Sloth is not a sin

Good news: the dream continues! It's too bad that even a thorough combination of photographs and written description can never fully capture the experience of actually existing in a specific place. That said, I will try my very best to paint a rich picture. Conveniently, doing so will kill two birds: it turns out that we're expected to keep a daily journal to hand in at the end of the program.

The Atlantic Forest is absolutely beautiful. Though it is technically a tropical rainforest, it is not at all the "jungle," which is the first association I make with the word rainforest (specifically, I think of the Second Voyage of the Mimi). It is not the Amazon. It isn't particular wet (it hasn't rained at all since I got here); there are not huge tropical flowers bursting out of every nook and cranny; and while the vegetation is lush, and largely different species-wise from say, that of the Northeast United States, to the untrained eye a lot of the inner forest does not feel so drastically different overall from the woods of Vermont, or upstate New York, or even parts of Connecticut. In fact, the Pacific Northwest, in Oregon and outside of Seattle, where I was last summer, struck me as much more exotic.

The most noticeable and exciting difference is the fauna. As I mentioned in the last post, there are very large flocks of parakeets that race around the trees right above the small campus of the institute. They move too fast (and fly too high) to really get a good look but I'm pretty sure they're green and they're definitely very noisy. But beyond the gates of the institute is where the wildlife gets really good. I've been on two hikes so far.

The first was yesterday, and calling it a hike is sort of a stretch--it was more of a stroll around the clay-like red dirt roads (and through the woods a bit) of the "neighborhood," which is a very rural and, as far as I can tell, fairly poor part of Brazil.

After oohing and ahing over some large and involved spider webs, we saw our first mammal: a sloth! Some deemed it creepy, some were thrilled and delighted (myself among them; I think they're cute and endearing and did a project on them in 5th grade), but all were fascinated and stood under the tree from which it was hanging, gape-mouthed and snapping pictures like the bumbling tourists we are. It did little but move very slowly and hang from a branch, looking kind of nervous.


My luck continued: later, having lagged behind the rest of the group a bit, two of the TAs and I caught sight of a few marmosets, which are New World Monkeys, high up in the trees. They are very small and move a lot like squirrels (but not to be confused with squirrel monkeys), running along branches and leaping from tree to tree. The one we could see best was very clearly sending warning signals via oral calls and a funny head motion--he was systematically jerking his head from side to side. I'm sure I sound like a huge monkey nerd and I guess it's true--after [inexplicably] taking two classes on primates, it was really, really exciting to see them in the flesh and in their natural habitat, no less. I only wish I could have gotten a little closer; my pictures are pretty much indistinguishable.

The second hike was today. We took a boat across the reservoir to place called Fazendinha (the Little Farm, in English), which is at the base of a mountainous woods. We plunged right into these woods but were joined, unfortunately, by a few stray dogs (there are SO MANY freaking dogs here, it's unbelievable) which pretty much shot our chances of seeing any wild animals. Despite that, it was a really nice hike along a path zig-zagging up a small peak and we saw a lot of traces of animals (armadillo holes, termite mounds, etc.) and some cool lichen.

At the top we sat on what our professor referred to as a "rocky outcrop" and took in a gorgeous view of the reservoir and the surrounding land. He pointed out eucalyptus plantations, which are abundant here, and we talked about some of the environmental laws in place, which are often ignored despite the incentive of lowered taxes. Farmers are supposed to leave twenty percent of their land as forest, and they're not supposed to build or farm within certain distance of the reservoir.

We headed back down to the Little Farm, where we ate an enormous lunch at the farm's restaurant. Lunch is clearly the big meal here: the spread included a salad bar (lettuce, which everyone here seems to eat in whole leaves, beets, green beans and carrots, cucumbers), potatoes, rice and red beans, pot roast, breaded chicken, pasta, and, of course, fresh juice. Dessert was dulce de leche and a repeat of what I earlier described as a sweet potato-orange concoction--I found out it is actually pumpkin. Pretty good but overwhelmingly sweet. After lunch, the brave among us took a swim in the farm's tiny pool. The water was frigid, but thanks to 18 summers in Nova Scotia, I have the highest tolerance for cold water of anyone I know (besides Dad, naturally) and remained undeterred.

Tragically, though I feel like I'm at summer camp for [almost] grown-ups, the program is not all outdoor activity and binge eating; I also have homework, which I should be doing right now, but old habits die hard and camp is supposed to FUN. We've been assigned a ton of reading and by tomorrow must hand in a paragraph proposing the individual projects that are going to be our main focus throughout the class. I'm thinking I will do something involving monkeys, but no idea what.

For those two of you who have made it this far, a few more details! My roommate, Olivia, who is great, happens to be Brazilian, though she grew up in Connecticut. Like my friend from the plane, she has three passports and speaks five languages (uh, me too?). She's been teaching me key Portuguese phrases, and is planning to stay in Brazil after the program ends, so we've been talking about me following her around for awhile--she has family in Rio, her grandmother lives on a farm somewhere between Rio and Sao Paulo, and she might be headed to Argentina at some point as well. The smiling, goldfish-shaped patch of lichen at right reminds me of her.

I should sign off here and prepare for my 9 am quiz tomorrow.... I'd be pissed about that but it's hard to worry about anything when you're watching the sun set over a calm, glistening body of water and rolling green pastures. Before I left, I was feeling wistful about missing late spring/early summer in the Tristate area, but winter here is very similar to that season in the U.S. and so I'm getting my fill and then some. Still, I wish I'd been in Amagansett for Memorial Day, hangin' poolside with the Selwyns and Minnie Driver...!

P.S. My biggest pet peeve re:blogs is that they are never well edited because they're so... timely? Please accept my obsessive compulsive apologies; if I had the hours it would take to obsessively and extensively edit myself, I would.

Also: Mom, because I know you're going to ask: yes, I took all the pictures.