May 26 - May 27, 2007 - Part II: Monkey See, Monkey Do

Who ever said that there wasn't civilization deep in the Amazon rain forest was completely wrong - there are little gems if you are able to look hard enough.

I wish I were speaking of the flowers to the left, which I think are actually fruit that are used to give meat color (yes, I said meat, as in the meat you eat), but I'm not. Interestingly, another use of these blessed fruits are natural sunscreen and ... war paint. Well, maybe I'm stretching it a little bit, as there really aren't tribal wars. At least that I know of. But when you spread the fruit on your skin, you are intantaneously a lobster man, albiet a UV-protected lobster man.

Anyway, back to the civilization part. There is a STORE at the river entrance to the Mamiraua Reserve. A STORE. The outside (shown to the right) is misleading, as I can assure you, salvation awaits you inside.

Just LOOK at the picture below - there are meticulously-made jewelry! They are probably some of the most unique jewelry I have seen in a while; most of the jewelry is made of seeds of fruits and plants indigenous to the area, and assembled by local artisans living in the villages.

Not one to pass up the opportunity to purchase baubles and baskets, er, contribute to the local economy, I felt free to purchase anything and everything. In fact, if our estimations are correct, I paid about one-third of the monthly income for a small family living in the Reserve. No wonder the shopkeepers are smiling -

Here are some sample pictures of the jewelry made by the women above - the variety was truly amazing.

I have yet to update on the the entire rest of the weekend, of which the stop to paradise, er local shop, was on the way. The pictures of the flooded forest are amazing - and I would hate to not provide my colorful commentary on the trip ...

Otherwise, we are neck-deep in trying to pull together our fundraising and financial plan to fruition for the Mamiraua Institute.

Ciao for now -

May 26 - May 27, 2007 - Part I: When the Lights Go Down in the City

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.

May 25, 2007: Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Last night we had our first long rain, which was beautiful covering the lake near Tefe. It cheered me up for some reason, as I love thunderstorms and rain.

Other than that, we are enjoying our favorite restaurant, Stylo, which is located by the hotel; one of two restaurants that have been recommended.

The night before, we actually had (Brazilian) pizza; Brazilians love hearts of palms on their pizza, which sort of taste like artichokes. It was quite cheesy (not good for us lactose intolerants), but still was a pleasant change from fried chicken, fried manoc, fried beef. The treat of the day, however, was the sundae bar that they had - complete with magic shell and coconut ice cream. Yum.

This morning I was super excited, as fried manoc was served for breakfast this morning - they look sort of like french fries, but taste like a grainy potato. Or like a potato smashed with cauliflower. I LOVE it. We also sprinkle manoc on our rice and beans, but this is more of a "salt" type consistency.

Tomorrow morning we leave for the reserve, in which we will be about two hours outside of Tefe. We plan to stay at one of the Institute's reserve stations, with no idea of the "amenities." We also plan on visiting the eco-lodge as well, to get an idea of how it is run by the local population. I'm sure on Monday, there will be lots of updates and pictures.

Here's the website to the Institute (they have not updated the English site, however):
http://www.mamiraua.org.br/

As well as a link to the Eco-Lodge (it's actually a floating house) -

http://www.uakarilodge.com.br/ing_index.htm

Ciao for now -

May 24, 2007: Our A/C Unit is a Punta

Soooo ... looks like all of my smack talk about our air conditioning unit's indigestion has come back to bite me in the ass ... quite literally. It figures.

We are knee deep in fundraining (I meant to write fundraising - weird Freudian slip, as we are in the middle of a thunderstorm) analysis and evaluation, which has left us all wanting to bang our heads on our rattan table. Well, there's always cocktail hour to look forward to.

The IT brought up the fact that the internet was slow due to some of our activity; I didn't want to mention it was because I was in dire need of downloading the season finale of Grey's Anatomy. That being said, if I hear from anyone what the outcome or cliffhangers are, you are in deep doo-doo. And that's not hard to find in these here parts.

Ciao -

May 23: X-Rated Video

Brazil is filled with vibrant, colorful people - we were even fortunate enough to spot Michael Jackson dancing in the streets of Manaus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a69twn3FCDk

Watching the dolphins play in the Amazon was really quite amazing - blows me away that the dolphins are "fresh water" dolphins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIP4tHE1W_o

Ciao for now -

After Meat, Don't Count on Me

I have attached a few pictures of Tefe, this one being one of the typical houses in a poorer part of the city. Kids are often playing soccer in the middle of the road, as, of course, soccer is the most important sport in Brazil. Stephan was telling us that usally the poorer kids take to playing soccer at an early age, and learn to be able to play in many different conditions, which makes them extremely good players as they grow older. Incidentally, Stephan's favorite team, the Flamengos, just lost and he's not feeling like talking about soccer much today. Anyway, while this picture is quite picturesque from an artish standpoint, it also makes me appreciate my cold showers, Brazilian morning coffee, mosquito net and belching air conditioner.

That being said, I feel obligated to show you my mosquito net ... I feel like a pretty pretty princess underneath my sheath of protection. Funny how every little girl wishes for this sort of decoration, and now that I have it, I feel like my life is complete.

I have become an expert at setting up my princess protection - I pull and tuck the head region first, then the far corner, then the close corner, leaving a little teensy tiny place to slink inside. It's a bit like that movie, Entrapment, with Katherine Zeta-Jones and Sean Connery, in which she navigates under the laser beams; although, I am far from replicating her elegance.

Of course, when the air conditioning starts belching in the middle of the night, my pretty pretty princess feeling is replaced by obscenities directed towards the A/C unit and a mad display of extreme lack of grace as I yank myself out from under my netting to fiddle with the Brazilian controls to figure out exactly at what temperature and flow would serve as Milk of Magnesia for the A/C's extreme indigestion. Still cursing, I crawl back under my pretty pretty princess net and pray to not have to go through the ongoing fight with the A/C unit.

Here is a picture of the "main drag" or the square in the middle of town, which is often populated with people hanging out, eating, drinking beer (Brazilians in Tefe drink more beer than a fraternity) and ... dogs. Motos are everywhere. You can see the river in the distance, if you look closely enough. And of course, the team - a picture taken from outside of the Institute which we are working. Stephan, Me, Maiken and Steve. Nice view, no?

May 22: Do You Know What We Are Up Against?

Complements of my future sister-in-law ... Click on the link if you don't know what it is!

http://www2.oprah.com/health/oz/oz_20070521_350_109.jhtml