Life is rough ... as part of our work for the Institute, it was required that we spend a weekend in the actual Mamiraua Reserve. When we took our little tour of the lake of Tefe, we were mesmerized by the pink dolphins, scenery, floating houses (and floating bar, by the way) right in the middle of the lake. Although quite impressive, I was still completely in awe of the Reserve, and the continued vastness of the many rivers that comprise the region. 
I think I found out why either I was always meant to be a Brazilian or I was one in a prior life - no one is ever on time (except our taxi who takes us to the Institute to work every day). We were originally supposed to leave Saturday morning around 7am, but true to form, I was running late. I was actually more behind than the Brazilians ...
Cesar, the Manager of Operations, accompanied us on our three-hour boat trip (a fancy canoe with an engine hanging off the back) down to the Reserve, in part to show us the eco-tourism route and
in part to try out the new fuel-efficient engine purchased for trips such as this. Well ... if you haven't thought of Gilligan yet, you should - the engine crapped out pretty early on. As I couldn't provide any sort of mechanical engineering to help our cause, I relaxed and enjoyed the scenic view of the river ... Besides, I'm sure that the boys were cursing the engine in Portuguese words I didn't understand (more on that later). Steve was our savior - he paddled the distance - just kidding, of course. The engine flooded a few times, but was fixed.
The Mamiraua Reserve is a flooded forest during certain parts of the year, in which the trees literally grow out of the water. The amount of growth is astounding - for example, we were speaking with a local woman whose father founded the tiny village (30 households) on the edge of the Reserve. About 200 meters away, a huge island in the middle of the river stands; fifty years ago, the island didn't exist. I'm not certain that this picture (or any) do the region justice; here we use a "short cut", which during the wet season, is a tributary to the larger part of the river. We got stuck here again, from some of the leaves and branches in the water.
These pictures are of the village that we visited. As poor as these individuals seem, they also seemed really excited to have us there, and were very accomodating for all of our, er, Stephan's, questions (he is our token Brazilian, remember).
As much as I would love to provide more information for your reading pleasure, we are packed with meetings all day today with the client. We are fortunate to finally meet with all of the different sectors of research and sustainability on the ground here, so better get cracking on my "Adopt a Dolphin" campaign while I attempt to rid my memory of the smell of deet.
These beautiful pictures compliments of Maiken. More on the weekend later ....
Much love and aloha - Ciao for now.
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