull expressionless stare.

Muriquis
Thursday, July 11, 2002, 09:30 p.m.
Oi from Ipanema, a small city deep in the middle of Minas Gerais State, Brazil. It´s 30 minutes from the Reserva Biologica do Caratinga, or the Caratinga Reserve, a 900 Hectare fragment of Atlantic Rainforest. About 100 or so of the rare muriqui monkeys live there. This fragment remains only because the owner of the land, a now deceased cattle and coffee grower, had the foresight to think these monkeys on his land might be something special. Muriqui are the largest of the new world monkeys and are also called the wooly spider monkey.

I arrived here on Tuesday, with Regina Ribeiro, a guide who specializes in ecological travel interests. She~s good with birds, mammals and very good with staff at reserves, hotels and the like. Without her, I would not have seen as much as I have. She came recommended by my friends Marty and Kevin. Kevin is a wildlife photographer (www.kevinschafer.com) who has hired Regina several times to do work in Brazil. Anyhow, Regina and I get along great and I even got an off the pay-roll invitation to a meditation retreat at her friend´s finca (weekend house) outside of Belo Horizonte. Unfortunately, theres a travel conflict! Hahah.

So, anyhow, we´ve spend two full days at the reserve and seen four kinds of primates; brown capuchin monkeys, brown howlers, buffy tufted marmosets and muriquis. The latter two are highly endangered, meaning their populations are only about 1000 individuals, in the world. We´ve walked up and down the reserve roads and watched monkeys crossing into different parts of the forest, drink from streams, climb down to the ground and run across the road, leap from one tree to another, sleep in trees, pee from trees, throw leaves, branches and food at us, peer curiously down at us. It´s been a very physical set of days. But very nice. The sun came out today, providing some great picture taking opportunities and also some great general viewing of the monkeys feeding and taking an afternoon nap.

Another nice thing about being here is that the research team (all young women) have been very friendly and open to my questions, asked in english and sometimes tried in portugues. They are all biology students, all Brazilian and all doing animal behavior of some sort on the muriquis. There is another scientist here, a man, doing a census on the howler monkeys of the reserve. The howlers and capuchins are in abundance, are not endangered and don~t seem to compete directly with the muriqui, so noone tends to worry about them. The last census of the howlers was done 20 years ago! The marmosets and the muriquis, on the other hand, have both been studied, the latter continuously for the last 18 years. The researchers know the names and faces of each individual muriqui in the main group at the reserve.

Also, I think our time with Gairo, the most senior research assistant/field assistant, here since the beginning of the research 18 years ago), has been some of the best. He knows the place inside and out, knows all the animals, has ´great eyes´ and Regina knows him well from all her visits here. So she asked him nicely for us, and he took us on some very steep trails and up and down and all over the reserve, the ´behind the scenes tour´. IT was this way of climbing a trail that we came upon the muriqi for the first time. (okay, we didn´t just happen upon them. The researchers told us where to find them, by radio, as their job is to follow the monkeys from dawn to dusk every day) We climbed and climbed, and then some rustling in the trees next to us indicated the monkeys were near. Suddenly, we were surrounded by them. They live in a huge group, about 50 or so individuals, each with a name and personality fully recorded. Then they started to move downhill and we followed them, back down the hill we~d just clamoured up. But this is their domain, so we follow them!

Muriquis are a very subtle monkey. They make group decisions somehow, and their are no real dominent leaders of the groups. They operate in a benevolent and benign manner. Even when they sit and feed on leaves, they occasionally whinney (they also smell like horses!) just to see who~s around. The whinney is almost always followed by a round of whinneys from nearby trees. A sort of hello sort of roll call. They make a vocalization call also when they are lost or separated from the group, but what I´d never seen is this non-emergency or curiosity type of ´hello´ vocalization in monkeys. It~s very endearing, but familiar, because it´s almost human, RIGHT?

well, more thoughts on this later. my time is up and i must go pack for our early departure tomorrow! Good by Caratinga Station. I have a feeling I~ll be back here.....Aaron? You listening? This place I got not ticks and very few mosquitos.

Salty Food and Other Cultural Observations
Tuesday, June 11, 2002, 09:06 p.m.
Hello, found a computer center here in the small city of Ipanema in the state of Minas Gerais.

FOOD
My stomach is churning on the overly salted pizza which I ate for dinner tonight. I think I have come to regret that decision. The Brazilians LOVE salt, and sugar. Meat is always salted before cooking, and then cooked with more salt. Good luck finding pepper to counter the flavor! The Cariocas, those from Rio de Janeiro, are even known to eat their pizzas with catsup and mustard. Paulistas, those from Sao Paulo, turn their nose up at this, since many of the latter hail from Italy and claim that the best pizza in the world is in Sao Paulo.

Coffee is offered with sugar added, and more on the side if you like. The coffee portions are much smaller, and coffee is sipped, not gulped with milk, as we consume ours in Seattle.

LAUNDRY
Most laundry is done by hand here, even hotel laundry. Since it is sunny and warm most of the year, this makes sense. The clothes dry quickly, and with less energy consumed. They even have these ingenious sinks with tilted bevels on one side, with a grooved surface like a built in washboard. I~ve never got my socks cleaner! Another thing, if someone does your laundry for you, as Laura the housekeeper did at Pati´s house, they~ll iron everything. Even your underwear and ratty field pants.

Brazilian Women
Brazilian women are beautiful a pleasure to behold. They stroll or bicycle down the street in tight pants, mini-skirts and tank tops and high heels at 6 in the morning. They are always dressed up and dressed in color, and dressed with flair and fun. The men, as of yet, are not so much to look at, but that´s more of a conformity issue. The men conform to look the same uniform way and don~t make waves fashion-wise. The women conform to push the boundaries with clothes. I think the men got the better bargain because the women here are so fun to look at!

That said, the women I~ve met and worked with in the far flung places I´ve visited are a dynamic, smart and passionate bunch. It´s wonderful to know such people exist all over the world. You just have to look a little harder for them. But it´s great when one of the people is your very own guide, as is the case with Regina, my guide for this leg of my trip. But then she came recommended by some of my favorite people.......more on the rest of my time here in the next entry.

Macaws
Monday, July 8, 2002, 06:04 p.m.
Oi from Belo Horizonte, in the state of Minas Gerais. Belo is the third largest city in Brazil and looks like a cross between San Francisco and Berkely, without the water. Anyhow, I'm only here for a short time before my guide Regina and I head out for Mata Atlantica, or Atlantic rainforest, to see Muriquis in the Caratinga Research station.

Anyhow, I've been thinking a lot about my parents because of all the birds I've seen. They love to watch birds, and my dad makes his living drawing and sculpting them. Dad, you should come down here and just hang out for a while! You could get used to the Skol beer and the cool home cooking! Well, not the mosquitos and ticks, but those are part of the place too.

Yesterday when I was still in Matto Grosso State, Eduardo took me to Chapada dos Mina___. This national park is north of the city of Cuiaba, the largest city in this state. The scenery there is very reminiscent of the American Southwest, The Superstician mountains or a smaller Grand Canyon, and we went to a canyon known for its macaws: cidade de Pedra (city of stone). We waited a while, perched on a cliff overlooking 400 meter drops, because it was cloudy and windy and cold (not optimal for watching birds). But then suddenly we hear the squawk of macaws in the distance. Then we see them, flying in formation, and playing on the wind like Ravens do. They are such funny crafty birds and they have such fun with life. They were red and green macaws, 5 of them, flying together like jet pilots, up and down the faces of the cliffs and over the gallery forest 400 meters below. Their rainbow colors against the craggy surface ofthe rocks was breathtaking too.

There are macaws in the Pantanal too, and tons of parrots. Behind The Jaguar Ecological Preserve lives a family of up to 20 Hyacynth Macaws. These birds are the biggest parrots in the world, and called Macaws because of their longer tails and broader beaks. They are generally much larger than parrots and parakeets also. The Pantanal is a haven of parrots, parakeets and macaws, and is famous for these rare Hyacinth Macaws. They are big, blue, noisy, sassy and fun to watch. They hang out in bunches and fly in pairs. The couples fly so close their wings touch sometimes. According to Eduardo, they like tourists and do fly-bys of us. I had to agree. It's almost as if the birds are commenting on your hat, or squawking in warning if you come too close to your tree, "hey, who invited a HUMAN to the gabfest?!"

There is no comparison to seeing these birds in zoos or someone's living room. YOu've got to see and hear them fly to appreciate their splendor. They vocalize and fly in formation simultaneously, zooming in and out of trees, landing together, exploring together, squawking in interest and surprise. Very amusing birds. Eduardo's uncle has caught poachers trying to take the birds for sale in the wild pet market. That's when the gun in the the house comes in handy! Glad there are vigilant Pantaneiros out there looking out for the birds. But the birds are part of their livlihood too, so there's reason to be vigilant.

I'll update my bird list later, but here's a smattering of highlights for those birders out there:
hyacinth macaws
blue-winged macaws
turquoise-fronted parrots
black-headed parrots
monk parakeets
chevron-winged parakeets
jiribu storks
wood storks
buff-necked ibis
green ibis
bare-faced ibis
snail kites
savannah hawks
great black hawks
bat falcons
troupials
scarlet-headed blackbirds
unicolor blackbirds
great horned owls
burrowing owls
toco toucons
....and lots more I can't remember because I don't have my book with me! I'll write more when I get to Rio. Tchao!

Pantanal--and a Tapir!
Monday, July 8, 2002, 05:27 p.m.
Let me first say that I came to Brazil hoping to see a tapir, and NOW I HAVE SEEN A TAPIR IN THE WILD!!!!

Let me preface this with a little background info on the sighting. From Teodoro Sampaio, I flew to Matto Grosso, gateway to the northern Pantanal. The Pantanal is the world's largest wetland and has remained mostly intact ecologically due to the strong floods and drought cycles every year. Imagine the Everglades the size of Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands. This special environment also makes it a haven for over 600 species of birds and many mammals, including the tapir. Since there are not so many trees, and lots of open flood plane, it is easier to see wildlife.

I picked a pousada (rest house) to stay at which was locally owned, the Jaguar Ecological Reserve, run by the Pantaneiro (from Pantanal) family of Eduardo Falcon and his father and uncles. Eduardo is an affable 34 year old who is an up and coming guide in Brazil. This means that he knows his birds in Portuguese and English (and can mostly speak English, but we got along in a hybrid of Portuguese and English), has a spotting scope for up close viewing, and high beam flood lights to use at night for spotting wildlife. Armed with these tools, we went out every day and either walked or drove roads and trails.

The main road into the Pantanal is a dirt road called the Transpantaneira Highway. About 5 cars will go by on a weekday, that's how busy it isn't. More pass on weekends when people come fishing or Brazilian tourists come for a sunday drive. Wildlife, especially birds is is abundance and viewable from the road. Often jaguars are seen along the road, but this time, I didn't see one. But viewing wildlife, especially elusive species like the jaguar and tapir is more a matter of luck AND work, than just luck. But I wasn't there to just see large sexy carnivores, anyhoo.....

(**OPINION HERE, skip if so inclined** Also, some "wildlife viewing" is actually baiting of the animals with food, which may make the animals more easy to see, but In My Humble Opinion is unethical and the lazy way to do things. If you want to see an animal that close, go see it at mealtime at the zoo. Do I need to mention that I also see people throwing rocks at caimen [S. american alligator-like repite] to get them to move, and I almost got out of the car to personally throttle them? I resorted to just a dirty look and mouthed the words, "estupido")

So, working to see the animals means getting up before dawn on most mornings, standing in the back of the truck to hold the spotlight and point it at the forest and ponds while you drive along. Also means heading into the forest for hours and often waiting til the birds decide to come out. The former is how I finally managed to see the tapir. It was my last day at the Jaguar Reserve, and I was the only guest and Eduardo and I headed out at 4:20 A.M. to drive along the Ste. Isabel side road. We'd spotted the tracks of a large tapir along this road the day before (as well as a jaguar's footprints), and knew there was one there. Also, this road is historically a good place to see tapirs.

At 5 am i finally spotted a tapir using the Pousada's spotlight, feeding on the edge of a forest, about 30 meters from the truck, knee deep in the water of a small marsh. My tapir vision (a nice healthy, fat and smooth looking adult, perhaps a male?) lasted all but 15 seconds before the startled animal took its leave into the forest. This is an average tapir sighting, albeit a bit closer than usual. They're very shy because they're hunted for food sometimes.

Other wildlife highlights:
Ocelot (same one twice on the Ste. Isabel Road--same side road as tapir sighting)
Margay, a small cat, very similar to the ocelot, but more elusive, (at night, along T.Highway
Capybaras, lots of them lounging by ponds and marshes along the road. World's largest rodent, very amusing animal
Caimen, same places as Capybaras
Giant Anteater (st. Isabel Road), I actually crept up on the animal by staying downwind of it, and got about 10 meters away before it detected me turned to look at me head on, and then galumped into the brush--amazingly bizzare and endearing-looking animal
Southern Tamandua, another anteater type of animal (along a trail on the Pixiam river north of the Jaguar Reserve)
Jaguarundi, another small dark cat, seen during the day scurrying across the highway
Marsh Deer
Red Brocket Deer, a small solitary deer with tiny antlers, looks like on of those prehistory precurors to the horse
Neotropical River Otter, also seen crossing the T. Highway at daytime.

more wildlife
Sunday, June 30, 2002, 05:38 p.m.
well, besides all the wildly celebrating Brazilians in Maringa and as seen on our television here in the peace of Pati's house, I've seen other wildlife. My dad asked for a list of birds, so here goes:

king vultures (a pair lives at Morro do diabo park)
black vultures, just about everywhere
striated herons
toco toucans (flapping over fields near MDD park)
blue and white swallows
smooth billed and greater anis (all over the place--they're like crows here)
crested cara caras (they like big trees in the park and the roadkill along the country roads)
burrowing owls (in settlements near town)
rusty-marginated guan (in park)
pigeons: pale-vented & picazuro flying around countryside
white tipped dove?
red-rumped caciques near park HQ
turquoise-fronted parrots near the Morro
American Kestrals
White-fronted woodpecker
guira cuckoos
barred ant-shrike (near marsh in park)
bare-throated bell birds (very common in park)
Nacunda nigh-jars, very common at night in the park
roadside hawks
laughing falcons
neotropic comorants (along the river)
wattled jacanas on lily pads and climbing on capybars to get grubs--in the same park marsh mentioned above
boat-billed flycatchers, very common
black necked stilts, very common in small ponds
ringed kingfishers, along Parapanema river
barn owls, hunting along roadside at night
snail kites, hunting above Iguacu falls

My animal list includes all, which were seen at the MDD State park over the last 2 weeks:
crab-eating fox
brown howler monkeys
black-faced lion tamarins
brown capuchin monkeys
caiman
Azara's agoutia (a medium-sized solitary rodent that is often seen scurrying along park roads)
troupe of white-lipped peccaries (pigs)
red-brocket deer, a smaller deer than our North American version, with very little antlers
pit botrops (very poisonous snake), seen along road in park
river otter, in pond near park HQ
capybaras in marsh near park HQ

I'm sure this list will grow, and couldn't have happened in the first place without the guidance of Pati and her colleagues. They took me on roads closed to most visitors to the park, and on monitors of radio-collared animals. The most special observing was of the black lion tamarins. I followed them with Karla and her team for 2 days and could sit there for hours waiting for the little guys to peek out of their tree.

ONe really exciting but very difficult day was had with Patricia and one park worker and one of her field hands, Zezinho. Patricia wanted to clean this very trace trail to a clearing in the park. In 10 years of working here, she's never been to this clearning, shes' only seen it from a distance or by plane. TWo years ago another scientist doing a plant survey followed GPS coordinates and cut a trail to this clearing. So we went to find it. The trail was rumored to be 5 Kilometers long, but it felt like 20k. It took Zezinho and Dario a lot of time to find the signs of the prior trail. These signs included old cuts on shrubs and on these big liana plants. iN other words, real hard tracking! Don't be confused by the animal trails you cross along the way, either! THis kind of secondary forest is very dense too, with the thorny lianas, vines, roots, and tall grasses and trees to climb over and through. Plus, it was hot.

Eight hours later, we make it to this beautiful dried marsh with tall grass and wide open sky. It looked to be about 200 meters across and 800 meters long. Tapir heaven (mud, cool places to rest during the day, some fruiting palm trees on the perimeter). The soil was black, compared with the red soil of the rest of hte park, meaning, it's wet here year-round. Patricia took some pictures, eyeballed it and we turned around to hustle back before it got dark. Guess how long it took to get back? Less than an hour and a half! That's how hard it is to "clean" trails in the jungle. You basically have to recut the trail from scratch. This effort is worth it because of the opportunity to see what happens in this clearing. It's remarkable to think that there is still so much of this relatively small park to discover! Patricia could spend her whole life here!

World Cup
Sunday, June 30, 2002, 05:21 p.m.
Hello,
All day long on the television, silly Brazilian TV personalities have been celbrating the World Cup victory of Brazil. I"ve never seen so many green and yellow wigs before. Girls make tube tops and bikini tops out of the Brazilian flag. Brazilian versions of cheer leaders kick and twist while some pubescent sings World cup themes from the last 5 World Cups that Brazil won.

we were on our way back from Foz do Iguacu, trying to listen to the game on the spotty radio connection, driving through what I've dubbed the breadbasket of Brazil (soybeans, corn and other crops are grown in Parana in abundance). We passed through small towns at 10 in the morning where truck loads of happy Brazilians were already getting the party started. Rumor has it the next week will be Carnaval and tomorrow's a holiday.

On our way back, we had to take a confusing exit to a smaller highway, and we missed it. We drove around in Circles, slowly and unwittingly making our way to the middle of this fair-sized city, Maringa, where droves and droves of estatic Brazilians hung out of passing cars, flew flags from their bikes, motercycles, and balconies, and all traffic law seemed to have been suspended. It was useless to honk at anyone because everyone was honking! People dancing on streetcorners, waving at passing cars, parading down the main downtown streets and blocking traffic in their delerium.

We managed to find our way out of the city after asking 5 times for directions. This city Maringa is actually known for not putting street signs up. So I guess that's their way of trapping people there and forcing them to shop. Incidentally, this city IS known as the best place shop for clothes outside of Rio and Sao Paulo. Every city needs a subversive marketing strategy, I guess.

Back home without incident, but really tired. Had Fajoida(sp?) at the IPE office with all of Patricia's colleagues. Karla made the BEST fajoida. This dish is rice, beans cooked with sausage and ham, with a fried flour and tomato sprinkle condiment, salsa and collard greens. Real good. Traditionally served on WEdnesdays and Saturdays.

Project Landscape Detective
Monday, June 24, 2002, 09:54 p.m.
I've been too lazy to format my entries, so here goes:

I should explain why I'm here in Teodoro and what Patricia Medici does. Let me give a little history lesson:
The Brazilian Atlantic rainforest is mostly gone, 7% is left. Morro do Diabo state park is the largest interior fragment (there are larger fragments and parks along the Atlantic coast of Brazil), and surrounding this park (it's about 37,000 hectares) are various fragments that range from 400-4000 hectacres. Patricia studies how mammals use natural (such as creekbeds) and agricultural (such as fields or plots of trees) corridors between these fragments. Tapirs are mammals that do this, hence the name Landscape Detective.

In order to monitor this behavior, Pati and her team radio collar animals every 6 months. They dig pitfall traps to catch the tapirs. Check out the tapir link on the left for pictures of this. No animals have been harmed in these pitfalls.....Each tapir wears the collar for about 2 years. Over the last 5 years, Pati has captured 19 animals. To make her study super tight, she needs to capture 35 animals, or 10% of the estimated population of tapirs in the area.

Pati and I met through, where else(!!), the internet! I donated some equipment to her project and she invited me down, probably never imagining I'd actually take her up on the offer. I think her project is fantastic and walking around seeing the park, meeting her colleagues, and also the families that live near the park--it all makes the research come alive. Now, if only a tapir would stroll into the picture!

So, part of my tour of Brazil had to include Patricia. Even though she's not conducting capture rounds during the time I'm here, I've helped out in other more office-related ways. (I'd initially imagined I'd be digging pitfalls and cutting trails...)For instance, I helped her edit a grant proposal, and now she's threatened to send me her first draft of a Ph.D proposal! (zowie) And I helped hold the radio telemetry equipment. So I'm sort of a lackey-guest. : ) Mostly a guest who gets to see everything and meet everyone. Very nice. Also, it has become apparent to me how much of Patricia's success here in Morro do Diabo is due to her charming and loyal tending to her relationships with everyone in her circle. SHe is universally adored. But she's tough too!

Anyhow, it's fascinating to see this science and wildlife management in action and i'm just along for the experience. I'll report more as I can.

tchao for now. --gilia

black lion tamarins
Monday, June 24, 2002, 09:28 p.m.
Ever had ticks? I had many of them today. I found out I had an equipment failure: my pants, the ones that convert to shorts and "breathe easily"? Well, they dont' keep out the bugs. There's a little space where the zipper ends and begins. Different pants tomorrow! Patricia had to take packing tape to my bare back to get the last ones I couldn't pick off with my fingernails. NOt very dignified! Ick! Yes, today was my first slog around the actual forest. I've managed to only skirt the forest by way of well-traveled paths and roads through the park. This morning I joined Carla, a 24-year old Paulista (from Sao Paulo), and 3 of the seasoned field assistants who are all from Teodoro, Omero, Cicinho and ....oh, I keep forgetting his name! Drat--for a whole day of watching black lion tamarins. The troupe we followed is a new one to the census. The project has taken census, monitored behavior, overseen reintroduction, and generally been an advocate for the tamarins in Morro do Diabo park and adjoining forest fragments. Ah, for anyone who doesn't know, tamarins are tiny primates, very furry and agile with little grumpy-looking faces. There are many varieties of tamarins in S. America, and the three most rare are here in the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest. The other two are the mico-leao-dorado (golden lion tamarin) and the mico-leao-de-caro-preto (black-headed lion tamarin). There are about 1000 members of each species in the wild here (I think). We spent the day either sitting under the tree where the two tamarins rested in an old woodpecker hole or perched on a branch and kept an eye on us, OR, racing through the woods after the tamarins (racing through the treetops) and the field assistants who have a 6th sense about orienteering here. It also helped that the female tamarin wears a radio collar! The assistants operate the radio telemetry equipment like seasoned pros....well, because they are! One of them, Omero, has worked for Patricia's organization IPE, and as a ranger here for 14 years. So, the tamarins were very curious about us. I captured a few good pictures, I think, and then just watched with binocs or, since we were close enough, with my bare eyes. Other primates that live here, and that I've seen now, are the brown capuchine monkeys, and the howlers. Have not seen any of the largest mammals yet, the tapir and the jaguar. But each day at a time, eh? Everyday something new has revealed itself, and I think this trip is shaping up along that theme. It's not a passive experience, but it's not rushed. Other recent highlights: --taking a boat across the Parapanema river to eat a late and huge lunch at a restaurant that overlooks the park. --walking along and across the small river that borders a young settlement farmer's 10 hectare land. He called Patricia to tell her about the tapirs that feed at the bottom of his property. This settlement borders a medium-sized (1000+hectares) fragment where tapirs and other wildlife are known to live. So Patricia and I went to his home and met his lovely family (really, this family was very beautiful and very nice, with a cute little girl named Nadia), and hiked down to see the "tapir heaven" area on his property. Loads of footprints on the riverbank. Patricia may do a capture round here. She's hoping to get GPS collars for her project. Any takers on donating a couple?!!!? --Using the radio telemetry equipment one night when we went out in an abandoned sugarcane field and tracked Esperta, a recently radio-collared tapir. It was spooky out there in that field next to the park, with the beeping of the radio over the white noise...these radios only work when you're high up or very close to the animal. Also, tracking an animal that is active at night can be taxing on one's sleep patterns. But Patricia and her team are very hardcore and put in several nights a month between them tracking their 5 animals.

Teodoro Sampaio
Tuesday, June 18, 2002, 10:59.
Here now at Casa da Patricia Medici (my generous Brazilian researcher host )in Teodoro Sampaio. This town is a small dusty place with a big and bustling main drag and high unemployment. It's kind of like an old Western town with little sidestreets that turn into rutted dirt roads with men riding in horse-drawn carts. lots of young people out wandering in the warm evening air. I've met the owner of Pati's favorite bar and one of her field assistants and his wife. Trying to practice some portuguese, but it's mostly with little kids, like Gabriel, Laura the housekeeper's little grandson, who is four. I guess you have to start somewhere. Patricia is also very helpful and generous helping with pronunciation. Tomorrow we go for a hike in Morro do Diabo State park and also perhaps try and get a radio signal on one of the tapirs Patricia is tracking but hasn't seen in a while. This female tapir appears to be hanging out in the center of the park feeding and not moving much. Pati worries when the signal indicates inactivity because sometimes it means the animal has died or the radio collar has fallen off. But it usually means that tapirs are lazy and just lie around when they find a good spot to eat! More tomorrow after my first venture into the woods here. Tchao!

First entry
Thursday, June 13, 2002, 02:41 p.m.
Just playing around--seeing how it formats