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!