Pink dolphins

We're back! I'm sitting in the nice air conditioning of my hotel room in Brazil, and realizing that I haven't blogged since the end of my Brazil trip, and waiting for the other guys to get back and I guess it's time. 

We woke up early yesterday, 4:45am, which was particularly difficult because of the time zone difference to start our journey into the forest. We met up at the gas station with some beetle collecting pals who were also connected with INPA, the research institution that was helping us with our trip. Breakfast #1 consisted of a nice bag of rolls, guava juice (from concentrate, not the real thing but close enough), and those Negresco cookies that Gustavo always used to bring for us last year in the lab (basically oreos that are a little less sweet). The beetle people car was similar to our Jeep renegade except it looked like it was actually meant for going on dirt roads and actually had trunk space. For most of the three-hour journey, the roads were not terrible. Rhainer expertly navigated all of the roads and besides occasional potholes that would sometimes cover most of the road, it was pretty smooth sailing...er driving. Apparently the beetle people hadn't eaten breakfast so we stopped for breakfast #2 those tapioca taco things with fresh cheese and some kind of palm fruit cooked into the middle of it. It tasted surprisingly meaty. They also gave us some cupuacu juice and let us try the fruit (I think you're not supposed to eat the seeds). The coolest place about this little breakfast joint was this tree that was over on the side. It was totally full of vultures or "urubus". 

After gorging ourselves on tapioca, we headed out to the first site. There were a bunch of red libelulid dragonflies and a huge gomphid that we chased forever but could never get. The heat engulfed us in a warm sweaty hug so I think we were all excited to get back into the air conditioned car afterward. Back up a couple minutes: so last time I went to Brazil, I bought these really great khaki adventure pants from DI. They work really well in the forest and they're lightweight and great. I probably should have bought some other field pants, but I ran out of time and didn't. Anyway, back to the story, we get all packed into our car, and began to back out. But instead of backing out, our wheels went deeper and deeper until the wet sand we had parked in was almost up to the bumper. We all get out to push the car out of the sand. I took my place on the right side of the car. On three we all pushed, but the car didn't budge. Some of our beetle friends came over to help so I kind of got scooted over to the side so I could only push the tire. On three we all pushed again, and we could feel the car wiggling a bit, but what I noticed the most was the rrrrriiippp of my pants splitting open right at the crotch seam. I don’t think I have ever had such a big hole in my pants. As everyone else was standing there worrying about how to get the car out of the sand, I was desperately trying to think of what I could do to hide this giant hole in my pants. I did NOT want my dignity to be compromised by the professors finding out about my folly. Thus, I pulled down my shirt and got quietly into the car as inconspicuously as I could (by this time, an experienced Brazilian driver had maneuvered the car out of the sand and onto dry ground-he was the one who discovered where the four-wheel drive button was). I kept looking over at Sam with a strained expression on my face, hoping that one of us would think of something.

Every once in a blue moon, a human experience moments of sheer brilliance, and if any moment of my life would qualify, I believe this is it. I remembered I had packed a long sleeve shirt in my bag that morning. I guess long sleeves are better to wear in the Amazon so you don’t get sick from the sun (insulation sickness?), so I had brought a couple, but I didn’t want to wear it because it was so hot outside, but I brought it with me in the car. I realized that if I draped my shirt around my waist with the sleeves tied in the back, you couldn’t really see the hole in my pants! So the rest of the day, I went around wearing my other shirt like a skirt, traipsing through rivers and climbing over branches and things. I thought someone might comment on what a strange style I was wearing, but they probably thought I had a strange sense of style in the first place with my fanny pack and flat-rimmed BYU hat. So, that was how I escaped the shame of everyone knowing that I had a giant hole in my pants.

The other big adventure of the day was seeing the pink Dolphins. The water in the Rio Negro where we were collecting was red, like tea because of all the roots and debris in it, which was impressive in the first place, but apparently the river dolphins are also somewhat pinkish! I would classify the ones we saw as more gray, but it was still super cool! One of the Americans in our group, the beetle guy, didn’t really want to make the drive out to see the river dolphins, because he’d seen dolphins before and would rather go look at beetles, but Dr. Bybee and us were pretty excited to see them. We had to sit through this presentation thing where they explained all about the dolphins and how we could only touch them under their mouths not on the top of their heads, and then we got to go sit on the dock right next to the girl who was feeding them and pet them and stuff. I wasn’t entirely sure how it worked if this company “owned” the dolphins, or if they were free to go wherever they wanted on the river, but apparently the money we paid went to conservation, and in any case, this kind of business seems better than other businesses like selling their eyes for amulets or harvesting their organs and things. Apparently they used to have a huge problem with people killing the pink river dolphins because of the legends about them. I guess sometimes these pink dolphins turn into really handsome men and get women pregnant, so a lot of husbands were mad and wanted to kill them. Anyway, we didn’t get pregnant—I think that would have been a really awkward phone call—but the dolphins were awesome.

Acai from outside the mall:) I ate this twice in one day

This is an acai tree! Acai is this tiny purple fruit that they grind up and add sugar to.

We were looking for rimonella dragonflies by holding back waterfalls and I found this cute megalopteran

These were some pretty rad orange mushrooms

After going to a couple more sites we headed back to our hotel and finished the evening out with some arroz and feijao and our first acai cup of the trip (we were really glad that Dr. Bybee was as enthusiastic about acai as we were and Rhainer supports us in our goal to eat as much of it as we can).

These are the reasons I blog: First, I want to post all my pictures without seeming like I'm bragging or showing them off to people who don't care. But more than that, I want to be a writer. I feel like so many of the problems with the world today come because of poor communication. Scientists in particular seem to get a particularly bad rap for being difficult to understand and sometimes precariously uppity in their words and expression. I hope that I won't ever be a scientist who thinks my work or my hobbies or interests are somehow more important and interesting than those of others or that having letters behind my name make me deserving of honor or praise of any kind. Even though this stuff is pretty amazing. #seeyalaterseeya

Neverland or Something

This one's gonna be a doozy. A lot of stuff happened the past little while.

Starting with the good stuff. Acai with mango cream. I think the occasion was... Rhainer had a meeting until late and we convinced him and our other friends Gustavo and Natalya to go again. It was amazing:)

And this is Sam's. Looks good right? Gotta love the Acai chocolate combo.

This Acai place was also a frozen yogurt joint. The idea was good... everything you can imagine you put on your acai, but to be honest, I always get carried away at these places.  I put too many things on it, so it was still good, but not as classy as the acai pictured above.

The first time we went to the zoo, remember how we were so disappointed because we didn't see the lobo guara (maned wolf)? Well, one morning when we didn't have much to do, we ran over to the zoo again, which is very close to the university and has free admission, to hopefully see the lobo guara this time. We were disappointed however. We saw only an open field. The lobo was probably sleeping or hiding. But we did find out that the first time we went to the zoo, we totally missed the jaguars and wild pigs! So our return trip was worth it.

Due to some kinks in our well thought-out plans, Sam and I ended up with some extra time. It's kind of an interesting question: where do you go if you can go anywhere? I bought this hiking app and was looking for some trails and the closest one was in this city called Aguas da Prata. It was this beautiful trail that supposedly had 7 waterfalls! We booked a hotel and headed over there. This is the cathedral that was across from our hotel. In Europe, I loved looking at all the cathedrals and the ones in Brazil are nice as well. Very stylistically different. It's like they're more modern and also built for the wet climate. Very nice.

Also very close to our apartment was this cute little theater. When we walked past it, I thought to myself, wouldn't it be cool to see a play in Brazil? But then there were police cars and officers in front of the building. When we asked what was going on, they told us that there were no plays tonight, only the birthday party of the police. But they said it was open to the public and we decided to go. It was really cool, we got to sit in a little booth and listen to a band play the Brazilian national anthem (which I absolutely love--it might be my favorite national anthem that I know of). We didn't stay the whole time because we couldn't understand a lot of it and it was a bit boring, but still cool!!!

This is the trail of the seven waterfalls. It followed the railroad track most of the way. We weren't sure if the train still ran on these tracks sometimes so we were careful to not lay down on the tracks.

This place is breathtaking. We actually didn't get to see all of the waterfalls because we had to get back to leave for our next trip, but I'd love to go back someday. People thought we were crazy when we mentioned going to Aguas da Prata, but I think it's lovely.

This is the banana tree we passed on the way. Bananas are cool!

Us being happy to be alive.

I can't get enough of these pink trees.

We got back to Sao Carlos and left for Ubatuba. This is our crew. Sam, Rhainer, Gustavo and Natalya. Also, Natalya's adorable but ancient poodle and myself. I think this picture was taken right after Rhainer had impressed us with his talent of snatching dragonflies with his bare hands. Incredible.

This is Ubatuba, the greenest place I've ever been.

The backrow crew

Our first stop was Felix beach. It felt like what I imagine Neverland feels like. The water is perfect swimming temperature. The tree-covered hills surround and isolate the area. There's shells and sand-dollars (or sea cookies as they're called here) everywhere.

Around the corner, there was a freshwater stream that had lovely blue crabs (sorry no pictures). Rhainer offered me 10 bucks if I could catch one with my hands but they're fast little devils!!!

This is us wading in the stream close catching dragonflies. There were a lot of the little black and blue ones (Argia) and other Coenagrionids along with some hetaerina!!!

Sometimes I think I don't appreciate the butterflies enough. Probably a lot of these are like... endangered or something. Maybe not, but what I actually believe is that every one is probably a different species. I don't understand exactly how you can find three different species of the same genus in the same area, but this fight for life leads to incredible diversity. My favorites are the big blue morpho butterfly we see flying around all over.

Here's a big Anisoptera we caught (Anisoptera meaning dragonfly as opposed to Zygoptera, damselflies). I think it's an aeshnid.

Trees.

This magical stream. There were biting shrimp in it and if you stood too long in the same place they come and eat the dead skin off your feet.

Here is Rhainer being our experience provider. I think he's talking about the big waterfall on the other side of these rocks. Or pointing to the spider above my head.

And here's us going to the waterfall.

And the big spider. Amazing.

Gustavo doing Yoga poses on top of the rock.

Rhainer being the experience provider.

Me with thumbs.

Here is some moss with the waterfall in the background.

I didn't feel like swimming with my clothes on so I dared Sam to go behind the waterfall and I would buy her ice cream. She did it, and the ice cream was really good.

Here are these hooligans after they swam by the waterfall.

Sam is really happy to be catching damselflies.

This is a cool wasp that will probably sting this spider.

I think I'm trying to take a picture of the biting shrimp.

My best scientist face:)

This is Natalya and Mel, her dog. Mel might be the first damselfly collecting dog ever to come in these rivers.

One time it was awkward when we caught this dragonfly and the abdomen fell off. I felt a little bad, but you know, not every specimen can be perfect I guess.

Yeah! Happy collectors!

Rhainer says if you are dying of thirst in the rainforest, cut open a vine and drink from it. I want to try it.

We all really liked this perfectly placed scenic branch with bromelias on it.

Apparently there is some property close to the beach that you can buy for pretty cheap. I would not mind having a house here.

Here is the skeleton of a whale. They're pretty big I guess.

And here's my creation of a fish eating Sam. Pretty good if I do say so myself.

Well. To make this trip even more memorable, we got a flat tire.

Fortunately our fixing crew was really fast and knew what they were doing.

Our next destination was a place that was more Cerrado (Brazilian Savannah). We went to a national park called Serra da Canastra. We saw these beautiful marble-like tadpoles.

We had this awesome waterfall place all to ourselves most of the morning.

And we figured out how to snatch dragonflies with our hands!

You just have to be sneaky.

We walked up this stream as well and saw quite a few nice dragonflies.

It's crazy gorgeous.

We ate our lunch as we looked at this view.

It was very nice.

We entered the park from Sao Joque do Minas and found this dirt road with cows on it.

This is the cow we named Luanna. She's pretty nice.

This is where we first saw the toucan in the wild. I was amazed.

And I like this plant with little red pom-poms.

Here's a waterfall we could have hiked to I guess.

It soon became apparent that our car would not make it far on the dirt roads (some of them were pretty bad). So we talked to the people at our hotel and they told us we could go on this safari type thing.

This is the spring where the Sao Francisco river begins.

And again.

This is the entrance of the park. We had to pay extra because we were American.

We went swimming in this gorgeous river. It was so clear.

This is the picture we took together after we saw the Lobo Guara (the maned wolf). We were so excited!

And here it is. The Legendary Lobo Guara!

We also saw many tamanduas (giant anteaters). They're huge! And amazing.

There was a great view of the surrounding land.

And this cool bird.

This was the pousada (guest house) where we stayed. Very nice.

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That night we ate some pretty yummy manjocka gnocchi. We like our friends.

On the way home, we stopped at this place to buy cheese and saw this bird farm where they had these gorgeous pheasants.

And more long-legged chickens.

The next day we went to this place called lost paradise.

We saw basically the whole metamorphosis of a frog right here from egg to adult.

To our surprise, after we had already said goodbye, we ran into our friend Cristina at the cheese place.

Here's Sam being a model.

And the sunset:) What a great week.