MiniDarwin3

Garbage Beach and "Paradise" Beach - We can finally swim in the Rio das Amazonas!

2010-08-13T23:08:00.002+02:00

Fri 13 August

On our last day in Tefé Bettina and Fernando, the owners of the Multicultura Guesthouse, organized for us a an outing with bbq on a wonderful beach on the bank of the Tefé lake* opposite the city of Tefé. We embark on the flat metal boat with which we will cross the 8 km width of the Tefé Lake, on the beach just under the terrace of the Multicultura guesthouse. As we get closer to that beach we realize there's more garbage on it than sand grains!

The people living on the stilt houses right on the beach just throw anything they do not use from the window, and the result is layers and layers of all sorts of objects (plastic bottles, havaianas flip flop sandals of all sizes, doll heads and arms, MadeinChina plastic toys, plastic bags, plastic cups and dishes, bike parts ...... yes, the dominant material is of course plastic!) compacted with the mud of the lake beach by the changing levels of the water according to the floods.

One explanation could be that these river populations, new to the city life, are accustomed to life in the forest, where you use all you find and throw away the very little left you do not use. The big difference is that whatever you find in the forest is bio-degradable and these people seem not to have learned yet that plastic is not. Fernando rather blames the Municipality and the State of Amazonas for not collecting garbage and not cleaning the beach. Maybe he's right.

After the 20 min crossing with warm wind in the hair, garbage beach is instantly forgotten at the sight of a 2 km long desert strip of white sand against a backdrop of palm, mango and other tropical trees. The view gets more and more paradisiac as we put our feet on the soft sand and get ready for a swim.Yes, Fernando says here we can swim safely, "just be careful not to step over manta rays when you walk in the water". The fact that he lets his 2 year old daughter Lilaia go in the water reassures everybody and we all enjoy the reddish lukewarm on the surface and fresh at the bottom waters of the Rio das Amazonas in lake Tefé.

Bbq ing the delicious Tambaqui fish

Maxine and Lilaia

*Lake Tefé ( roughly the size of lake Geneva!) is one of the thousands of lakes in the Amazon river complex formed by a side arm of one of the Amazon's main affluents, the Rio Solimoes.

We are back in Tefe!!

2010-08-13T22:52:00.001+02:00

We are safely back in Tefe and (slowly) uploading the blogs of the past incredible week in the jungle..
Keep following!
Mike

FAREWELL MAMIRAUA

2010-08-13T22:45:00.008+02:00

Friday Aug 13

Polina would like to stay here once she becomes a researcher. But no matter how good the food is at the Uakari-lodge, she is beginning to miss mommy’s cooking. « I will only stay here, if I can make hamburgers. » she says. Well, I guess we all feel we’re missing something or someone every now and then. After all, for some of us it has been three weeks since we have left ‘ our near and dear ones’. Maxine would also like to stay here for a while to do research. « Then I could be close to the dolphins everyday, » she says. The boys are not so sure. They want to become engineers and somehow the simple life in the floating house doesn’t seem very attractive to them. But maybe they could apply new sustainable energy systems to life in the rain forest.

Ab is leaving us already. Today he will travel to Suriname, where he will meet his brother for a short holiday. For us, it is also our last day. For the rest of the afternoon we will go fishing once more. Then we have to get packed and ready.

We have got used to the rhythm that life takes here : get up early (6.00), breakfast at 6.30, in the boats at 7.00 for a program in the forest or on the river that takes until 11.00, lunch at 12.00. After lunch we have a ‘ siesta’, just like the local people do here. Simply because it usually is to hot to be active. Program starts again at 15.30 and lasts until 18.00 with sunset. We have dinner at 19.00 and sometimes a presentation or video screening at 20.00. As you will understand we go to bed early, to feel fit in the morning.
Computer games are banned during the Minidarwin expedition. Protests of the children when their Nintendo DS systems were unpacked before we even left home, could not change this. So they had to find other ways to spend their free time. During ‘siestas’ we have been playing card games. That was fun, although some cards dropped off the table just in between the wood of the boardwalk to the water below, where the caimans are living. We come from several European countries, so we could teach each other some typical games.
Alberto and Kai learned how to play ‘pesten’ (teasing), a Dutch game which they call ‘ pest card’ now. One afternoon they have invented their own version of it.

River dolphin spotting

2010-08-12T22:42:00.005+02:00

Thu Aug 12
This is a day we have all been looking forward to. Virginia, the researcher of the Boto (pink dolphin) project has asked the help of the children to observe the dolphins. This is one of the ways they are trying to learn about the dolphins and take care of the population in the Mamiraua reserve. A boat takes us to one of the lakes of the Solimões river (the name of the Amazon river before it reaches Manaus), that the researchers call ‘the shopping centre’. A suitable term because dolphins meet here in groups to find food. As soon as the sound of the motor has stopped, the pink dolphins begin to show up everywhere around us.

They surface in gracious bows above the water. « Just keep looking patiently in one direction, » Virginia advises the young dolphin spotters. « If you move around at every sound of an animal surfacing around you, it will be gone before you get a good look. » She’s asking the children to spot the brands on the back of the dolphins, each made of two characters. These observations are helpful to count the population and to learn about the travelling patterns of the dolphins. « One of our dolphins has once been spotted in Colombia, » says Virginia. « So we know now that they can travel over great distances. » « How do you brand the dolphins ? », Alberto wants to know.

« Two times a year we catch a great number of dolphins with nets, » explains Virginia. « We bring them to our research centre to weigh them, take blood samples, see if they are healthy and make ultrasound to the females to see if they’re pregnant. Then we also brand them. We are using the method of freeze branding. This means we use freezing cold (almost -200˚ C.) liquid nitrogen to put the brand on their skin. « Does that hurt the dolphins ? », asks Maxine. « It hurts them a bit, » says Virginia. « But we’re doing this for the preservation of the species. »

Ab has been listening to the reports on the pink dolphins by the researchers during the last few days. He thinks more should be done to preserve this species. « On the basis of their observations, the researchers think there are several tens of thousands of them left. This number does not put them on the list of threatened species yet. However the researchers have also told us that during the last fifteen years the number of pink dolphins have dropped by 50%.
If this trend continues in the next fifteen years, the situation will become critical. That’s why I think measures have to be taken now. First of all the deliberate killing of the animals by fishermen, who use them as bait for fishing cat fish, should be stopped. Our experience in Greece teaches that this can be done, if there is an incentive for the fishermen to do so. »
« K.A. » shouts Kai, not to spell his own name, but because he just spotted the dolphin branded KA. He is using his photo camera to spot the animals and then enlarges the pictures on the lcd screen on the back to read the brands. A system that gives him an advantage, because for an untrained eye it is not easy to read the brands on the back of a moving dolphin. « JO or JU, » is the next one we see. « If you’ve spotted JO, this would be the first time we are seeing this dolphin back since a very long time » Virginia tells us. It appears to be JU, who is the mother of a juvenile calf.
Dolphin calves stay with their mother until they’re 3 to 4 years old. That is why you can often spot two of them together. Sometimes an older calf stays with the mother, when a new calf is born. That’s when there are three of them. « There are no larger groups, » says Virginia. « But they come together at places like this « shopping centre ». » We spot a lot more dolphins before we go home, happy with the idea that we have helped a little to learn more about the pink dolphins and convinced that more should be done to preserve this wonderful species.

Afternoon
The morning’s adventure made us even more curious about the pink dolphin, so we have accepted Virginia’s invitation to visit the Boto Vermelho headquarters, not far from the Uakari lodge. ‘Boto Vermelho’ means ‘red dolphin’ in Portuguese ; that is how they call it here. The centre is a floating house, just like our cabins at the Uakari-lodge, a little further up -river.

Four to five researchers live and work here for a couple of months, thus making a contribution to a research project that has started in 1994. It is a cosy place, where they have everything they need, including a rudimentary fitness area near the floating vegetable garden. But they do not have a fridge (too energy consuming for solar power, they have ice boxes instead) and Internet ( HF radio instead). Here they bring in the dolphins they have caught in their nets, do their research on them, enter the data of their observations in the computer. But they also sleep and cook in the house.

http://www.projetoboto.com/

Hike with monkeys

2010-08-11T22:40:00.008+02:00

Wed Aug 11

Today we’ve been hiking for two hours through the forest near the lodge. It was a heavy track, but it was worth it. We have seen several monkeys, like the howler and the black faced squirrel monkey, some beautiful and enormous black-white-red-yellow caterpillars, and today’s trophies: the Uakari monkey, which is the symbol of the lodge, and the footprints of a jaguar in the mud, which were the size of Maxine’s hand. You don’t believe it ? Look, we’ve got a photo..

But not of the real animal..

After dinner two researchers, Virginia and Natalie, came to the lodge to tell us about the Boto, the pink dolphin of the Amazon, and about the Mamirauá based program to protect the dolphins of the Amazon. It was a very clear presentation about these wonderful mammals, and also an introduction to biodiversity, evolution theory, and geological formation of the continents and oceans. Because all these factors play a role in the amazing story of the pink dolphins.

They descend from dolphins from the Pacific ocean, which where separated from their family 20 million ( !) years ago, when the Andes mountains have risen up, thus disconnecting the Amazon from the Pacific and turning it into a large lake. The dolphins have adapted to the circumstances in the rain forest, by developing a long nose, which they can use to catch fish in little holes between the roots of trees, and fins which they can use as paddles to swim backward, which is necessary for a big creature living in the forest. It was much later that the Amazon reversed its flow and found its way into the Atlantic ocean. This very ancient mammal has no equals left on our planet and is threatened because local fishermen use it as an easy bait (due to its very stinky meat when dead) to catch other fish very fashionable on Colombian markets.
Especially Alberto showed his concern about the Boto and impatiently asked the possibilities of setting up nurseries with breeding programs of pink dolphins which later can be reintroduced in nature. Unfortunately, Virginia had to answer that pink dolphins do not do very well in captivity. She also told us that there is so much more to investigate in the lives of these beautiful animals. For those of you who think the days of the great discoveries in the world of animals and plants are over: THEY ARE NOT! You can still become a discoverer, just like Charles Darwin.

Do they really exist??

The silence of a canoe

2010-08-10T22:39:00.005+02:00

Tue Aug 10

We get up early for another canoe trip. Compared to the motor canoes we have been in until know, the canoes are very silent. They are also smaller, so there are only two of us in one boat together with a guide.

This makes it possible to get very close to the birds and animals.

The guides have very well trained eyes and spot an animal from far away. Quietly we go near, while the guides point their finger in the direction of the animal. Practically every part of the river shore appears to be the home of a bird or animal.

The little capuchin monkeys (well known as the house mate of Pippi Longstocking) are hanging in the thin branches of the trees above the water, bigger monkeys, like the howler monkey and squirrel monkey, are just a bit further in the forest. Birds of all colours and sizes, all adapted to the forest and its floods : all of them can swim, most can eat fruit, seeds and leaves. Our guide also shows us the floating leaves of the mimosa, which close themselves as soon as you touch them.

Afternoon
An interpretative trail is on the programme includes. This is a forest walk with explanations by the local guides, which is translated to us by Bianca. Again we are stunned by this fantastic place. The first thing our guides show us, is a nest that the giant pirarucu fish builds on the bottom of the forest when it is flooded. We’re still flabbergasted by the idea of fish nesting in the forest, because this trail is not flooded now, although it was until less than two weeks ago !

Then we see a high tree which gives fruits that are food for a specific kind of fish. We admire another enourmous fig tree. Our guide explains that this is a strangler. It all starts when a bird eats a fig and sits on the branch on a tree. Its poo contains the seed of the fig, which lands on the branch of the tree. Then a new fig plant starts growing in two ways : towards the fertile bottom of the forest, and towards the energy of the sunlight above. Soon the plant has become a tree of its own which slowly starts to strangle its host tree. Now, many years later, what is left is an impressive tree with a hole in the middle where once was another tree.

« What is this, » Polina asks attentively. We stop at what looks like a pile of clay. « That is exactly what it is, » says the guide. « When a big tree falls down, its roots leave a hole in the bottom, which lets the underlying clay be pressed up. This clay is a sediment which comes with the river water from the Andes mountains. Local people use this fine clay to make pottery, by adding the burned scorch of a tree . Although nowadays they can buy their kitchen stuff at a shop, they are still using it. »
Our next stop is the açacu tree, which has a story of its own. The bark of the tree is poisonous. Fishermen collect the poison by making a hole in the tree which they close with a cork.

After a while they take out the cork to collect the poisonous juice. This they can use to throw in a little lake. It makes the fishes blind and easy to catch. « Doesn’t the poison from the hole affect the fishes when the forest is flooded, » asks Kai. « It does, but not so much, » is the answer. Now the story : Once upon a time a fisherman went to the tree to produce poison. When he had made a hole, he felt like going to the toilet. He stepped in his boat, but he could not make it to the village in time. So he pooed in the water not far from the tree and then used the water to clean his bottom. He better had not done this. The poison had already spread, making the water burn on his bottom like red pepper. He went back to tree and called it ‘açacu: aça = burning, cu= ass.
What a fantastic place, indeed. Fish building their nests in the forest and eating fruits from the tree tops, trees strangling each other, giant caterpillars, birds and monkeys in unbelievable colours. And on top of it all, a poisonous tree called ‘ burning ass.’

« 2011 will be the International Year of Forests ! »

Back to school

2010-08-09T22:38:00.004+02:00

Monday Aug 9

The children of Caburini have invited us to join a class in the village school this morning. The school bell is a rusty cylinder of metal, that the teacher, Roni Von, hits with a stick and as he does it, rings and from almost all houses in the village children come walking towards the school. The age ranges from 6 to 12. They are clearly very interested in the visitors. Alberto, Kai, Maxine and Polina introduce themselves and explain the aims of the Minidarwin expedition in the Year of Biodiversity. Then it is the turn of the children from the village. The Minidarwins make a lot of new friends and also see some of their old friends back, like Tatjana, but this time without Tufi. Before we go, we promise them a copy of our book, when it’s published (hopefully also in Portuguese !) and we exchange the addresses.

Roni Von, the school teacher, is also the turtle expert of the village, he’s been trained by the Mamirauá scientists and he is in charge of the turtle management programme of the Caburini village. It’s one of their ways to contribute to the reserve. In exchange, they get some money, or something useful for the village, like diesel for their generator, but especially the assurance that turtles will not be extinct any more.

We have told Ab about the preservation program of the fresh water turtles in which the local people have this important role. So he is joined us on our visit to the Caburini community. Roni Von says they started the turtle protection programme in 2005 and that they have two species of turtles, Acas and Tracajas, whose numbers were decreasing fast before the start of the programme. They take the eggs from the beach as they’re laid by the turtles and take them to a special fenced sandy area in the village, where they wait 40 to 70 days until they hatch. Ab says this kind of action is crucial for the protection of species.

Ab has been involved in establishing a successful protection program for monk seals in the Mediterranean sea, near Greece. « We have started with an enthusiastic group of Greek biologists twenty years ago, when there were only about 600 monk seals left in that area, » he recollects. « Their main threat were local fishermen, who saw a competitor in the seal. The challenge was to convince them that the big fishing trawlers which came to the Mediterranean sea were the real competitors. So a deal was made with the Greek government to install a protected area for the Mediterranean monk seals where access for the trawlers was prohibited.

Kai learning to blow bubbles with a local plant!

The local fishermen realized the protection of the seals was directly beneficial to them. They saw their own catches increase when the trawlers stopped coming. Then they were prepared to cooperate with the protection program. Presently, the population indeed seems to recover: the numbers of animals have been increasing continuously. And the local people feel proud. Moreover, about twenty professionals and a large group of volunteers are working in the preservation and research centre. This is why I believe, that involvement of local people in preservation programs is a crucial factor for success. »
In the afternoon , we leave the Caburini village, and we all hope to come back meet these wonderful people again one day.

Monday Aug 9 afternoon
Our destination is the Mamirauá lake, which gives its name to the entire reserve. Mamirauà actually means « children of the manatee » in one of the original indigenous languages. But we cannot see any manatees this time of the year, since the water level is lowering 14 cm a day and they’ve already left for deeper waters.

On our way there, Ab and Bianca find out they have their interest in birds in common. Sometimes it seems hard for Ab to choose between his binoculars and his camera, to have a closer look on a bird in the trees or in the reeds along the river shore.
Instead of the manatees, we spot a sloth, the very slowly moving animal, hanging on a tree. This is another animal that still puzzles biologists. Because of its slowness, it is very vulnerable when it is on the ground.

Yet it goes pooping always on exactly the same place on the ground near a tree, once a week and scientists still do not know whether they take such a huge risk and use up so much energy to mark their territory or because they like the tree and decide to compost it.
The caimans let us get nearer in the dark, their eyes lighting up like red led’s when our boat with the spotlight approaches. The river water is clean but not clear. At day time you see only the top of the head of the caiman, its eyes, back and tail.

Now we see the whole animal in its prehistoric appearance swimming in the water. Just when we get so near that we can almost touch it (and vice versa), it makes an unpredictable fast move, turns around or lets itself sink into the dark water. This is the move that makes the difference between what seems a floating tree log and a dangerous predator.

Bianca has warned us. The spotlight also attracts other fish which jump into the boat. Still it is totally unexpected that something flickering flies to the air and hits one of us on the chest. One moment later, a small, beautiful silver fish has landed at the bottom of the boat.

A different week-end

2010-08-08T22:36:00.009+02:00

Sat 7 – Sun 8 August - (by Maxine and Polina)

Flat thin boats like canoes took us to Caburini, one of the four indigenous communities located within the borders of the Mamirauá Reserve. The people of the communities are involved in the preservation programs and in the ecotourism of Uakari-lodge. As we’re walking towards the village from the river shore where our boat has landed, Raimundo, the head of the community, comes walking towards us. He tells us his grandparents founded the community fifty-one years ago, when he was thirteen.

The people in the communities (the ribeirinhos as they are called here) descend from indigenous tribes, who inhabited the area along the river as early as 11,000 years ago, in isolated groups, and Brazilians from the North-East of the country, who were brought here by the government in the beginning of the twentieth century to work on the rubber plantations (as «seringueiros », ie rubber extractors).

After the decline of this industry, the people had nowhere and no money to go back to (they were almost enslavened). The catholic church organized them in communities. Caburini is home to 16 families which total 103 people. They live quite differently from us ! Their houses are on stilts, an adjustment to the seasonal flooding of the river and remarkable change in the water depth. Even the vegetable garden and chicken cages are in canoes suspended on the terrace of the houses, so that they can float on the water. Our guide shows us how the people of the community help to preserve the threatened turtles, by digging up the nests with eggs in unprotected areas and bringing them to sand beds near their house to incubate and hatch.

During the rainy season, which lasts from April to June, the water rises so high (the difference between high and low water can be 12 meters !), that people have to swim if they want to visit each other. The children of the village like this very much because they have their own big swimming pool just outside the house. But their parents don’t like it at all. Indeed, working becomes practically impossible and anacondas (the big water snakes) come to the houses to steal the chickens. But they do not harm the children, and nor do the piranhas ! Actually, piranhas have a much worse reputation than they deserve. Although their teeth are impressively strong, they never attack humans.

We have met with some girls of our age and soon get absorbed by the village life. Tatiana, one of them, taught us how to feed the chickens with corn. She lets us pet her puppy dog, Tufi. And it doesn’t take long before we got real friends and chattered on the front porch of her house. Polina and I would like to live here, but not all the time.

Meanwhile Kai and Alberto have discovered another universal language: football. They’re giving it all they can in a match with the boys of the community. « They’re really good, » says Kai (who is Dutch…) later. « I can understand why Brazil got so far in the World Championship competition. »

Fishing Piranhas ! (from Kai’s diary)
I like week-ends at the Caburini village, they’re cool. Alberto and I spent the morning playing football and now in the afternoon, we’re joining the oldest boys and men of the village to go fishing for dinner, while the girls are playing with chickens and little dogs and the women are washing the clothes in the river. Moraes, our canoe driver, who is sitting in the back, makes the gesture of pulling a fish out of the water with his rod and smiles broadly. He is confident we will have a good catch. As bait we are using pieces of chicken meat. The six of us throw out our lines at the same time. Only a few seconds later one of us pulls the first silver-red piranha out of the water. But is has not bitten on the hook and falls back before it reaches the boat. They’re impressively fast !

Just one minute later, I am more lucky and catch the first one. All the kids on the boat are shouting with excitement, even if for the Caburini this is almost a daily activity and for us, well twice a year if we’re lucky ! Moraes hurries to take the fish from the hook and shows us the razor sharp teeth. The next hour we catch about ten piranhas which are big enough to eat. Smaller fish are being thrown back in the water.

« Hey, why are you throwing back that one, » Alberto shouts upset, when quite a big, dangerously looking piranha is released. « Moraes explains to us that only the red-silver ones are good for consumption. The silver ones do not taste very well. Another funny looking fish we catch is the Carataki. It looks like the funny character from an animation movie, like little Nemo. But Moraes handles is very carefully. He shows us that the fish has sharp needles on both sides and explains that its stings are poisonous and painful. Proud of our catch we go back to the Caburini village, curious to taste our first piranha dinner.

Howling in the forest

2010-08-07T22:34:00.006+02:00

Sat. Aug 7 (from Alberto’s diary)
Our first night in the heart of the Amazon forest was a short one. Falling asleep thinking of all the black caimans under our beds in the floating cabin of the Uakari lodge was not easy. Soon as the tiredness that goes with living on the equator won against the worst nightmare, but not for long. Although remote and very distant from the noises of civilization, this place never stops living and at night you hear all sort of animal sounds never heard before at our latitudes. With the first lights of dawn, an eery scary snore woke us all up. It could have been a caiman snoring under the floating cabin, right under our beds… or a new monstrous forest animal whistling from a distance .. or even wind from a distant storm, getting stronger and stronger as it approached. A continuous roar reverberating through the entire forest, a … howl coming from all directions at once ! Three of us children got out of the bed to knock at professor Ab Osterhaus door to find refuge .. and an explanation ! Guess what it was ?

Of course, we should have remembered ! One of the characteristic sounds of the Mamirauà reserve is the howler monkeys ! They are territorial animals, but not very fast since they eat leaves from the forest trees and it takes time to digest them ! So, Ab told us, to scare off other animals from their territory, the males developed a hollow bone at the tip of the tongue and that’s where the howl is produced. A smart evolutionary adaptation to life in the forest !

I forgot to say who is professor Ab ! He arrived this morning to join us for a few days. He is veterinarian, so he knows a lot about animals, but he is also a leading virologist. From the virologist perspective, humans and animals are not so different. Virtually all viruses which make us sick, have originated in animals. So studying the life and health of animals is important for more than one reason. One of his specialities are aquatic mammals. He was already enthusiastic when he stepped out of the boat yesterday afternoon. « First I saw one pink dolphin, then we were in the middle of a group of at least sixty of them, » he said. « This place is fantastic. » And we all agree about this !

from Kai’s diary

Meals in the Uakari-lodge are delicious, with lots of tropical fruit, fish, fresh juices and manioc, a product made from roots from the rainforest. I have noticed that life for the local people in the communities around here is often hard, but enjoying your meal at sunrise in the Uakari-lodge, you could easily think you’re in paradise.
Surprisingly (or not), at breakfast we all had to admit that we had been scared during the night. It gets dark early, because Mamirauá is close to the equator. When the sun has set, the jungle becomes even more alive. Lying in your bed, you can hear animals everywhere.

The roaring of howler monkeys, the whooshing of the big Pirarucu fish surfacing to breath air, birds hitting all possible pitches, bats hitting us when we cross the bridge to our floating cabin, other flying animals tripping over the roof of the cabin. At some point I heard « crick, crick » as if an animal was entering the cabin. And, in my imagination, I saw a caiman that had landed on the boardwalk !

A warm caimans’ welcome to Mamirauà

2010-08-06T22:30:00.003+02:00

Fri Aug 6

« There’s more caimans than people in the Mamirauá reserve » said one of the eco-tourists boarding the same boat as us from Tefé. « Actually the ratio is 90 caimans per 1 person ! » Added the indigenous driver of the boat. That was a nice way to start the trip, making us feel the Amazon more in terms of its « jungle » definition than « forest » (see blog Aug 2). Even though during the one and a half hours boat trip to the Reserve we saw more of the nice animals (yes, we did spot our first pink dolphins and quite some rare birds !) than the frightening ones, the prediction revealed correct when we approached the Uakari lodge.

« We are surrounded ! » screamed the children almost at the same time, looking around the boat. In any direction we looked, we spotted black caimans (Melanosuchus niger) floating, motionless until you get very close. With a length up to 6 meters and a weight up to 200 kg, they are the most massive predator in continental America. These prehistoric looking animals, with their thick, profiled skin, hypnotizing, almost human looking eyes, and sharp teeth sticking out their long jaws, are the last terrestrials remnants of the giant reptiles of the Mesozoic and lived together with the dinosaurs 80 millions years ago. Their looks have not changed much, if you look at the fossils of that time.
With four species of crocodiles, the Amazon basin is one of the major centres of crocodilian diversity in the world, and three of these species are present in Mamirauá. All of the black caimans seem to have rallied right at the entrance to welcome us to the reserve!
The real welcome awaits us on the central platform of the floating lodge, where Bianca, a biologist and guide, and the six indigenous members of the team (guides, cooks, cleaning ladies, who all come from the four indigenous communities in the Reserve) introduce themselves friendly and warmly. « Forbidden to swim » is one of the strict rules. That we will be easy to respect, even for a group of children that has just come back from the swimming Paradise, Noronha, with the king of the forest in the water at all times.

At the end of the day, Bianca gave a presentation about the Mamirauá reserve, which is in the middle of the Amazon, the biggest forest in the world and larger than Europe. There are thousands of species of animals and fish living here (1,500 species of fish in Amazonia, of which 300 in Mamirauá), some of which are threatened with extinction. Now we could use our experience from former expeditions, to ask the right questions. Alberto inquired about the effects of the protection programs for turtles and was very demanding on the numbers. The more you learn about the Amazon, the more questions come up. Bianca answered all of those patiently. It was already late when it was time for the last question, by Polina. ¨How high can caimans jump out of the water?¨ « About two meters, in less than a second », Bianca said. This fact was presented to us just before we made our way in the dark to the cabins over the boardwalk, where we had seen caimans floating patiently all day, as if they were waiting for the right moment to jump. Guess how easy it was to fall asleep with jumping caiman nightmares and the strange whistle we were all wondering about just as we were closing our eyes.

On our way to Mamiraua..

2010-08-06T19:26:00.004+02:00

Tefe, 6 Aug 2010

This chaotic lively village on the banks of the Amazon river is our last contact with civilization for the next week. Until Friday August 13 we are going to be unreacheable by phone and mail.. since the Mamirauá reserve is deep in the rainforest and only communicates via radio with the Tefe office. No more updates on the blog till then! We invite you to go through all previous posts that we have just updated with more text and photos.

Boat trip on the Amazon to Tefe

2010-08-05T19:14:00.000+02:00

5 Aug 2010

Fred and Polina have arrived!

2010-08-04T03:21:00.003+02:00

4 Aug 2010

from Polina's diary

Last night we have arrived in Manaus after a long flight from Amsterdam, via São Paolo. A good thing I have made friends with the cabin crew, who have showed me around the airplane. Brazil looks so impressive from the sky, all the mountains, plains, forests and rivers. Not at all like The Netherlands, where I am from.

In Manaus you can feel the jungle is around you. It was already dark when we drove to the Mango Guest house from the airport. But I could see big trees everywhere. But it is also a very big city (with 2.7 Million inhabitants). Mike told us at breakfast, there are 30.000 new people arriving every year, who think living in the city will be better for them.

The Mango Guest House is a nice place, with rooms which are around a big tropical garden. We are staying in the Piranha room. When I woke up it did not take long for me to find out that Maxine, Alberto and Kai are in the Tucunare room. The names of the rooms are all fishes from the Amazon River. On the rooms are beautiful paintings of every fish.

Who could have expected, that we would start our expedition with a big splash in the swimming pool of the guest house. Probably the last swimming pool which we will see, because swimming at the Uakari lodge, where we are going from here, is dangerous, because of the crocodiles and piranhas in the water.

After breakfast Maxine told me what the children have been doing so far. Her report of letting the baby turtles out of their nests under the sand crawling to the sea is so exciting! I have made a drawing of the turtles, which we can put on the blog later. Well, that's it for now. In a minute we will be going to the zoo, to see all the animals before we, hopefully, meet them in the wild. Later this afternoon we will go to a special place, where two rivers stream together (Encontro das Aguas). Both have a different colour, which mixes into one.

We have brought a vaccine against rabies with us, which we have stored in the fridge of the guest house. It is just in case any of us gets bitten by an animal. Professor Ab gave it to us before we left. But the best advice he could give us: don't let an animals bite you.

Animals in the wild and in cages: a visit to the Manaus military zoo (CIGS)

The zoo of Manaus is really beautiful! The animals are from the Brazilian jungle and they are kept by the army. We saw jaguars, toucans, anacondas, araras, small monkeys and even a black panther. Although they live in captivity, the cages of the zoo do not look bad at all. The animals have a lot of space and in the cages there is water, trees and plants, so they can climb and hide themselves. Since I am here I want to drink water all the time. Sometimes it even seems better to me than ice cream.

After our visit to the Zoo, we have made our first trip on the Amazon river. The river is huge. It looks like the sea from a distance. A fast boat took us to the place where the Rio Negro and the Rio Solimões meet. Both rivers are totally different. Rio Negro (‘negro’ means ‘black’) comes all the way from Colombia and is very dark, Rio Solimões (‘solimos’ means ‘wild’) comes from Peru and has a much lighter colour. The rivers also flow at a different speed. That’s why the water keeps flowing apart in the Amazon without mixing for many miles.

We stopped at some floating houses where the people are keeping big fish in basins in the river. A man gave us some poles with a rope and small fish tied to it. He let us feed the big fishes, which came jumping out of the water, as soon as they noticed their meals. Later we ourselves had lunch too, in a restaurant which was floating in the river. From there we made a walk over a long wooden bridge into the jungle. At the end of the bridge was a platform where you could see beautiful water lilies. These plants have enormous round leaves. Funny, that some tourists had been throwing coins on the leaves. I wonder what they have wished for. Not to go swimming, I bet. Because we saw some alligators glide through the water. It’s amazing how many things you see there. Our first trip into the jungle was a good training to keep quiet. That’s something I find really hard, I must say. But once we get to Mamiraua it will be important. Our guides say that our screaming will scare the animals making them want to hide for the rest of the day.

On our way back, Maxine and I were sitting on the front deck of the boat. From there we had a good look on the little wooden houses among the river shore. We have visited one of these houses, where children showed us living animals. The smallest girl, called Leticia (3 years old) had a baby alligator, which was really cute. Her older sister, Franciana, was holding a big anaconda, which was very strong and looked dangerous. She said her father caught it for her. I also asked her where did the anaconda sleep at night and she said in a closed box. The middle sister, Etilene, was holding a baby sloth, which Alberto found was the cutest of the three animals since it looks like it’s always smiling. We were wondering why they keep these animals in their house. Wild animals are beautiful, but they’re not pets. Our guide told us, that is how the children here make some money, by showing animals to tourists.

-------------------------------

The encounter of the waters (Rio Negro and Rio Solimoes)

Manaus Opera

MUSA (Museu da Amazonia) and Jungle walk in the Ducke park

2010-08-03T15:54:00.002+02:00

3 Aug 2010

Leonardo Rodrigues, biologist and coordinator
of the Verde Perto educational project

Luciana, indigenous physicist! painting Maxine according to tradition

The paint!

Collecting plants in the forest

Verde Perto children (Brazilian MiniDarwins)

INPA visit and baby Manatees

2010-08-02T15:50:00.005+02:00

2 Aug 2010

“Close your eyes, imagine this tree with half of its size, when it was only 50 years old; all around many other similar trees, animals, small and big, turtles, ants, caimans, jaguars, pumas, many birds singing, and with all these animals, live the Indios. Seven-hundred, eight-hundred , until eleven thousand years ago. This Tanimbuca here has known the Indios for seven hundred years. Imagine how many things happened that this tree has seen, animals and Indios getting married and creating a family, according to a natural cycle that science tries to explain today. For this reason, this tree is for us here at INPA a sort of living memory of Amazonia”.

With these words Hugo Mesquita, extension coordinator at INPA (the Brazilian Institute for Amazon Research), introduces research in Amazonia to the MiniDarwins. This biologist who speaks like a poet has a broad view of science, encompassing everything from botanics to ethnology, molecular biology to mythology and the history of science … in a word, culture. “I was lucky to be able to work with the Indios but also to be sick for fifteen years, a long enough break to get out of the strictly scientific paradigms I was imprisoned in”. Then he continues addressing the kids. “Did you like the story? What I would like you to remember is that here many more people passed before us, who lived more harmoniously with nature than us. ”

The children have retained every words Dr Mesquita said and their very precise questions get us into a scientific discussion. Maxine starts:

“How do you know this tree is 700 years old?”

“The age is measured counting the rings in the trunk” answers Hugo Mesquita.

“By cutting the tree and looking inside?”

“Yes, but we do not need to cut each tree, we can compare the size to other tree trunks that are already cut. Each ring is one year. But here, at these latitudes, it is more difficult to count the rings because the difference between rings is less clear, due to the very little difference in temperature between seasons. In Europe the different rings are much easier to count”.

“Is this the oldest tree you have?” asks Kai.

“It’s the oldest in the Bosque da Ciencia, but not the oldest of the forest! Yet, it’s older than Brazil itself, which was discovered 500 years ago!”

Alberto has kept his question for a while, he could not let an apparent contradictions in Hugo’s numbers go unexplained. “How is it possible that this Tanimbuca, now 700 years old, had half of its size at just 50 ?”

“At 50 this tree had half of its height, but its trunk was much thinner. Look at this other Tanimbuca, how thin it is. Trees in the Amazon forest are all very thin and very long. They first grow in height, because they’re looking for light. The forest is so full of trees and so dark that a young tree must grow fast in height to get some light in all this shadow. It’s competition for light . Only when they get enough light they start getting thicker.”

“Darwinian competition,” I comment.

“Let’s say evolutionary competition”, Hugo corrects me while taking us towards a plate in the memory of Alfred Russell Wallace. I know I touched a sensitive chord. Hugo continues “Darwin has most of the credit for the evolution theory, but actually Darwin and Wallace published at the same time two important papers on natural selection on the same issue of the most important scientific magazine of the time, the Royal Geographic Society’s review”.

Wallace is a reference for Brazilian biologists much more than Darwin. I must admit his story is definitely more passionate and adventurous.

“Wallace came for a poor family and he started working at 15 as a land measurer. When he travelled to Amazonia, he became a map drawer and a naturalist. He kept collecting plants and animals in all circumstances, even when he had high fever from malaria. But when he left Amazonia in 1850, the ship he was on sank and his entire collection of plants and animals was lost”.

In front of Wallace ‘s quote describing the ship Helen’s wreck and his pain losing his precious collection, we almost cry.

“Did he drown?” asks Maxine. “No, the people on the Helen survived the wreck, but the entire cargo was lost, including the five ton material collected by Wallace.

“But we can still dive there and recover it?”

“Unfortunately not” says Hugo.

Alberto, who has listened to the story of Wallace, is still not satisfied on the size of trees, and breaks into the sadness of this moment with another question.

“If we put a nail in the tree trunk, does it sink into the bark or does the tree grow in thickness from inside?”

“I am not a tree expert, but yes the nail would stays outside. Let’s now go to visit the Casa da Ciencia”.

“Wait – says Kai – we forgot the most important question, even if you are not a forest expert you must know! Last night when we arrived we were wondering what’s the difference between forest and jungle and we could not agree!”

“It depends on what you want to underline. Usually jungle is used to stress the wild and slightly “dangerous” aspects of the Amazon forest. Forest is the more neutral term. But technically is the same”, explains Hugo as we proceed to the rest of this visit at the INPA headquarters, while the kids are already running around spotting monkeys jumping in the trees, sloths, capybaras and baby turtles in the ponds. This is definitely a unique research institute!

Tanimbuca tree

Dr. Hugo Mesquita

Map made by A.Wallace

Paola with Dr. Ilse Walker, senior INPA biologist

Galia Ely de Matos, biologist from INPA's manatees research program (Peixe-boi)

(can you tell which photo's are made by Kai and which by Mike??...)

Adeus Noronha… … welcome to the forest city

2010-08-01T06:08:00.001+02:00

Sunday, Aug 1

After the morning preparations to leave our Pousada (Aires de Noronha) and the affectionate adeuses to the dona, sweet Etilene, we still managed to visit the famous Baìa dos Porcos and Cacimba dos Padres beaches, both worth the world record of the most beautiful beaches as well! Another adeus to Cristiano and his wife Isa at their Cachorrao Restaurant on the Praia do Cachorro, a live Interview with Radio 24 (Italy) and off we go to the airport for our 16:30 GOL flight. We are all very sad to leave this wonderful place, and a little nervous we won't like anything else of the trip after so much beauty.

… welcome to the forest city - We arrive in Manaus at 2 am on Aug 2, after a tiring trip through Recife and Fortaleza. In spite of the late arrival, the kids are fully awake and curious to get their first feel of the Amazon capital. Maxine is the first one to spot "the jungle !!!" as soon as we leave the airport in the taxi. A scientific discussion starts between the three kids (while all the adults want is sleep!) about the difference between jungle, forest and rainforest. We try to shut them out by telling them to ask the INPA scientists tomorrow … actually today! Only a few hours sleep separate us form the beginning of our first day in Manaus.

Sea turtles and the TAMAR project

2010-07-31T05:59:00.005+02:00

Sat July 31^st –Marine Turtles

From the diary of Maxine

Today is one of the best day of my entire life! We spent the day with Noronha’s marine turtles. We first went to TAMAR, a centre here on the island that works with turtles and we visited their super nice exhibition (not only on turtles but on all the marine animals they find here). We played a turtle game, where I learned a lot of things on turtles that I did not know. Since I am really interested in marine turtles, I already knew a few things. One thing I knew is that these turtles never see their mother! The mother drops her eggs on the beach and the only care she has for her babies (future babies) is that she hides the eggs in a protected part of the beach, under the sand so that they are not eaten by predators or worse, crushed by humans who go to the beach. But I did not know that each female turtle lays so many eggs ! And I did not know that only one or two every one thousand hatchlings survive and become actually teenagers first (the scientists say juvenile) and then grow adults. I thought at least fifty. I also did not know that the eggs that are in warm sand give girl turtles and the eggs which stay in colder places give boy turtles, and that you can only say if they are boys or girls when they are adults, not before. Not only I learned a lot of these facts with the game, but I also had a lot of fun because my turtle, the coloured one (which I think is the most beautiful) actually became adult safely, whereas the turtles of Alberto and Andres, a nice biologist from the Tamar project, always got eaten by a predator and had to go back to the starting point three times!

CATCHING, MEASURING, TAGGING AND RELEASING
After the game, we went to the Praia do Porto to see how Fernando, an engineer specialized in fisheries and Lily, a marine biologist, catch the turtles and tag them. They have to do this because sea turtles are a threatened species and it is important to keep track of how many turtles there are, how much they grow up and how long they live. If they are lucky, they can live longer than us! There were so many turtles at the Praia do Porto that Fernando got exhausted catching so many, especially the last on, which was so big he could hardly carry it! All of us children were a bit afraid that the turtles would suffer from the tagging, but Lily explained to us that it’s like when we get our ears pierced to put earrings. But the turtles were not that happy to get tagged, they were constantly flapping their fins! I was so happy Lily let me carry one of them and she also asked me to measure it, it was 40 cm long, not the biggest catch of the day. I also helped Lily release the turtle once we finished the tagging, measuring and noting all these data on a waterproof pad. I was also surprised some of the turtles they caught were already tagged and even some of them had been tagged elsewhere than Noronha! If I could, I would help Lily ever day with her job!

BIRTH ON THE BEACH - But the best part of the day came at sunset. Armando, the coordinator of the Tamar project, invited us on the Praia do Leao at 5 pm to see how baby turtles go to the sea for the first time. This was a big emotion for all of us ! It is actually the birth of the turtles, since it is the first time in their life they see the light and go in the sea. So we met Armando, Andreas, Carole and a few other biologists near a red stick on the beach. This is the sign that there is a turtle nest and people should pay attention, but there are so few people on the beaches of Noronha that really here there is no danger for these turtles. Armando told us that in the sand under the stick there were more than 100 baby turtles that had come out of their eggs only 3 days before and they were still under the sand because they were like an embryo, all crunched and not able to walk. During these three days, they did a lot of stretching under the sand and they were now able to come out! None of us believed that there would be so many turtles under that small hole in the sand… and it was amazing to see them coming out when Armando started digging gently under the sand. They were so fast coming out (who said turtles were slow?) and they were running to the sea, over passing all sorts of obstacles they found on their way. I helped my father filming them, and the most difficult part was not to be on their way, being very careful not to crush them, so many and so fast they were! Armando told us they know instinctively where to go because they are attracted by the light of the sea. It is very important not to distract the turtles with artificial lights on the beach, otherwise they get confused and instead of going to the sea they can get lost. Another obstacle they have to overcome is the waves. They are so small that they are continuously pushed back to the beach by the waves. But then they make it! I waited to see that all 105 of these hatchlings were far in the sea and would not be pushed back on the beach. In this nest, there were 106 eggs, only one did not open, all the others had small turtles that all made it to the sea. While Armando was burying the unopened egg on the beach, we children were all hoping that the 105 hatchlings we saw being born would all make it at least to their teen-age stage and if possible to adult.
I hope that all of these small turtles who will turn girls when adult will make it back to this beach to lay their own eggs.

Armando’s Turtle Game - From the diary of Alberto:

This morning we went to TAMAR, the special centre for the protection of Marine Turtles here on the island (Ta Mar is in Portuguese Tartarguga Marinha) and we made a game invented by the coordinator, Armando. This game was his thesis work and is really cool. Each participant is a small marine turtle just born, of a different species. I chose to be the Careta careta, since I am Italian and this turtle can also be found in Sardinia. You have to place your small turtle on a map showing the Atlantic ocean and the African and South American coasts, exactly where your turtle was born. That’s the starting point of the life cycle of your turtle. The itinerary of each species is already marked on the map, you just have to launch the dice and go to the corresponding number. At each number something happens, and the instructions are marked on the cards (each species has its own cards).

You can:

o get an information about your turtle’ s species

o be caught by a fisherman’s net and stop for one shift

o get eaten by a shark and have to start all over again because you die (which happens more often than I imagined to the poor young turtles, only one or two per thousand ! manage to get to adult age).

Andres, the biologist playing with us, and myself, were the less lucky since we both got eaten by sharks more than once. My mother and Maxine were the luckiest since they managed to get to juvenile and adult stages (and get the corresponding turtle pawns) without being eaten !

Baia dos Golfinhos : Dolphins !

2010-07-30T09:55:00.001+02:00

Fri July 30, 2010

This morning we woke up at 5 am to climb up a muddy trail in the dark and reach Baia dos Golfinhos, to observe the dolphins from a 50 m high cliff with the marine biologists. One might wonder why making this effort, in Noronha where there's no tourist who took a boat tour that has not seen dolphins spinning above the surface (these are spinning dolphins, Stenella longirostris a species that jumps a lot out of the water, making wonderful pirouettes, not only to breathe but probably also to communicate better among each other through the formation of air bubbles in the water). So for the first hour and a half, when no dolphin was in sight in the bay just below our observation point, everybody was a bit nervous looking at the horizon. The young biologists from the Golfinho Rodeador project were ready with their binoculars, note sheets and counters, wondering why the dolphins were late. Kai, who had already been impatient since the first lights of the morning, was just getting more nervous as he realized that the tele-objective of his camera was not the right one for this distance; at 7h00 sharp, one of the biologists screamed "there!" and pointed his binoculars towards the left of the bay. And then "tick, tick, tick" … went the biologists' counters at each jump and "click, click, click.." the cameras of the lucky watchers. The dolphins' dance has started in the bay 50 m below our feet, and we could all watch it breathless, with or without binoculars.

"It was worth coming here then! ", exclaimed Kai. "Everyday, we observe an average of 360 dolphins in this bay, between 5h00 and 9h00 in the morning" said one of the biologists, and he asked " Why do you think there's such a high concentration, actually the highest in the world, right here, in Baia dos Golfinhos? ". The MiniDarwins start submitting hypotheses: "Because they find good food", says Alberto. "Because it's a wonderful place to rest" suggests Maxine. "Because the waters are so clear that they can see the predators better" says Kai. Their answers are all correct. Fernando de Noronha is the only place in the Atlantic where the dolphins can find clear, deep and calm waters to take a rest during their crossing. In the Pacific, there are many places with the right conditions, while in the Atlantic, this is the only one, so that's why they all concentrate here and you can see over 300 of them every morning, charging their batteries before they continue the crossing. The waters of the Baia dos Golfinhos are deep and calm, ideal for resting, feeding and reproduction, and they're very clear (the visibility is 50 m) for the dolphins to be able to see predators in time to escape (dolphins have a very good eye sight). "What is the dolpin's worst ennemy? asks Maxine. "The shark, says the biologist, they love dolphin meat, it's their preferred food". "But how can you count them with your tool and the binoculars and be sure you're not counting the same dolphin twice?" asks Alberto, who is very sensitive to accuracy. "We point the binoculars to one specific area where we see dophins jumping out of the water, and we count each jump we see. Since on avreage dolphins can continue underwater without breathing for 13 minutes, we're pretty sure we're not double counting by recording the jumps we see in a specific area of the bay."

It was definitely worth the early wake up, we all think walking back along the path and getting excited about the rest of our dolphin day. Today we planned a boat tour, and we're now sure that what the Noronha marine park guides say is true: there's not a single tourist who's taken a boat tour around the island and has not seen dolphins!

Beaches & Species

2010-07-29T09:57:00.002+02:00

Praia do Sueste

Fregates, our friends from Galapagos

Praia do Leao

Mabuya

Praia do Sancho

Cachoeiro (waterfall) with mammal

Fernando de Noronha – arrival

2010-07-28T14:34:00.003+02:00

Wed 28 July

“Paradise is here” were the first words of navigator Amerigo Vespucci when he discovered Fernando de Noronha on August 10, 1503, during the second expedition to discover the Brazilian coasts, sponsored by the Portuguese “fidalgo” (aristocrat) Fernao Loronha. When landing on the archipelago aboard the GOL flight (one of the very few daily landings taking an allowed maximum of 200 visitors on the island), we did get the impression of a Paradise island, amidst the unexpectedly cloudy sky. But by the time we got off the plane, filled in the forms to pay the environmental tax and found Lau, a sweet local girl working at the Pousada where we booked our stay, waiting to load us on the pick up jeep, Paradise turned into just a remote illusion around the magnificent green “Morros and Picos” (stunning volcanic peaks) all around the airstrip, littered as it became by tons of mud and greyed by endless rain and stormy winds. To make things worse, once at the Pousada, we found out that our accommodation would vanish the next day, due to an agency’s overbooking, but we shouldn’t worry because Lau would find a solution for us. Solutions there were indeed, but minimum budget for a simple pousada (bed & breakfast equivalent) were no less than 200€ per day per person! No wonder this is the place where you find the most expensive guesthouse in Brazil, the Pousada Maravilha (honestly deserving the name), at 1000€ per person per day!
Mud, rain, overbooking, overpricing… this is definitely not what we expected from a place like Noronha on our first day!

Thanks to the miraculous encounter with Cristiano, a young Italian who came here on holidays for a week 8 years ago and never left since, we finally managed to settle in a small spick and span family pousada in Vila do Trinta, one of the dozen small settlements spread around the 26 km2 of the island. We moved to the new Pousada squeezed in a pile of luggage in the dunebuggy we rented at a reasonable price (again, thanks to Cristiano), amidst muddy dirt roads, stunning tropical vegetation and rows of modest, old-fashioned but charming constructions where the bars, shops, supermarkets and even the pharmacies and the hospital all look like slightly “improvised”. The sharp blue and yellow paint of the fence surrounding the veranda of our pousada, overlooking the Morro do Frances and especially the big smile of Etilene, the “dona” (owner) welcoming the kids, make us all feel better.

The afternoon ride on the buggy to the Buraco da Raquel and our first encounter with the sea at the Praia do Cachorro finally make us feel in paradise. Yes, now we can say it, “Paradise is here!” The rain has gone and the promises all fulfilled: crystalline waters, gorgeous scenery and harmony between man and nature are all appropriate definitions for this sanctuary of marine (and not only) biodiversity. Just a simple unguided walk and a first dive in the sea have been enough to spot frigates, boobies, the endemic vireo, small coloured and biting (yes! gently biting) aquarium-like fishes, our first manta ray and two sea turtles!
The kids have already taken their notebooks out to start the Hit Parade of the Species, one of the activities we planned for them. I know there’s much more to come and that it’s going to be tough to elect the species of the week, at the end of our stay in Paradise.

Towards Noronha

2010-07-27T03:15:00.000+02:00

Recife 27 July

Today we went to Recife Antigo (old town), but I am now writing from the plane to Fernando de Noronha. All I know about this island is that not only it is very beautiful, but that it also has a time zone of its own, that it does not share with any other place in the world (- 2 hrs compared to Greenwich), and that Darwin stopped there during
his voyage.

I now remember, when I went to Galàpagos I did not find it so beautiful because you are forced to stay on the paths, you cannot collect any stone, and a million other rules; in Noronha you can go wherever you want and there are no such strict rules. My mother told me on the island there's even a beach with waves for surfing; I am not a real surfer, but I love to be carried away by the waves, as if I was a surf board myself. On that island there are many beautiful beaches and I can't wait to get there !

PS: I am angry with my mother who forbid me to take the Nintendo DS with me on this trip. I hope she will let me watch Naruto sometimes, at least.

PS2 (a few hours later): we just arrived on Noronha, and …. it is raining on Paradise island! Apparently this weather is not normal, according to Cristiano, who has just opened his second Trattoria on this island and has lived here for the last eight years. This is the weather for April, not end July. My mother says it's because of climate change, Mike does not agree, he says there's no proof. I just feel guilty as a human to the idea that the cause for this climate chaos might be us. Let's hope it' s sunny tomorrow!

from Alberto's diary

Brasil!

2010-07-26T00:58:00.000+02:00

Maxine in the taxi

We have arrived in Brazil! in Recife, our gateway to Fernando de Noronha.

Hotel views

What is biodiversity..

2010-07-22T00:06:00.000+02:00

Thu July 22, Gland (Geneva)

The answers of Jean-Christophe Vié, Deputy Head of the Species Programme at IUCN

As the departure date approaches at a faster and faster pace (… it’s Monday, July 26!), the MiniDarwin are just starting realising about the unique expedition and wondering about its main theme, Biodoversity. This is not a friendly word for kids, it’s a rather technical term, but its meaning is very familiar to any child: biodiversity is .... NATURE … in its grandiose variety! This is Jean Christoph Vié’s word and we can trust him. Jean Chrisophe is an expert on Species (that is all the animals and plants on our planet) working at IUCN, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Created sixty years ago, IUCN is the world’s first global environmental organization. It’s main objective is to keep Nature alive, through scientific research on species and ecosystems, field projects to better manage natural environments, and advice to governments all around the world to develop better environmental policies and legislation. One of the most important instruments dvelopped by IUCN to fight biodiversity loss is the RED LIST OF THREATENED SPECIES, measuring the risk of extinction of mammals, birds, amphibians, sharks, reef-building corals, conifers, reptiles, fishes, plants, invertebrates … you name it! This amazing compilation gives us an indication of how life on Earth is going, how little is actually known and how urgent it is to assess more species. The IUCN RED LIST is a real Barometer of Life.

Jean-Christophe Vié answers Kai’s question: What is the origin of your interest in animals?

Since I was a child I’ve always had a passion for nature. I grew up in the countryside and this is the reason why I was not spending my time in front of Playstations or the Nintendo. I spent most of my time in the fields, outside, observing animals. Where did this interest come from? It came from the books I received as a kid, which were not as nice as the books you can find today. I also received a pair of binoculars and then I was fascinated by an American TV series, called Daktari, that I adored. It’s now old fashioned, but it played a big role in triggering my interest for Nature.

Jean-Christophe Vié answers Maxine’s question: Can you tell me more about the bald Uakari (cacajo calvus calvus) that we are going to meet in the Mamirauà reserve ?

Although I never met this animal, I did my PhD thesis on a very close cousin of the Uakari; the Saki monkey, in French Guyana. The bald Uakari is very special, as you can see from the photo of his face on the cover of this book, the Red Book on Threatened Species. English people say he looks like a gin drinker, because he’s bald like me but much redder than me. The Uakaris live in groups, their colour is white and they exploit the flooded areas bordering the Amazon basin. The level of the Amazon river changes a lot according to the season, whether it is rainy or dry, and the Uakari exploit these areas as they eat fruit.

You can follow Jean-Christophe's own blog here: http://viesurterre.com/

How does a vaccine work?

2010-07-10T21:23:00.023+02:00

"Viruses, Bacteria and Immunity"

Sat July 10, Rotterdam

We’ve reached Ab Osterhaus in Rotterdam, where he works when he is not travelling, to submit to him the MiniDarwin’s questions about the need for a vaccination. Ab is one of the reference scientists of the MiniDarwin project and he will join us in the central part of the trip, the Mamirauà reserve in the heart of the Amazon forest. Ab is specialised in viruses that ordinarily affect only animals but that can cross the species barrier, and is able to identify dangerous and elusive new viruses with speed and precision. With the same precision and clarity he has answered the MiniDarwin’s questions on viruses and vaccines.

Ab answers Alberto’s question: How does a vaccine work?

Preparing for the trip..

2010-07-01T11:56:00.000+02:00

Mon June 28 Geneva, HUG

Our trip starts here, at the Geneva University Hospital. We’re just on time to get vaccinations, four weeks before departure. The MiniDarwins from Geneva, Maxine, Kai and Alberto, have certainly given proof of more courage in the past: they swam with sharks on the Galapagos Islands (see Minidarwin Expedition I), they climbed up on the Stromboli, a 900 m high active volcano, and witnessed its explosive eruptions from a mere 300 m distance every 15’, and then climbed down, with ashes up to their knees after midnight, tired, hungry … ,(see Minidarwin Expedition II). But at the prospect of getting an injection, there’s no more courage, they’re as scared as small cats in a water basin!

Maxine spent the morning pinching her left arm, to “train” before the injection, Kai tried in all possible ways to avoid getting to the hospital, hiding in every corner on the way. The angriest of all is Alberto “I do not understand why we need a vaccine” he repeats showing very little collaboration while we queue at the Tropical Diseases Department of the Geneva Hospital, after filling in the forms with all the details of our trip.

“Alberto, The vaccination you’re getting – I explain- is nothing but a harmless version of the yellow fever virus, a sort of “mutant” that does not give you the disease. It just makes itself known to your immune system. If you’ll get to meet the real virus in Brazil, your immune system would already know it and will be able to fight it without you getting sick,. In a way, with the vaccination, you’re training your immune system to defend itself from the virus”.

This explanation is satisfactory enough for Alberto’s logical mind.

“Ok, I accept the vaccination, says Alberto still angry, but if we end up not going to Brazil in four weeks, I’ll hate you for life !” Why is this yellow virus based in Amazonia?” asks Maxine “ and how can the Amazonians
not get sick? ”

Kai gets his shot

“And what if I preferred to get sick in a month’s time instead of accepting the injection today??” adds Kai. Questions flock in. I invite the kids to keep them for professor Albert Osterhaus, one of the scientists we will meet during this trip. Albert, nicknamed Ab, is a very important virologist, who contributed to develop many vaccinations, including the swine flu’s. He’s a real expert, the right person to convince the kids to accept a passing pain in the arm.

Paola, the science journalist