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Well after our revisit to Rio (it was like going home) we started our journey up to Casimiro de Abreu, which was only a 2 hour bus journey. On our way, Luis Paulo (the CEO of the association) was trying to ring us but we couldn´t hear him at all. So we got off the bus in Casimiro around 9am, rooted out Luis Paulo´s number and tried to ring him. We got through to a girl who dídn´t know much english, but we understood that he would call us back in an hour.
So we decided to go look for some breakfast. We wandered into a restaurant, but they weren´t serving food until lunchtime. The very nice lady (with no english) let us leave our heavy rucksacks in her restaurant and showed us where to get breakfast near the main street.
Eventually Luis Paulo called us back and said he would send someone to the bus station to pick us up. Nelson, one of the workers arrived 10 minutes later (he had minimal english- i´m sure you can sense a pattern now!). Nelson is so friendly and very welcoming.
We arrived at the Association, right on the edge
Helping put up the signs
we werent there long and they already had us workin!of the reserve and met Luis Paulo. He had a chat with us and asked me to do a presentation the following day. I tried to be all like "yea thats no problem..." but hadn´t anything prepared!
We were brought around the reserve and introduced to everybody. We met Nanja and Juan in the education dept, we were shown around the library, we saw the labs and the GPS room (some of the Micoleaos wear radio collars so they can track them), we met Claudia, the Mrs Doyle of the association, and a gang of others who all made us very welcome. Not one word of english though! Luis Paulo had great english, so did the communications officer, Gabriel (but he was away at this stage and wasn´t due back till the next day).
We went straight out with Nelson, Jamie and a couple of interns to help them put up signs around the reserve. The association work with local farmers. The farmers grow trees for forest restoration in exchange for money from the association so everybody wins. We first visited a farm ran by a lovely lady called Marlene, who gave us fresh oranges from her trees
Viveiro
These young trees will eventually be moved and used in the reforestation programme, where the Associao plant corridors to allow the Micoleaos move to different areas as a gift (they were yummy!). We saw all the work she does and all the trees she plants. THe soil is very infertile there, so she keeps a big pile of fertilised soil and mixes it with the ordinary soil to make it better for the trees to grow. THe association are using these trees to make corridors- to link areas of forest together so animals like the Micoleaos can move from area to area and breed.
Luis Paulo then took us into Casimiro and we had lunch (in the restaurant we stopped off in earlier and left our bags). THen he brought us to the supermarket and the fruit and veg shop to stock up.
Later that day, we settled into our accomodation. We stayed on the reserve and our house had a cool security guard (this big black guy who liked to watch Spongebob Squarepants on tv). We then headed back over to the main building and had a meeting with the education team. We swapped ideas and they showed us the work the association do.
After the meeting, they had a birthday party for Nelson and Patricia whos birthdays it was this month.
They all got really giddy (too much Guarana!) and one of the interns, Gadovu started doing impressions of everyone in the Association (i bet we´ll be the butt of that next time!). They started slagging football teams from rio- Vasca de Gama (who apparently always do really well but never win a league) and Botefogo (who won against Vasca just a couple of days before).
When that was all over, we headed to the library and dave helped me put together my presentation. We were knackered after all that, so we decided to head to bed and get a good nights sleep, as Luis Paulo informed us that Andrea, the researcher was going out to the field the next day and she would be here to collect us at 8am. You should have seen daves face.
Well we discovered that the Brazilians attitude to timekeeping is somewhat similar to the irish, because Andrea and her team rolled up about 8.20 the next morning. We headed on a half hour drive out to a farm where there had been rumoured sightings of Micoleaos. We pulled up at the farm, and Andrea asked the farmer if she had seen anything.
Nelsons birthday
It was neslons birthday the day we arrived so we had some cake and guarana (a brazilian fruit drink). THe farmer didn´t seem to think there were any Micoleaos around, but Andrea decided to go look anyway. This meant going into thick, dense forest where a trail hadn´t been made. So Adamius, one of the team, got out his Machete and off we went. It was like being in an Indiana Jones movie! We didn´t see any Micoleaos, but we did get a good workout as we hiked to the top of the hill and back down- all the while clambouring over logs and branches.
Next stop was Silva Jardim- Micoleao country. Andrea took out an aerial and started to try and locate some Micoleaos with radio collars. She got a signal so off we went through the long grass. Andrea brought bananas to try and lure them down to us. We saw about 8 or 9- they were going mad for the bananas! It was a real privelage to see them.
We got back to the reserve about 1 and we were totally wiped. We had showers and lunch and then headed over to the main building for my presentation which went well (Luis Paulo translated). All the staff are taking english classes at the moment
so they were able to understand a little.
After the presentation we met Gabriel, the communications officer with good english (thank god!). Claudia (Mrs Doyle) had been into our room to clean it and saw we had no blankets (we had been using our sleeping bags). She went nuts and thought we were too cold at night (its winter in Brazil now, but its about 15 degrees at night!). She handed us a PILE of blankets and sheets. What a nice lady!
We were invited to a BBQ htat night with Luis Paulo so we headed back to our dorm to get ready. That night we went to Jamies house for the BBQ. There were people there who were coming to the association the following day for a conference about the work they do. We met a man called William who is from Washington DC and works in Environmental education. He has an association which educates people about the endangered Monarch Butterfly, and runs projects in schools where kids can get caterpillars, watch them pupate and transform into Monarchs, then let them free. Jamies wife, Simone made gorgeous sambos and they cooked great steaks on the barbie.
The men were all playing a table football game like subuteo, except instead of little footballers they have discs. Dave played Luis Paulo and won 1-0! Gringos win again!We headed back around 11:30- we had to be up early the next day as Andrea was picking us up at 8 (ish) again.
The following day was the friday and our second-last day. Andrea arrived in her van (a Volkswagen hippy van- they´re everywhere in Brazil). She had to go to Casimiro to pick up bananas so we headed over to the main building where the conference was starting. We met Marlene the farmer again, and then we set off with Adamius (Andrea had to stay at the reserve for english class). We saw more Micoleaos in the field, and we didn´t have to make a trail, it was already there.
We went back to the reserve and the conference was on a break. Claudia had a great spread of watermelon, oranges, passionfruit, heart of palm, and this lovely cumin cake they always eat in Brazil. So we tucked into that, and chatted to William again (he spoke english!).
We set off again, this time with Andrea, where
we stayed on the reserve and went into the protected forest. We trekked for quite a while until out of nowhere came a gang of Micoleaos, along with other marmoset monkeys who are actually an invasive species from north of Brazil. They were everywhere, all around us (see the video!)
After that we headed back to the reserve and showered, chatted to Luis Paulo (he was leaving for Sao Paolo that night) and booked our bus tickets for Iguacu. Nanja then very kindly took us into Casimiro to do a shop and get cash and run a few errands. Since the following day was saturday and it was a day off, we arranged with Gabriel to go to Sana, a nearby town, where you can hike up to a waterfall.
On saturday we met Gabriel at the bus station at 9am and got a bus out to Sana. Gabriel lived in London for 3 years and has been to 2 electric picnics! Sana is a great little town, real hippy-ish. We hiked up to the biggest waterfall (The big daddy) where Dave and Gabriel jumped into the pools from a 10m height (i took the photos!) and then
they slid down a natural waterslide at the next waterfall (called the mother). I got into swim, but didnt jump!
We hiked down to another waterfall and had a snooze on the rocks for an hour, watching people slide down the rocks into the pool. There was a gang of kids hanging out and they kept stealing each others flip flops and throwing them in to the pool. THey nearly got washed down the waterfall!
We hiked back down to Sana and stopped for a beer before getting the bus back to Casimiro and cooking some dinner. We bought a bottle of wine but there was no opener at the reserve, so our security guard managed to fish it out with a knife!
We got to bed early, as the next day we were catching a bus at 8am to take us back to Rio, where we would board a bus bound for Iguacu. The journey would last for 25 hours.
We had such a great time at the reserve and everyone was so welcoming and helpful. We saw so many Micoleaos, and it was great to see what the association are doing to help the
Atlantic Forest.
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Sheen
non-member comment
Oh my God guys, loving the blog! the reserve looks amazing sounds like ye r hain a blast! cant wait for the next instalment! xx :)