Blog entry:
Fourth - sixth week, second part
Brazil,
state of Goias, 17 December 2012 - 6 January 2013
First of
all, I would like to congratulate one of my loyal reader, Pim van den Berg. I
heard that you liked the story of Yuma scratching my foot. I hope that you had
a great birthday with plenty of presents. I don't have anything to give but as
small token here is some photos of little Yuma (well she is quite large now,
and becoming a proper jaguar, aggressive one too)
As the fieldwork is gradually getting to the
climax, things are getting more hectic lately. For instance, every day we are
working on checking the cameras and doing the transect survey. Things which
need plenty of time and therefore less and less free time available. After day
of field work we still have some office works to do (putting the data in the
excel spreadsheet for both camera traps and transect survey). However, there is
a positive side of this story. Finally, I could put my GIS skill at work and honed
my skill by mapping the already gathered occurrence data of the species
captured with the camera traps. This is exciting as we are going to understand
the "movement" of the species captured on the pictures and videos.
At first I thought I could write an extensive
report about my experience in Pirenopolis. I am afraid I can only present a quick
review of my travelling periods. It doesn't really matter as I promised more
pictures and less text for this entry anyway. So without further a due, here is
a recap of my experience in Pirenopolis.
24 December, Pirenopolis. The town of Pirenopolis is exactly
as the guide books described. It is full with colonial houses and cobbled
streets. The town is also really small and everything is easily accessible on
foot. My journey started with the main church or Igreja matriz, also known as Nossa
senhora do Rosario. It is white, with blue doors and windows. Furthermore,
it has the typical two towers (see picture 1). It is constructed between 1728 and
1732. Next to the church is the main theatre of the town and painted with the
distinctive white and green. Walking further you will find plenty of colonial
houses and two other churches, Nosso
senhor de Bonfim and Nossa senhora do
carmo.
Figure 1. Nossa Senhora do Rosario
The historic value and the relax/ laidback
ambiance of this town attracted many local tourists from the capital city of
Brazil, Brasilia and Goiania. Activities in this town can therefore be found in
the small streets packed with souvenirs shops or nearby the bridge where one
could cool off in the river.
Later that day. In the late afternoon there was a heavy shower
and perhaps correlated with that, there was no electricity in the whole town.
As it was a Christmas eve, I went to visit the church to attend the mass. It
turned out to be one of the most impressive mass I have ever attended. The
church (Igreja Matriz) was totally dark. At the door all visitors got a small
candle and all the big candles in the church were lit. Next to me was a boy
chanting and attending the procession with high spirit. Later on we caught in
conversation and he was wondering if I was a Brazilian. At first he thought I
was a Chilean :-). Then, I explained that I was from Holland. Then he started
to guess which city I was from, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Volendam.. It turned out
that couple years ago he went to Holland with his parents. It was a funny
encounter and his high spirit amazed me.
The mass was just about to end when the
electricity came back again. Now I can see the interior of the church. It is
quite sober, the altar is though quite nice.
Figure 2. Bright coloured houses
25 December, Pirenopolis. As I mentioned in my previous
entry, Pirenopolis boasts beautiful natures beside architecture. Most of the
natural attractions are waterfalls. The closes one is ca. 5 km away, called Cachoera Bonsuccesso. Before I went to
the waterfalls I decided to hike to viewing point Morro de froto. However, there are no detailed maps of the area and
therefore I was lost. It was really nice though, I walked through what I
thought to be a deserted fazenda,
found a way to hiked up to the hill and got a really nice view of the area. I
can grasp why the early settlers called this region Pereneus (latin for Pyrenees). I see some faint resemblance with
the mountain range between France and Spain. It is quite stunning, the lush and
green rolling hills as far as eyes can see.
I found a small trail and decided to walked
through it. The only tool that I had was my compass app on my smart phone (Thank you the one that
develop this app). I took bearing and pin pointed the town on South/ South west
and started to walked to that direction.
Figure 3. Pasture with hill landscape
Hiking in solitude with minimum amount of tool,
relying solely on my navigation skill and bit of luck, had heightened my senses. I had really fun
discovering trails and saw some tracks (dog, but thinking back it may actually
be a maned wolf, Chrysocyon brachyurus).
In the end I found the road again where I could follow and went back to the
town.
Later that day. Back in town I was totally exhausted. In spite
that, I do not want to leave this town without at least visited one waterfall.
So I muster all my strength and started to walk to the Cachoera bonsuccesso. FYI, Between
the town and the waterfall there was a lot of expensive hotels. Arrived at the
waterfall and paid the entrance fee (the waterfall is situated in a fazenda),
there was still a short hike to the top of the waterfall.
The
verdict: compare to other waterfalls I saw here in Brazil, this one is a baby.
I am a bit disappointed, I thought it was much bigger/ higher. Nevertheless, It
is quite good spot to cool off and soak my weary feet. One thing that due make
me happy is that they sell Pamonha (or
tamales), steamed corn flour wrapped up in corn leaves, see picture. There
were two fillings, cheese or chocolate. For this time I bought only the cheese.
I also found this snack somewhere else in South America (searched in the
internet returned that this is an mesoamerican dish, so in Central-America you
will have a higher chance to encounter this dish). I recommended this snack as
this is really tasty and healthy.
26
December, Goiania.
The only direct bus to Goiania departs everyday at 9.30. I have arrived back in
Goiania around noon and with plenty of time to kill I was again exploring the
town. On daylight my memories of this town is gradually coming back. The placed
I stayed four years ago was actually at the Av. anhanguera.
From there I was
determined to find the Internet cafe, where I spent plenty of time four years
ago. Guess what.. I found it. I was really amazed. I was looking for an
internet cafe as I want to call home with skype, but in the end it was quite
hassle and I gave up. Instead I watched the movie Madagascar 3 (in Portuguese).
The rest of the time I spent wandering in the shopping mall/ bus terminal.
Figure 4. Pamonha (tamales)
27
December, Mineiros.
Arrived in Mineiros around 5.00. In the bus terminal there were not many people
around except for couple of guys whose talked loudly. I decided to sit next to
dozing old man and after a couple minutes I also started to dozed. In the next
couple of hours I alternately dozed and awake, as there is one creepy looking
guy walking about. After a couple of hours, I went to the town centre, had some
breakfast and called the taxi (sr. Herculano). I want to mention him in this
entry as he is really a nice guy (however, he only speaks Portuguese). Before,
we went to ENP, we stopped at the supermarket to stock up some food. He was
patiently waiting till I was done with shopping and helped to load the
groceries and so on. So, after everything is done we went to ENP. Back to the
lovely "island".
Despite
that "island" seems to have a negative connotation, when I was back
again in this house I actually relieved. It felt really like coming back home.
However, now after a longer period it started to feel like a beautiful desert
Island as in "Lord of the Flies" (well after re-read Lord of the flies I retrieved this comment) again.
This was a
summary of my travelling experience in
Pirenopolis, I hope you enjoy it.
I only have
one more message for you:
"Leandro Silveira and Anah Jacomo have
about 20 years experience on wildlife research in ENP and surroundings. Two
years ago, they started a daunting new project, raising three jaguar orphans
named Xavante, Kira and Maya. The mother of those jaguars was shot by cattle
rancher as a retaliation for the killed cattle.
As humans are gradually encroaching the
territory of this creatures, this kind of conflict will emerged from time to
time. The local government is quite ignorant about the problem. Therefore, If
local government is pressured to acknowledge the problem, proper measures could
be taken.
Check this link:
BBC Natural World shows the efforts of Jaguar Conservation Fund to send
back to the wild three ophan jaguar cubs.
It is a documentary about the three orphans
jaguars mentioned above, more publicity regarding this problem will help
Leandro and Anah with the conservation of this threatened species. Please share
this link and help to raise awareness and acknowledge the problem. Thanks
"
Até proxima,
Yuga
