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.