So that's it. Little bits and pieces and very much in a nutshell! I thought I'd come up with a last post of "final thoughts", but I think that would be hard to put on paper. Plus, I think some of the things you take away from a trip like this, are like small little treasures that you keep just for yourself. 

Thus, my last offering is just a map with the ground that I covered in the last 3 months.

(Green lines are over land or river travel, and blue are flights.)

FLONA Tapajós

It's been a while since my last post, and my travel adventure is actually over. Still, I wanted to finish the story and have it here to look back on, even as my travel euphoria is slowly fading... 

After coming off the boat in Santarém, I spent the next day making arrangements to get to Floresta Nacional do Tapajós (FLONA Tapajós), and then taking a short afternoon trip to Alter do Chão (nearby town boasting white sandy beaches on the Tapajós River). Because of the rainy season, the river was so full and there were no beaches to speak of. Neither Santarém nor Alter do Chão made very big impressions on me.

FLONA is another story. It's a forest reserve, or a protected area, of about 544 thousand hectares. FLONA is an extractive reserve, meaning that people still live within it's borders and use the resources in a sustainable manner. (There are issues with this on both the social and ecological side of things, so "sustainable" is perhaps up for debate. In any case, it's a work in progress towards that purpose). More here.

The day I left for FLONA Tapajós, I met 3 backpackers in the hotel and they decided to join in. Wolfgang from Germany, Teresa from Australia, and Luis from Barcelona, Spain. From Santarém to FLONA one takes a 4 hour hot, sweaty, dusty, bumpy bus ride to the Reserve. On the bus we also met Dona Conceição, a community leader from the town of Jamaraquá (inside the Reserve), who was to be our host. Visitors to FLONA always stay with local families, that house and feed you, as well as organize hikes and canoe trips while you're there. It's a form of creating revenue for the communities. It's also a much more authentic way to visit "the jungle", rather than staying at a 5 star hotel catering to rich foreign tourists (blah). Dona Conceição was sweet and very motherly -- i think we were incredibly fortunate to have stayed with her.

Plus, THIS is where we were put up - a separate house that her husband had built, right by the Tapajós river. A refreshing swim in the river was barely a hop and skip away. Not bad, eh?

Just before that swim we took when we finally arrived, we stopped at the neighboring community of Maguary. Rubber tapping is one of the extractive activities within FLONA and we saw how the rubber trees are tapped, and how they process the milk to make handicrafts. 

They are so creative! The rubber is used to make leather-like products, like handbags and wallets, and marketed as sustainably extracted rubber. They're sold in other parts of Brazil and exported to Europe too.

We only spent 2 days in FLONA (I wish it had been more!), but while there all our bathing was in the river. The Tapajós is a pretty major tributary of the Amazon, so this is NOT like going for a dip in the stream.  And no, we had no encounters with piranhas or alligators.

Day 2 in FLONA started with a 5 hour hike with our guide, Edimilson. Not surprisingly, we didn't see many critters. Part of the area we walked in was secondary forest -- most of the bigger, valuable wood-trees were removed (before FLONA was a Reserve), and that also means less fruit-producing vegetation that would attract animals. We heard birds, saw a snake, and LOTS of ants. My overall experience in the Amazon proved that ants are hugely important there -- breaking down all that leaf litter (and also finding ways to get into my backpack to attack my food stash). The bites are painful too!

The trees were amazing though! We got to a relatively intact bit of the forest after a while. Here is a samaúma tree.

Theobroma cacao, or Cacao. Chocolate lovers agree, this is a sacred plant!

Another amazonian fruit, piquiá.

The view from the highest point along our hike. The forest and Tapajós river.

The afternoon was spent on a canoe trip in the "igarapé" or flooded forest. 

Last night's dinner in Dona Conceição's kitchen.

I had an amazingly good time here. The place was beautiful. We saw the sunset from our hammocks on both days. There were no noises except the water and a massive orchestra of frogs. My fellow backpackers were good company, and Dona Conceição dispatched us all with an affectionate hug and kiss.

The River-Ocean

"Rio-Mar is what we call it", said the man on the boat, that is the River-Ocean. And no wonder! I could barely make out the shoreline as my boat chugged down Rio Amazonas, the world's largest river.

I was aboard a ship heading from Manaus to Santarem, a 400 mile (~650 km) journey downriver. At this point I wasn't sure exactly how long the trip would take... After all, we had left port with a slight delay of 5 hours! (For which I did hardly bat an eye! So getting used to this :) ).

In the end it was two amazing days of taking in The River, learning to be very comfortable in a hammock (at super close quarters!)... and doing nothing. Can't think of a more enjoyable place to be doing nothing at all...

The River and rain on the horizon.

This is not exactly my boat, but same basic idea. We had three decks - lower one was cargo, middle one was hammocks, and top was for sauntering around and watching tv if you wanted to (and who would want to??).

Some little town we stopped at along the way. One had the name "Obitos" (Obituaries)...slightly ominous!

The hammock deck: redefining "personal space". There were 3 overlapping rows of hammocks - the ideal solution for packing in as many people as possible. Still, an incredibly colorful way to travel.

Me, probably about 30 hours into this adventure!

Amazonia!

At the end of March I said goodbye to friends and family in the south of Brazil and flew to Manaus,  an urban pocket smack in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. This was my first exposure to "the north" of Brazil. I know it's still part of the same country, but sometimes it sure didn't feel like it! 

For example: most intercity transportation in Brazil is done by bus, and by know I had been to countless bus stations figuring out my next connection. Now,  I needed to find out what port would sell me a boat ticket to go where I wanted (yes, the best roads in the Amazon are rivers!). Also very perplexing was spending more than two hours at the port, fervently questioning the sales lady (and other innocent bystanders) about boat schedules and still coming away incredibly confused! Some of the northerners seemed to have mastered the art of non-answers...

Also, have I mentioned the heat and humidity? No wonder there's no such thing as a hot shower there. Just cold, please!

Two interesting places I visited in Manaus were: (1) Teatro Amazonas, an opera house built during the rubber boom, boasting italian marble, french light fixtures and other european finery (No need to go without opera while in the jungle!) and (2) Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Amazonicas (National Institute for Amazonian Research, INPA for short).

The Theatre.

 Amazonian manatee (Trichechus inunguis) housed at INPA. This is a baby who probably lost it's mother to fishing. (Communities that live along the rivers are sometimes very poor, and won't forgo the protein a manatee provides them).

Two adults equipped with sensors and tracking devices that were to be reintroduced to the wild. 

Curiosity: The amazonian manatee is the only herbivore that is able to survive long periods of fasting!

My home-base during this trip has been my grandmother´s house in São Paulo. My "Obatian" (japanese for grandmum) has been living in the same house for over 50 years. She´s now 82 (and of enviable health), but is planning to sell the place before the year is out. Despite being very independent still, it´s probably time for someone to keep a closer eye on her. She´s planning to live with one of her daughters in São Paulo. This means "Obatian´s house" might not be hers any longer on my next visit to Brazil - a sad thought for sure. Having moved around so much myself, it was nice to have a place that was always there, and relatively unchanged. A little bit of familiarity and permanence.

Whenever I´m there, I like digging up old photographs. Black and white ones of japanese ancestors. Baby photos of me and all the other grandchildren. My grandparents when they were young and handsome.


Then and now. Photos on the stairway.




My mom and grandmother. Not sure what year. Is it just me or are they two beauties?


March 2009. My grandmother and I. She´s still so cute!

Of Mangroves and Men

"Vocation is the place where your deepest joy meets the world’s deepest need”. (Friedrich Buechner)

Early March found me in the state of Bahia, in the northeast of Brazil - a region known for capoeira, typical seafood dishes, music, and amazing coastline. I went to visit some relatives there, to enjoy the beaches, and to visit another NGO working on marine and coastal issues in the southern part of the state.

I spent two short, but very intense days in Caravelas -- a little town in the midst of a relatively preserved mangrove area. The town still has much of the colonial architecture, and was one of the first to be founded when the portuguese "discovered" Brazil. It is the departure point for tourists who want to visit the Abrolhos Archipelago, the largest coral reefs off the brazilian coastline. Unfortunately, apart from some tourism (that to a large extent doesn´t benefit locals) there isn´t much else in the area other than fishing.

I visited Caravelas with an great-uncle who has been fishing there for the last 30 years. The last few he´s been going out with a local, "seu Raimundo". We stayed with seu Raimundo, his wife and two young adult children. They are very simple people who haven´t had access to much formal education, and are scraping by with a bit of fishing, since Raimundo has been unemployed for several months. It never ceases to amaze me how people who have so little are often the most hospitable. Their little house was spotless, their food delicious, their joy in having you in their home very genuine. They´re not complainers, or lamenting their situation, though they admit that things are tough.

We woke up before sunrise to go out fishing in the river (and in the midst of the mangrove) that goes out to sea . Fishing was not super successful - acording to my uncle and Raimundo, there are still days when they catch a good amount. Still, any fishermen will tell you there´s no comparison with what they use to catch a few decades ago. Stories about the area´s resources being exploited abound... Even while we were out, we caught some small fish that I thought should be returned, but the scarcity of the resource makes them hesitant to throw anything back.

It was very cool to have gone out to the mangroves, to have met Raimundo and his family. At the end of the trip I felt a little world-weary though, thinking what the Caravelas region will look like in another 30 years and what the locals (who are just squeaking by as it is) will do when the resources are even more spent. Man, there´s so much work to be done!

360 degrees of the mangrove

Praia da Barra

Fishing for shrimp. Had a chat with him after and a look at what he had caught.

Sunrise out on the "channel".

I "caught" this one, the biggest of the day. I spotted him floating stomach up. He was still alive, but had swallowed a fish too large to get down his throat and was choking. Made for an excellent fishing story!

The mangrove.

Brazilian Critters

São Carlos

This whole week I've been in São Carlos, staying with a college friend and her husband. Another good friend from São Paulo came to stay for a few days. It's been pretty mellow - lots of catching up, going out to eat and drink. I've also gone on what I'd call, "the nostalgia tour", that is: walking around the university campus where I spent my undergraduate years, visiting the town zoo (the first place I worked as an intern), eating at some of the same coffee shops and restaurants. Not a lot has changed...I even saw some familiar faces, like the driver on the bus to campus. Sometimes it feels like what's changed the most is me. It's still good to remember, and experience one of the most brazilian sentiments -- "saudades" (which roughly means "to miss something").

Campus entrance

Biology Department

Lake on campus

Fine dining with Claudia and Priscilla

Last ones are pics from the zoo (the São Carlos Ecological Park, would be the direct translation). Though small, they have a surprising collection of animals, most of them endemic to Brazil, and many of the Cerrado region (a biome that exists only here, and similar to a savannah). Needless to say, many are also in risk of extinction.

Jaguar (Panthera onca)

Giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla)

Rhea (Rhea americana)

Black spider monkey (Ateles paniscus)

Tapir (Tapirus terrestris)

Colorido (Colorful)

A couple of my favorite pics so far...

Bio ´99 Reunion

Here are some pics from my visit to São Carlos where I got to see a few close friends, and other colleagues from my cohort. It felt like we were temporarily transported back to our college years (not a bad feeling at all). It was great to find out how they are each making their way in the world, and trying to save a little bit of our planet, each in their own way. Also a good feeling was to see these people after such a long time and find that we still have stuff to talk about, things in common...and a lot of fun when we´re together.

My former roomies Claudia and Luana. (That´s the same couch we had in our house years ago!)















Same, plus Marcia and Thais.

Our class (some missing, and a few significant others added).

The Death Train

So...when I last posted (for real), I was in Santa Cruz. From there, one can take a train to Puerto Quijarro, which is on the border with Brazil. The train is infamously named "El Tren de la Muerte" and until now I´m not sure exactly why. Perhaps it´s something to do with drugs being transported along this route.

With such a name, I was bracing myself for something quite awful. In truth, the worst of it was a little smell of mold, and two vintage tv sets in our compartment that kept blaring music videos by Julio Inglesias. (I thought, please not for the next 16 hours!). However, it soon changed over to a spanish dubbed version of the newly released `Taken` with Liam Neeson. Hmmm...wonder how they got that in DVD so fast.

Upon arriving at the border, I shared a taxi with some fellow brazilian backpackers and went direct to the bus station, for yes...more time sitting down on a bus. The route we took went smack through a section of the brazilian Pantanal. The Pantanal is an alluvial plane and is the best place in Brazil to see wildlife. Yep, don´t head to the Amazon - the vegetation is so dense there you won´t see much. But the Pantanal is another story...from the bus window I saw some gators (Caiman crocodilus), Emas (Rhea americana) which is the largest south american bird, some kind of deer, and Tuiuiú (Jabiru mycteria), also a bird, quite large, and with a very funny name. I seemed to be the only passenger glued to the windows and trying to spot all sorts of wildlife.

I stayed 2 nights in Campo Grande and from there had planned to either tour the Pantanal for a few more days, or visit another city called Bonito, the ecotourism capital of Brazil. In the end I gave up on both, for several reasons, including the fact that I had no more clean underwear. If that means I´m not a hard core traveler, fine. ; )

So, after more bus time (phew!) I made it to Sao Paulo, and have been happily resting at my grandmothers...eating good food, and wearing clean clothes.

The weekend promises to be full of travel and excitement again. Saturday I head to Sao Carlos, a smaller town in Sao Paulo state where I went to University. There I´ll get to see some really dear friends from ages ago. I can hardly wait...Sunday I travel to the island of Florianopolis in the south, and will be taking a week-long graduate course on reef fishes.

Vamos a la Playa

I´ve been wanting to upload a few videos, but haven´t yet been at a computer that could accomplish the task in less than a gazillion hours. Here´s a short clip from the floating islands. Hopefully more to come (depending on technology).

Sampa

Just a quick note to let you know I´ve arrived safely in São Paulo, this mega-city of 19 million people. Will post again soon!

Santa Cruz

After a 17 hour bus ride from La Paz, I arrived safely (and exhausted) in Santa Cruz. The train to the brazilian border was completely booked for today, so I head out tomorrow. There´s not much to say about Santa Cruz itself, except that things here are completely different from the west of the country. It is HOT and humid, no more cool andean climate (thought I better get used to it!). There are less indigenous people and the Santa Cruz department (¨state¨) voted against the new constitution. This is where Bolivia´s most affluent live, so this whole idea of taking from the rich and giving to the poor doesn´t go over so well.


Ok, map! I like this one with the topography. Look for La Paz and now, Santa Cruz.

La Paz and Tiwanaku

Arriving in La Paz I was super well received by Gabriel and his family (thanks, Lu for putting me in touch!). Not only was I blessed by their hospitality, Gabriel is a fellow biologist (soon environmental engineer), AND a part-time tourist guide. The first day I got to tag along on a ¨La Paz on Foot¨ tour. We were joined by a father-daughter pair from England who were great company, and interesting people (having worked for development agencies around the world).

Our walk started in El Alto, which used to be a neighborhood of La Paz, but has since become it´s own city, with population about 900,000. It lies on the bolivian altiplano and is now the fastest growing city in the country due to migration from rural areas. The vast majority of the population is indigenous. El Alto people have a very strong sense of community and are very politically engaged. They played an important role in forcing out ex-president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada when they blocked all access routes to La Paz and left the city stranded. They are strong supporters of current president Evo Morales.

From El Alto looking down to La Paz

After walking down from El Alto we visited the markets in La Paz - furniture, clothing, fruits and vegetables...and contraband iPods for about US$40. (Almost bought one!). That day was also the beginning of a ¨La Feria de las Alasitas¨, a important traditional festival where you can buy miniatures of everything (e.g. new car, new house, internet cafe...), in hopes that you will get the real thing in the year to come.)
The day after the election we went to Tiwanaku. (BTW, the constitution was approved by the majority: click HERE for more). Tiwanaku culture is considered to be the most important pre-Inca civilization. What I liked the most were the drawings carved in rock - on monoliths and doorways - and are distinct from anything I saw in Cusco and Machu Picchu. Many of the symbols, for example on the ¨Puerta del Sol¨ were used to keep a calendar of the year - showing how advanced they were in their knowledge of astronomy.

Bolivian altiplano and part of the Cordillera Real

Tiahuanaco or Tiwanaku

¨Puerta del Sol¨ in Tiwanaku

Relief carvings