Friday, August 06, 2004

4 more days in MST Baliza. This time we visited the "best waterfalls on the property" one was a long row of cascades leading to a final 20M fall into the Araguia, and the other was a gulch that the Rio de Peixe runs into, I got some great pictures of the fishermen there. The literal translation of the name is the river of fish. This last trips goal was to meet with and discuss the project with as many of the families as possible so we had 4 meetings with about 50 people each. At the first meeting I met a great girl who hung out with us for the 4 days I needed one more day with her as we hit it off quite well but alas thats the way the big ball breaks (something to come back to). I don´t have much to write right now because I didn´t get much sleep last night as we drove from Baliza all the way to Iguape and got in at 6AM. I was the last leg so I am really tired. Today is a resting day then we leave this evening for the Fazenda Pro Fauna. I need to wish a happy birthday to my sister Helen who celebrated on the third of August, I was thinking of you but there is no telephone or internet in Baliza (I thought of sending a bottle but I´m not sure if that would get there), and mail is difficult as no one has envelopes or postcards in the interior. I kept looking but I guess no one visits there so there is no need for postcards. My new name according to Sera (short I believe for seraphim) is Diogo as he couldn´t remember Paul or Paulo or maybe it´s because there was another Paulo, I don´t know. But for being our guide we helped him move to his new land. This time as I was treking I ended up with only about 50 new cahapatu bites (ticks), and one worm in my right little toe (which I promptly removed upon notice). This country is full of parasites, fortunately I don´t react much to mosquitoes anymore as I think I have built up a tolerance, but those dang ticks still bother me and seem to love me. But don´t worry they don´t have lime disease down here. Yesterday we only broke down once on the way here, we took a drop off in Jatai to leave Kenni and meet with one of the capybara producers there. It was a loooooong day of driving covering 1500Km, the trip total was around 6500Km. I think I need to tally up how many Km´s I´ve covered this summer, I think I could have gone around the earth at least once if not twice.