Last day

Today is my last day at the lab. Feels both good and a bit sad.. Yesterday we had a good buy party at a bar with nice food and music. It feels a bit strange to leave all the people I got to know here and never know if I will see any of them again..

But I should not complain.., I have a cool trip to look forward to. Tomorrow I will go to São Paulo (again), but this time only to the airport to meet Florian. From there we take the next flight to Manaus, Amazonia. We will go on a five days long boat trip along Rio negro. We will also go to Chapada de Diamantina in Bahia. This is a beautiful area for hiking. And we will visit Rio de Janeiro again. Unfortunately that's all what we have time for and then we have to go back to Campinas and then We'll go back home to Europe. See you there!!

So long rafikis!

more pics

Festa Junina

This weekend i went on a traditional party that people arrange in Jine. Its called Festa Junino and it's supposed to be like a country party. There's ALOT of food and sweets to eat and you paint your self and then you look as nice as i and Fabiana looks... The idea is that you should look like girl from the country side.. It was really fun party and my stomach was very satisfied after all teh food...

Portuguese festival

On sunday it was time for the singing. There were two men playing guitar, one female singer and one male singer. What voice the woman had. Really powerfull!!

Portuguese festival

This weekend there was like a portuguese festival. That ment that there were cultural events like dancing and singing. Saturday evening I went to see some traditional portuguese dancing. It was really fun. What they do kind of all the time is to spin around and that makes the womens skirt fly up and with the funny underwhear that they use it looks really funny! After the show we went to "Casa de Portugal" The house of portugal. Here we eat some traditional portuguese food and there was also some more dancing.

Paulista avenue

After the exhibition we went to the famous Paulista avenue. Along this avenue, that's more then 3 kilometers long, there are crazy high buildings and on sundays market along the way. I found some nice things to bring home..! Then there was one more night (and one more nice dinner) at Marinas house and then back to Campinas again...

The body exhibition

And on sunday we tried it again, to get to the crazy body exhibition. We were very lucky, it was a bit cold and even some rain, so people stayed indoors, so we didn't have to stand in line more then 30 min or so! And the exhibition was really cool! it's Gunther von Hagens who made most of the work. Google him if you want more pictures..

Consert

In the evening we went for a very nice concert with brazilian music. It was really good!! They played a lot of different styles and the whole atmosphear was just great.

Marinas place

Marinas family has two dogs, I forgott their names but they were very sweet. And next to the house there's a nice park where the birds get some food (feels strange that the birds get this nice table with fruits and just nearby the people in the favela has no food, but who cares about them.....). From the house you get a nice view over the city. Sao Paulo is the fourth biggest town in teh world by the way..

The central market

After this we went to the big market in teh centre. This was also really nice. The building has very pritty glass windows and there's a nice atmosphear at the market. Here I bought some dried froits and some cashew nuts.

The market

Next morning we went to the local market. It was really fun. They had all kinds of fruits that you can imagine and I got to try them all!. They all found it very fun with a foreigner that never tasted all these fruits before.. I bought some crazy pears that came from Japan. Really good!

Sao Paulo

So, this friday I went to Sao Paulo again. First I went to the Botanical department and collected my samples. After this me and Marina went to her house. It's a nice place and her family was very welcomming. It was her moms birthday so we went out for dinner in the evening. Sao Paulo is knowned for their good pizzas!!

Sao Paulo again

Tomorrow I will go to Sao Paulo again. I have some more plants that I have to collect from there. I will go together with Chris and my friend Marinawho has her family in Sao Paulo. Chris will go back to campinas the same day, but I'll stay over the weekend.

I will try once again to enter this exhibition with the real bodies. Marina told me that the chances are maybe not very good since we try on a weekend, but you never know until you've tried.. I really hope it will work. It sounds so cool this exhibition!

Sao paulo

An old picture from Sao Paulo.. Why do exercise when you can take the bus..?

The waterfall

Filling up the bottle from this nice waterfall

View 2

And another one

View 1

One of the nice views that we were given after the rather though walk up the mountain..

May flower

This beautiful flower is called may flower..

The christ

Before I went home yesterday I went for a long walk up to the christ. What a view you got from there!! Really cool!

Humming bird

There were humming birds all around the place!

My driver

My personal driver that took me around the city of Rio de Janeiro

Drinking

When there are no waterfalls to fill up your bottle you can just take some of the water that the forest offers to you.. This tree stores its water in the tree trunk..

One part of the orchid group..

beachen

The river

The beautiful river that we were trekking next to

Monkey

These guys were jumping around next to the christ.. They look very funny!

Rio

ok, if the trip to Minas Gereis was nice I don't know what to say about my stay here in Rio. It has been a very nice weekend with a lot of nice experiences. I came to Rio this friday and Rosario was supposed to meet me at the airport. She was a bit late but she showed up after 30 min or so. She's a very nice lady, short with dark curled hair. Then we went to her house which is situated in the mountains in Rio. A very nice house with spectacular views over Rio.

The next day we went up at 5:30 to start the orchid-excursion. We went to pick up some other orchid lovers and went of to the mountains around Petropolis. The views from my last trip was very nice but this was even more incredible. The mountain formations around Rio look so cool! We went to this area that is owned by an english man and it's a protected area of over 6000 hk! We had a guide that took us through the atlantic rainforest and we got really close to the animals. We didn't see any jaguar, but we saw fresh foot prints from it. It would have been soo cool if we got to see one.. But, we saw a lot of orchids. The guys in the group are really experts and spotted the orchids from far distance and namned them without any doubts..

It was a very long walk and we stopped to long by every orchid so on the way back we had to use our torch to find the way back.. We stayed in a small house in the forest. Really nice.

The next day only half of the group was fit to take another walk after the rather long and though walk from yesterday. This walk was well worth taking! We walked up to a very beautiful waterfall and then we walked along the stream down again. This was a real djungel track. The guide had his mascheta in his hand all the time to make a path for us..

Well back at the house the humming birds were flying around the house and you got a really close look at them. Also Nicolas, the owner of the area, was there. A very nice man that invited me again and I have an open invitation to go there and work with his project (replanting and protection of the forest)when ever I want!

So, then we went back to Rio and the next day me and Rosario, who by the way is the director of the orchid magazine Orquidario here in Brazil, and a very powerfull person, went to her orchid green house in Petropolis. It`s a beautiful place and a crazy big green house. Here I sampled my Hoffmannseggella species. There were a lot so it took some time actually.

After this Rosarios dad, Jaocarlo, picked me up to go for lunch at his place. That Rosario was a rather wealthy lady I had already figured out, but now i started to understand how wealthy.. Her dad is very rich and powerful and everybody knowes him. He has several houses around Petropolis and a crazy appartment in Rio etc.. In his house I got a very nice lunch without having to move one finger. They had servents doing everything. Like at an expensive restaurant..

Then I went with Jaocarlo and his new wife (much younger then him..) to there appartment in Rio. A very nice flat with the view over one of the beaches in Rio. Very nice, but for me it felt to much like hotel and not like a home..

ok, then he arranged a personal driver for me that took me around Rio and showed me all the beautuful beaches and took me for a very nice ride in Rio. Then he took me back to Rosarios house, and there a had a nice dinner with some tropical fresh fish!

Today I`ll go back to Campinas at six. I really don`t want to. It`s much, much nicer here then in Campinas... Today I will go for a walk around the neighbour hood here. It`s very nice here and some very nice views over Rio.

Rio

Oi!

Today I will leave to Rio de Janeiro. I need to collect some Hoffmannseggella species that are there. I will meet a women called Rosario. She's an orchid fantast and she will help me collect the species that I need. They are cultivated, so it will not be very hard to find them... On Saturday though we will go for some trekking, an orchid-excursion somewhere around Rio, it sounds really nice!

Probably I'll be back in Campinas on Wednesday again, and then there will be some pics on the blog.. C U!