Back to the city! Last night was a fantastic night out in the town. Our whole crew needed a day to relax and enjoy beautiful Curitiba. We went out and shared some drinks, some laughs, and made new friends- I was even told that my portuguese accent was great (Dad- you would have been so proud!)!!!
Hands down the best compliment of my life.
As wonderful as the city is- I still have so much to say about my experience in the Atlantic rain forest. A couple of days ago our group went to a research station on a reserve in Pontal do Sul, which is part of the rainforest that is right on the coast. The ground there is saturated with water all year round- so we got extremely muddy. We hiked around with some local guides and got to see restoration and regeneration areas, growing forest, and old growth forest. I realized then that I had never seen a true forest such as this... the trees were giants. 20-25 meters tall, some 3 meters wide (oh yeah- we are science students in Brazil, so now we have to use the metric system)!! It was one of those humbling moments. Those trees have stood through time for hundreds of years- watching animals burrow in their roots, natives use their bark, and invadors cut and burn their children...
The trails also contained tons of wildlife. First, we saw dozens of armadillo burrows, and many anteater foragings. One tree had the scars from a honey badger trying to get into a bees´ nest in its trunk. Then it got real. We saw tracks from large otters and wild pigs, followed by puma tracks! This was a wonderful find, until we saw JAGUAR tracks. Yes. The king of the jungle. I put my hand next to its paw and found it to be the same size... Running across one of those in a dark alley would not be fun. We also found the craziest toad that looked just like a leaf and had the craziest face-adaptations I have ever seen. Its local name was called Crazy Maria (pictures will be posted soon).
The next day after this we got to go on a long boatride in a large estuary near Serra do Mar. On it we saw the mangrove and restinga habitats, filled with birds, herons, brown boobies (a crazy diving bird), and many others. There was also an old fort that had been built 300 years ago during the colinization era, and still stood. Hover, none of these things compared to the dolphins. Everywhere we looked we saw packs of dolphins playing and swimming in the water, their fins visible as they came up for air. I even saw a few babies accompanying their mothers. As we turned to go back to Montanha Beja-Flor, the sun came out and the pure blue evening sky reflected off the water. I floated in a blue world surrounded by misty mountains and the sea wind whipping through my hair...
No comments:
Post a Comment