Quick update. I spent the last week in Diorama and Pimental Barbosa. I have many stories to write but no time right now. Tonight we are staying Barra do Graça and tomorrow we are heading to Beliza for another round of assesment and off roading. Quick notes on Xavante trip. Diorama met up with 4 girls for the trip. Day1 at agrotech, day 2 drive to Wedera, day 3 tracking peccary and jaguar, day 4 fishing, day five hunting darting and collaring peccary. Spent time learning Xavante language as this time I know enough Portuguese to communicate with them fairly well. I was impressed with myself honestly that I actually can speak Portuguese and be understood. The phrase for the day is Ima asavi up´tabi which is Xavante for I love you.

Yesterday we spent the day visiting a farm 50Km west of Goiania.  These are some of the nicest people I´ve met in Brasil, they open up their minds and houses to us with the utmost delight.  I hope that we can help them.
Campinas, GO BR.  This spot is not within the Amazon river basin which makes the possibilities for production less but yet there is quite a diverse ecosystem there.  It´s the closest I´ve seen to the Pantanal biome away from western Brasil (the actual Pantanal).  A good amount of the terrain that is in reserve is wetlands.  In one location there was a chain of man made canals but the situation was unusual.  There were two breaks in the chain where man had rerouted the rerouted water.  This made the chains quite unusual so we had to explore them on foot to see what was going on.  Three of us went to explore this while the others went by landrover to discover other water.  Vanderleigh, our guide and I covered quite a distance on foot but to explore the area at one point we had to get into the water.  I was hesitant because I was wearing my hiking boots but there was no other option and the ground wasn´t suitable for no shoes.  Thus I got in.  This area is known for having anacondas as well, actually the nearby river is named anaconda(the portuguese word).  This of course made me nervous but the assured me that the snakes only hang out at the best watering places for wildlife.  I wanted to see one (not in a first hand struggle) but apparently they are not so easy to find.  After a short distance in the water we walked on land.  This was also not good as my feet and shoes were wet, but fortunatley my boots fit properly so there was no rubbing to mess my feet up too much.  To sum up the day, I discovered chiggers, was hiking through water and in wet shoes, and had fresh peccary meat for lunch at one of the farmers houses.  It was a great day. 

Now I am in Anapolis where we are stuck until the Land Rover gets fixed.  We gave them three hours and they said it would be done (I hope they are right). This afternoon we drive to Diorama and meet up with the rest of the crew for our trip to Wedera village.

I never thought Id be writing from one of the MST farms but here i am. 2 days ago we drove from Sao Paulo to Anapolis wehere Paulos mother lives. We got in at 6AM and had 4 hours of sleep before leaving to Brasilia for a few important meetings. The first was with FUNAI about the further development of the Zavante project and they want to give Paulo another project. The meeting was of course with the secretary (director) of FUNAI. The second was with the ministerio dos ambiente (environment) and of course again our meeting went straight to the top with the minister herself. The third was a teaching engagement with SPNR the sub project for natural resources. We presented at the second anual meeting for education and discussion about utilization of natural resources. We had an evening brew meeting with the FUNAI group again and stayed the night (inadvertently) in Brasilia as it was late and we had ben imbibing not to mention the neeting in the morning. This morning we met (sort of) with IBAMA, we were set up for a meeting with a man named Fernando but he was taken to the hospital on an emergency. So that didnt work well and we left our information with the second in line and left for lunch and our afternoon trip to Goiana and to the MST farm. (MST )again is the Movement dos Trabaliadores sem terra. We got here fairly late and met up with our counterpart with the MST projects Vanderleigh to start our grand tour of the area. This one is smaller than Beliza with only 12000 Ha with 6000 in reserve. There are approximately 350 Families on this property. Unfortunately this farm is set up with the river running through the middle of the property and farms on either side. This makes it more difficult to manage as the reserve is split and divided around the river. Were still trying to figure out what to do. Tonight we stay in the school. Apparently tomorrow there is a large expulsion of squatters on the adjacent property. There are about 2000 people living on 8000 Ha next door illegally and the police are comming to force them away, They will have most of the force from Goiania (a city of 5 million people) here. I just hope Im not woken up tomorrow morning by gunshots. A peaceful exodus would be nice though unlikely. Why I end up in positions like this I dont know but they sure will make good stories to tell my grandkids someday. Tomorrow we do more offroading, but unfortunately the clutch assembly on the land rover threw a connecting bolt or something and first gear along with reverse dont work not to mention a wonderful clunking sound when decelerating. We will send it to the mechanics as soon as we leave P. A. Canudos (nome de fazenda akey). On saturday we depart for Diorama.

Back in Sao Paulo.  We got in late last night and spent about a half an hour after immigration waiting for my luggage to show up.  We finally went to the claims desk and found out that they knew all along that my luggage had been left in Amsterdam but just "didn´t get around to announcing" it    (thanks KLM :( )  Luckily I left some clothes here in Sao Paulo so I have clean clothes to wear but it is quite annoying having to wait 24 hours to get luggage.  Last night I got a good night sleep, finally, after 12 days of what I would call short unproductive rests.  Hopefully two good nights sleep will put me back in good health until I get back to the states.
 
So I can go back in time now to July 4th US independence day and write a little about the last two weeks.  Unfortunately the account will not be as detailed as I would like due to the abscence of a computer and time for me to regularly type, though I did attempt to write every night it is much more time consuming to form letters in hand than on machine.
We arrived in Paris on the fifth of July with no prior knowledge of the language or the city let alone what the current Paresian opinion was of Americans.   Thus we proceeded as Brasilians who happen to have American passports (both Gonz and I).  This was not a problem as we were comming in on a plane from Brasil.  Our first hurdle was to get from the airport to the hotel which in retrospect should have been much easier but we didn´t have that prior knowledge.  We made our way to the train station in the airport and found a teller who spoke english so we could get a ticket to Corvisart (Place de Italie).  We got a map of the metro system in Paris and hit the trains.  When looking at the map we found that the fastest way to the hotel would be to Denfert-Rocherau but when we got there the train was out between there and Place de Italie and of course not knowing we could catch a bus instead we went back north and caught a different connection.  All together it took us about 2 hours to make what should have been a 30 minute trip (dope).  Finally we get in about 10 PM local time and shower then head to dinner.  We found a little greek restaurant with cheap food where I discovered there are people in France who don´t speak english (duh) but was amazed at how similar Portuguese is to French except for Brasilian actually pronounce the words and french sounds like portuguese with a huge wad of gum clogging your mouth while you speak.  Anyway we hit the sac and got up bright and early the next morning to go register.  This is when I got my cold, less than 5 hours of sleep with a five hour time difference causing jet lag leaves ones immune system in suppression.  It didn´t help that in the next 7 days I wouldn´t get much more than that amount of sleep every day.
 
The next day was the beginning of the conference for "wildlife as a natural resource" sponsored by the International Foundation for the Conservation of Wildlife (IGF).  I would say this was difinitively the most international conference Ive ever been to.  There were people it seemed from almost every country (not really) but it seemed that most of the people I talked to would be from different countries except for a large contingent from France, South Africa and Brasil (surprisingly).  There was a massive amount of good information at the conference and great contacts for me but there was also a lot of research that was presented that led me to the opinion that work (research) in the field of wildlife conservation is in need of good problem based researchers to raise the international standard.  I think the problem basically lies in that these people love what they do soo much that they scientific method becomes secondary to helping the people.  But in an international arena, credibility comes from proper method not from "saving the world".  One of the most interesting things I took from the program was a consistency throughout the third world that legislation generally has the opposite effect of what it intends.  e.g. Kenya established a ban on hunting after being pressured by the international conservation agencies (mostly US based radical groups like green peace).  This had the effect of increasing tourism due to popular press but it found that when tourism waned especially in recent times with the terrorist activities there the wildlife population was no longer maintained by the tourist monies and thus the wildlife has dramatically decreased in Kenya due to the locals needing money which isn´t comming from tourism anymore so poaching and bushmeat for food and trade becomes the only option.  Whereas in other countries where sustainable management of hunting has dramatically increased the wildlife populations based on the idea that people want wildlife on their land so they can have hunters and make money.  Thus they make every effort to increase the indigenous populations.  This is a short very broad example but there is a massive amount of literature out there that supports the basic conclusion that true conservation (which by its definition includes utilization (hunting...)) increases wildlife and preservation, which is what all the uninformed activists in the US want, decreases wildlife.   Thus we need to make every effort in the US to get the truth out about international wildlife conservation.

Moving on, the conference lasted from 6-9 of July and was surrounded by wonderful meals and celebrations.  I don´t think I´ve had so much wine in my life.  The first night featured a river cruise in a glass toped boat with a 5 course meal and dancing which I had the honor of spending the evening with a contingency from South Africa.  And the second night we had a coctail party, that was catered by a four star Paresian restaurant, in an incredible musem of "chasse"(hunting).
 
The 9th of July we left for southern france with Didier Roque-Rogery who is a professional hunter and deer farmer.  We drove south to Pradinas where we stayed two nights in the Chateau de Laplanque, a beautiful castle on a decent sized farm which hosts a population of 700 farmed deer and quite  bit of wildlife.  He keeps all the bucks in a pasture up next to the house so every morning and evening you see a large number of beautiful animals grazing as you look out the window.  When we got in we went into Pradinas for their weekely market day in the Bastille where we had Aligot, saussison, vin, fromage, pain, and foie gras.  It was a great meal and a true taste of france.  The people in france except for Paris are quite nice and it seems as soon as you leave the city life gets nicer.  I noticed all through Paris that most people weren´t smiling or having fun except for in the evenings at the bar or the tourists.  But leaving the city everyone seemed much more jubilant.  I digress, of course it was necessary to go back to the castle after dinner to have a digestive champaign (real of course) in the study.  I was amazed by the library.  As the house is 700 years old the libraries collection is equally as old.  The first book I picked up and opend was printed in 1605  and there was famous books by authors who fathered modern taxonomy.  The next day we visited the farms and a game park, also a cedar loging operation on his farm which was mostly intended to open up the planted forest more so animals could live there again other than the overpopulated beavers.
 
On Sunday July 11th we departed for Didier´s farm in Perpignan but before going to the farm we had to visit the market, the mediterranean and the topless beaches in Collioure.  This was quite a good stop as the weather was beautiful.  We were within a few km of Spain but I didn´t get there unfortunately.    We went back to Perpignan for lunch and it was quite nice as they had guests from South Africa and the whole family home so the dinner table was full and it was a delightful meal.  We had the famous jerky from South Africa and some blood sausage from there as well, and a host of french cuisine from the home (the best there is).  We spent the afternoon looking at the farm facilities for raising deer and wild sheep and had fallow deer fillet for dinner with of course an abundance of wine and cheese.  I think my favorite cheese I have had is called Roquefort, I don´t think you can find it in the states because you cant pasteurize the cheese and make it properly.  If I had another day or two I would have made it to Spain and had it been my choice I would have stayed there for 2 more days instead of going back to Paris but alas it wasn´t my choice so we took the night train to Paris.
 
The 12th we visited a hunting park run by the government for exclusive clients such as the president.  We also toured a pheasant production facility.  The next couple days in Paris were rather uneventful in my opinion.  I didn´t mind touring Paris and seeing the sights but it wasn´t neer as good of an experience as being with the locals seeing the real culture.  Bastille day was ok but unfortunatley I wasn´t feeling too hot.  I did go out and have a couple for the sake of it and I found it humorous that one of the bigger parties that we stopped by was hosted by the french communist party.
 
On the 15th we departed France, Paulo to Brasil and Gonz and I to Amsterdam.   I have already given a little update on Amsterdam so I shall refrain from repeating myself.
 
Again if you want me to expand on anything or ask questions please do.  I love to hear from people.
 

Here in Amsterdam now.  The keyboard is english style so I can write quickly again.  We got in late last night about 8:30 at the airport and it took until 10 to get to the hotel then an 11 oclock dinner.  We were surprised at the town as most of the bars closed at 1am which of course was too early as we got a late start so we decided to hit the sack early and do the museums today.  A note:  it is true what they say about the coffee shops here in Amsterdam, there is legalized use of marijuana which I found to be a culture shock.  I asked to look at the "menu" last night just to see what it was all about but I had no clue what I was looking at, it was all just garble to me and I didn't want any anyway.  It is a very interesting town, I enjoy the canals everywhere especially since you can sit outside and look out over the water with nice boats and houseboats everywhere.   Today I think I will get a real perspective on the archetecture.  We plan on visting the Van Gough musem, the Heiniken brewery, and the mairtime museum today and perhaps the zoo if there's time. The next update will likely be from Sao Paulo.

Still in Paris; though Im heading to Amsterdam tonight. My thought or culture comment for today is the price of things. Paris is extremely expensive but yesterday I had a coke and it cost 3.80 euros. The wine is about half that expensive. I cant write much because I get frustrated by the keyboard. Yesterday I celebrated Bastille day as everyone else does. I saw part of the parade and then toured the town. It was fun but a lot of walking. Last night we had a late dinner and I went to bed hoping to get a little sleep for healing purposes. Im looking foreward to getting healthy and getting back to Sao Paulo where life will slow down again. Off to Amsterdam.

wow its been a while. I am now in Paris, thats right Paris. This keyboard is even more difficult than the brasilian one. In short because I don^t have time, I was at the international symposium for the utilization of wildlife here in Paris for 4 days and then we went to a friends house in southern france. He called it a house, but in reality it was a castle which was an incredible experience. We went to visit his farms for Fallow deer and red deer he also raised a type of large horned sheep. We went to the Mediterranian just south of Pampignoin sp? Its right on the border of spain and france. Unfortunately i didn^t get to go to Spain but I was able to see it. We took a night train back to Paris and visited a hunting reserve yesterday. Tonight and tomorrow what luck we get to celebrate Bastille day!! That is all i will write from Holland soon or back in Sau Paulo. My love to all my family and friends I wish you could join me as i discover the world.

So I laid down for a short nap this afternoon and next thing I know it´s night. I´m getting better but I think my body still wants more rest. Today Paulo returned from up north and brought some new challenges with him for us to figure out. Yesterday was the first day in a while that I actually felt like doing anything so I went downtown with Gonz and Paula for the evening. Gonz had a meeting to discuss the Pró-Fauna website so he left Paula and I to find where we were going. We ended up at an Irish pub named Finnigans which happened to be one of the best pubs in town according to Playboy (they had the article on the wall). The night started off slow with just Paula and I from 8 till ten but that was cool, it gave me a chance to catch up with her which I haven´t been able to do since she joined us a few days ago. Then everyone starte showing up. First Gonz, Erosita and the webdesigner (from the meeting), then Marcus, then Daniel and his wife and cousin + spouse. It was great when the last group showed up because Daniel´s wife is a fellow American (the first I´ve met since being here) so it was refreshing being able to have a traditional high-paced english conversation with someone other than Gonz. I found it difficult to not poke too much fun at her alma mater (U of Michigan) though. But once again the Big Ten rules the world.
Today and yesterday were writing and reviewing days. I spent the majority of today writing a paper which is to be presented next week in Paris, and reviewing another for that same objective. Then we went to lunch at a churrascaria for a delicious smattering of all the carnivorous nummies that one could possibly want, took my nap and I´m back to the present.