Heading Home

Its finally time for me to go home. Today I fly down to São Paulo and then on to Heathrow.

I'll be arriving in London at about 7am (GMT) tomorrow. See you on the other side! (of the world)

Aracaju Weeks Three and Four: The Home Straight

The last two weeks of my Brazilian adventure began much like the previous two - work, work and more work, with the additional strain of trying to organise a trip out to the field. It seemed everything was against me - in order to get out there I needed one professor, one technician and transport. However, the professor was on holiday, the technicians were on strike and the university refused to rent a car to me. In the end, it only took 1 full day, 2 native English speakers, 1 Brazilian student who speaks English and two Brazilian professors, to resolve the situation to everyone's satisfaction. The only slight problem, for me at least, was that we had agreed to meet at the university at 7am. Given the previous reliability of the buses (or lack thereof) this meant I had to wake up at 4.30am to be certain I would arrive on time.

So, before the sun had even begun to rise, I dragged myself out of bed, forced myself into the cold shower I hoped might wake me up, had some breakfast and got my things together. About 5 minutes before I was going to leave, in predictable Brazilian disagreeableness, it began to rain. And when it rains in the tropics, it pours. I decided to wait a few minutes, in the desperate hope in might subside, but no such luck. So, I found my rain coat and headed out. Fifteen miserable minutes later, I was at the bus stop. Thankfully, the buses ran smoothly and I actually arrived at University half an hour early, which gave me a chance to do a few bits of work before leaving. I made sure I was finished with all this promptly, and sat and waited. But 7am came and went, and there was no sign of the professor who was supposed to help me. I told myself he was working on Brazil time (usually a minimum of 15 minutes late) and waited patiently. By 8am I was just sending him a rather concerned and slightly irate email, when he arrived.

Aracaju Weeks 1 and 2: Welcome back to Civilisation

After my absurdly long bus journey out of Campo Formoso, I arrived in Aracaju, set my ants up in their new laboratory, and headed to the house where I would be staying for the next 4 weeks, with a lady called Nice. As soon as the usual formalities were over; "this is where the bathroom is" ... "this is the kitchen"... etc, I collapsed on the bed and slept for a few hours. When I awoke that evening I felt considerably more human. The evening meal proved to be only slightly traumatic, with the usual level of communication issues and no more than the expected level of showing off the exciting gringa, who had just arrived, to friends and family. Still feeling tired from my bus ordeal the night before, I escaped from the living room as early as possible and went to bed.

The following day I headed into university early, discovering just exactly how long my daily commute would be - about an hour on crowded, hot, bumpy Brazilian buses which appear to be driven by poorly trained monkeys (their only training being to aim for the pot holes and speed up for speed bumps). On top of this the scale of my work load for the coming weeks began to become apparent. I was about to try and fit 3 months worth of field work plans into 3 and a half weeks.... Nevertheless, it was nice to be back in the city, with most of the normal amenities that entails, along with people to socialise with.

Campo Formoso Weeks Four and Five: When the rains came

The weekend after my post ordeal I had planned to spend a little time relaxing, and the rest of the time preparing my equipment to being work when my student, Natalia, returned on Monday. However, the rain that began on Friday continued all weekend, which confined me to the house almost entirely, and I started to discover a rather worrying number of places where the roof leaked. On top of this, when I finally got around to doing some work and trying to assemble all my equipment which had finally arrived, I realised that one vital piece was missing - my supervisor had accidentally forgotten to include the power cable for the laptop, which would be necessary to download my data. The laptop is so old that it won't even turn on without the power cable. This discovery pushed me to a point of total disbelief. How can so many things go wrong in such short succession? I quickly began devising a new work plan, knowing it would be at least a week, probably two, before the cable could be posted here - assuming it ever arrived!

Natalia arrived that Monday and it carried on raining continuously for another 4 days. Sometimes it got a little lighter, or even stopped for a minute or two, and I started to feel optimistic that maybe it would stop for a while, but then it came back, harder than ever. The rains began to cause real problems. Although it made digging colonies slightly easier because the soil was softer, it removed all internet access for me because my laptop would get wet, and it turned the roads near the farm into a mud bath. Natalia and I were quickly running out of food, a situation exacerbated by the temporary loss of electricity for 24 hours, during which the fridge had no power. But with 30 minutes of treacherous dirt roads between us and the nearest shops, we started to worry. There are two 'taxis' a day which run from the farm into the town of Campo Formoso, one at 6am and one returning at about midday, acting almost like a bus, collecting many people along the way. However, we weren't sure if the taxi would be able pass along the muddy dirt roads, and if we made it into town successfully, there was a good possibility we would be stranded if the midday taxi couldn't get back. We decided to postpone until the following day.

Campo Formoso Week Three: Brazilian Bureaucracy

The two weeks since my return from Salvador turned out to be the busiest and craziest so far. When I arrived in Campo Formoso we had half an hour before the shops closed, and Aline offered to take me to the phone shop to try and get a mobile internet modem to take to the farm. After a short chat with the shop assistant, it transpired that, contrary to her previous advice, it might not be possible to get one without a CPF number, the Brazilian ID card system. She recommended that I go to a nearby town, Senhora de Bomfim, the following day and speak to someone there. So the next morning I dragged myself out of bed bright and early to catch the 7:30am bus. When I arrived I met Natalia, one of the students who has been helping me, and we proceeded to spend over 2 hours in the phone shop, mostly waiting, to get a modem. Natalia was kind enough to use her ID to get the modem, and eventually we were successful. I was extremely relieved to know that I would not be completely isolated in the farm house for the next two months.

The rest of that day was earmarked for final preparations and then moving to the farm. So we spent several hours, intermittently getting soaked in the rain, and sweating in the sun, wandering around Campo Formoso buying food, motorcycle batteries, plastic boxes and all sorts of other things. Finally, we returned to the house to pack up the remains of my stuff before taking a taxi to the farm.

Just to make matters more complicated, the equipment I was waiting to arrive from the UK, which had been scheduled to arrive on Monday, was still not here, days later. So whilst trying to pack, we were also trying to track down the missing package. Eventually it became clear that the package was stuck in Salvador - for some reason Campo Formoso was not able to receive international packages. I thought that the best option was to arrange to have it sent to Aracaju were one of my friends could post it to Campo Formoso. Satisfied that this had all been organised, Natalia and I called a pick-up truck taxi, loaded up all our stuff and headed to the farm. When we arrived, she went to open the door and as she tried to turn the key in the lock, it snapped in her hands. What more could go wrong, I wondered! Luckily we were able to remove the broken key from the lock with a pair of pliers and miraculously Natalia had a second key so we were able to get into the house fairly quickly. Natalia immediately got to the job of setting up her television set to see if she could get signal, and likewise I immediately set up my computer to see if the internet worked. Almost predictably at this point, neither worked. The farm house is a complete blackhole of telephone signal, internet signal and television signal. A little later we discovered we could find phone / internet signal by walking 5 minuted up the hill and sitting in the middle of a field. Not exactly ideal but better than nothing!

The next day I was excited to finally get started on my work, and we headed out early to look for colonies. We found one new colony and collected some additional data on the 8 we already had before we reached a part of the track through the woods which was impassable. So we walked back up to the farm house to borrow a machete before heading back again. Having got past the short section of thick vegetation, we began finding more colonies with ease. It was so easy to find them, in fact, that we found more than the 9 I had hoped to find that day within just a few hours, and reaching a second, but much thicker patch of impassable track, we gave up and headed back, satisfied that we had plenty of colonies to work with anyway. That afternoon I headed up to my internet field to check my emails etc, and discovered a number of urgent emails from my supervisors saying that the Brazilian postal system was not reliable enough to risk doing having my equipment sent this was and that I needed to contact the post service immediately, cancel the request to send the package to Aracaju, and make plans to head to Salvador to collect it.

I would not be able to go to Salvador until the following Monday, so on Friday (my birthday) Natalia and I went out to find more colonies in the immediate vicinity of the house, a task which was easily finished by lunchtime. At this point, Natalia left, as she had plans elsewhere for the weekend, and I spent the rest of my birthday sun bathing, reading and talking to friends in my internet field. It actually a rather nice turn of fortune that I ended up with no work to do for half of my birthday, as I had a lovely relaxing day. The weekend alone in the farm house was not great, however. Although I initially relished the solitude, I got bored and lonely quite quickly, and at night being alone there felt a little bit too much like the beginning of a slasher movie for my liking. But, I survived, trying to find work to do; typing up data, revising my work plans, collecting dead ants from around the farm house, and busied myself in the evening cooking, reading and watching films.

Finally, it was Sunday night and I went to be very early, knowing that the following morning I had to catch a bus at 7:30am. That afternoon I had gone to speak to Tivi, my contact at the farm, to check what time the regular taxi went past in the mornings. I pre-prepared in Portuguese what I wanted to ask, but despite clearly (I thought) asking him a question, he just nodded. I tried to point out to him that this was not an appropriate response to the questions "What time" but he just nodded again. Frustrated, I persisted and eventually he uttered the words "seis horas" (6am). This was what I had thought, but I was less than convinced that he even really understood what I was saying. So when I dragged myself out of bed at 4:45am on Monday morning, and walked the 20 minutes up hill to the farm entrance where the taxi came past, I was a little anxious about whether it would turn up. But, right on time (there's a first for everything, right!) the taxi arrived, crammed full of Brazilians, and I got in. Within 30 minutes I was at the bus station (over an hour early). In standard Brazilian style, despite advertising opening hours of 4.30am - 10pm, there was nobody in the ticket office. So I sat and waited. Finally, about 40 minutes later, and with only 20 minutes until my bus left, a woman strolled up and opened the ticket office, so I bought my ticket, had one final cigarette and boarded my bus.

7 hours later I arrived in Salvador, exhausted. I took a taxi to my hostel, checked in and got the details together to head out to collect my parcel. The hostel owner called a taxi for me, but I had to wait over an hour for it to turn up (this option was still preferable though because it was safer to take a taxi we knew to be legitimate, and who was willing to wait for me while I collected the parcel). When the taxi finally arrived, we headed out to try and find the address I had been given for the post depo. Unfortunately, I hadn't been given the name of the company, we only had a street name and a building number and once we found what we thought was the correct street, the buildings turned out not to be even vaguely in consecutive order. Confused, we drove around for a while, asked a few people and I was beginning to reach the point of complete exasperation when the taxi broke down. The driver got out, opened the bonnet and started fiddling around with the engine, simultaneously chatting to a man who was standing nearby, asking him if he knew where this address was. It quickly transpired that we had, without realising it, broken down on the very street we were looking for, so the driver suggested that I walked up the street and looked for the building while he tried to fix the car. Slightly nervously, I headed out alone in search of the post depo. I felt sure I was going to end up being mugged, and was particularly nervous since I had needed to bring most of my valuables with me as means of ID / contact in case of problems. Luckily, a few minutes later I heard a car horn beep and the driver pulled up beside me. A few minutes later we found the depo and began the saga of trying to explain to the gun carrying security guard what I wanted and who I was. After about 10 minutes he let us through, and we headed to reception and gave a man the tracking number. He then disappeared into the back for what seemed like forever, while I anxiously waited. When he returned, he brought the news I had been dreading. The package wasn't here. It has been sent to Aracaju, because apparently my supervisor had never called to cancel this request (?!). Deflated, we headed back to the hostel and I paid the extortionate taxi fare. I didn't begrudge him the money though, as he had been completely invaluable in communicating with the people at the post depo, and had gone way above the call of duty to help me.

I spent the entire next day trying to contact people; my supervisor, Aline, Fernanda in Aracaju, the FedEx liaison officer... By the evening I had got, not very far. I had been told again by FedEx that the package was in Aracaju, and managed to get an address where it could be collected from. I had failed to speak to Fernanda, however, and I was anxious not to get on a bus until she had the package in her hands. I spent another night in the hostel, and hoped desperately that tomorrow I would get the news that Fernanda had collected the package, and I could get on a bus to Aracaju safe in the knowledge that my equipment would actually be there when I arrived. 

The following morning, I got up early and headed down to the internet cafe to check my emails. Of course, it was closed. So I sat and waited for half an hour or so until finally it opened. When I got online, I was met by a barrage of emails - including one rather anxious one from Aline telling me that the package might be sent to the UK if I did not collect it soon. I hurried back to the hostel, bumping into my taxi-driver friend who had helped me at the post office on Monday, and arranged for a lift to the bus station. Within an hour I was showered, packed and heading to the bus station in the pouring rain, hoping to catch the next bus to Aracaju. I succeeded and boarded the, rather expensive, gold class bus to Aracaju (the only one available at this time of day). About half an hour or so down the road (passing signs for Praia de Forte which only made me sadder) the bus ground to a half by the side of the road. A few minutes later the hostess came up stairs to tell us that the bus had broken down, and they were trying to fix it. I couldn't believe it! How was it possible to have this much bad luck? I was relieved when, 10 minutes later, the engine started up again, and we continued on our journey. However, it wasn't long before we pulled over again, the driver complaining of the same problem. This happened a further 3 or 4 times before they finally managed to fix the problem permanently, and miraculously we arrived into Aracaju only half an hour late.

Here I was met by the best news I had heard in ages - Fernanda had collected my parcel! That evening we went out for a couple of beers with her friends and celebrated. It was actually nice to be be back in Aracaju with my friends and I felt sad that I would have to leave again tomorrow. I was also rather concerned that getting on another bus might push me over the edge.... I felt somewhat concerned for the well-being of the other passengers. Nevertheless, the following afternoon I boarded a bus to Salvador, to get a connection to Campo Formoso on an overnight bus.

My ordeal seemed as though it might finally be over, when I was awoken rather abruptly by the bus driver at 6am to say that we had arrived in Campo Formoso, a full hour early. A little peeved (because I would still have to wait for Cleia to meet me at 7am), but relieved to be free of public transport, I got off the bus. An hour passed and Cleia didn't arrive. I tried to call Aline but to no avail. Another hour passed. Still no sign of my friends. Still no answer. Finally, I decided I couldn't wait any longer, and I gathered my things and headed out to walk to Aline's house. It was raining, however. Not heavily but a consistent mist which had drenched me after a few minutes. I continued to trudge, uphill, in the rain for half an hour or so before I finally made it to the house, and rang the bell.

No answer. "That is it" I thought. "There is nothing else I can think to try except wait for Aline to come home". Deflated, I sat down on her step. Finally, a few minutes later, the garage doors opened and I was met by a rather confused Aline, who let me into the car and helped me to find Cleia - who apparently had been delayed by 2 hours because there wasn't a bus that went to the bus station here. For reasons completely unknown to me, it hadn't occurred to her that she could simply get on another bus to Campo Formoso and walk to the bus station. No. Instead she had decided to sit and wait, leaving me to do the same, for 2 hours. Needless to say I was a little frustrated with this explanation, but too tired to try and argue about it in Portuguese. Finally, a little good luck came my way when the taxi driver got all the way to the farm (up worryingly muddy hills) without problem. With my equipment in hand, I went back into the house and collapsed into one of the best naps I've had in a long time. It was over. Finally.

A Birthday Weekend in Salvador

Since this year I am away for my birthday, I wanted to try and get away from work for a few days to celebrate. Because of the way my work has turned out, it happened that it was better logistically to go a little early, however, so I headed to Salvador 8 days before my birthday, to spend a long weekend in the famous capital of Bahia. A had a great hostel in the center of the historic Cidade Alta recommended by a friend, and on Thursday morning (a day earlier than planned because my host in Campo Formoso came down with flu) I packed my bags and took the 7 hour bus ride across Bahia

Arriving around 8pm, I got a taxi from the bus station, checked in and quickly headed down to the hostel bar for a Caipirinha. That cocktail turned into a second and I got chatting to the irish bar tender who offered to take me out to another bar and show me around a little after his shift. He and his completely crazy Brazilian friend were a lot of fun so I agreed and at about 11pm we headed out to an African bar down the street which had live music. The music was vibrant and interesting and we had a lot of fun dancing and drinking a few beers. I finally made it back to my room at 4am and tried to get some sleep for the following day.

I managed to drag myself down to breakfast at 9.50am the following morning (breakfast served 8am - 10am) and rather annoyed the lady serving the food who had already packed everything way. But she managed to get me a bread roll and some cheese and I gulped down a few glasses of water in an attempt to feel a little more human again. Having partly recovered from my hangover, I forced myself to head out into the town and explore a little. Salvadors upper city (Cidade Alta) is a UNESCO world heritage site and its thin, cobble stone streets are lined with, slightly decrepid, but truly beautiful old portuguese colonial buildings. There are also an astonishing array of old, elaborately decorated churches in the city (one around almost every corner) so I spent the day wandering the streets, admiring the architecture and investigating some of these. That evening turned into another lengthy drinking session in the hotel bar - unfortunately for me the Capirinhas were delicious and relatively cheap, and I found it difficult to resist. I met some other English people on a gap year trip around South America and hung out and drank together for the rest of the evening. Feeling slightly more disciplined, I managed to get to sleep by 1am that night.

On my second full day in Salvador, I wanted a beach day. I had heard that the beach closest to the city was not so nice, and usually painfully busy, so I decided to take a bus to a beach a little down the coast called Itapua. It was only about 50 minutes on the bus, and when I arrived it was definitely worth it. A long white-sand beach with palm trees dotted along it and rocks jutting out of the ocean creating wonderful rockpools at low tide - it was beautiful. On top of this, my concerns about the weather (the forecast had been for rain showers all day in Salvador) were quickly dispelled, it was gloriously sunny almost all day, and the sun only dipped behind a few light clouds once or twice.

That night turned into another lengthy drinking session, first at the hostel bar with the English friends I had made, and then moving on to another bar up the street with two Swedish guys, and American and a Canadian girl. We returned to the hostel at about 2am, to find that the bar was still open and in full party mode, so we stayed for another couple of drinks before I finally turned in at about 4am. Needless to say, I slept through breakfast the following morning. By about midday I felt capable of dragging myself out of bed, and went up the street to a small cafe with my new found English friends were we got a burger and the boys attempted to watch the football (but failed). We decided to try and make something of the day, and since I had been planing to head over to an island in the bay, we decided to go ahead and try this, despite the relative late departure.

By 2pm we had made it down to the ferry port and got tickets for the 50 minute boat ride across the bay. The water was extremely rough, however, and it was rather unnerving as the boat tilted dramatically from side to side with each wave. We made it to shore unharmed, if a little shaken, though. Once on Itaparica island, we found out that the nearest beach, supposedly very beautiful, was 15km away, and we would need to take a taxi there. We negotiated a reasonable price with a taxi driver there, and despite my concerns about the fact that there were 5 of us and only 4 spare seats in the car, he bundled us in. Just to top it off, the middle-man who had sold us the taxi ride proceeded to jump into the boot, occasionally opening the door to shout directions at the driver, who at this point was driving, in true Brazilian style, ridiculously fast down the dirt roads and overtaking cars and motorbikes on blind corners at every available opportunity. The 10 minute ride was terrifying, and I spent most of the time wondering how I had managed to get myself into this situation, and whether I was going to survive to see the beach at all. Remarkably, we made it there completely unharmed, and the taxi driver arranged with me a time for them to take us back again.

As we strolled out onto the soft, white sand of the beach, Ponto de Araea, I felt like the traumatic journey might almost have been worth it. It was totally idyllic here - an almost completely deserted, white sandy beach, dotted with palm trees, and a view of an even more beautiful looking island across the water. We had almost a full hour here, relaxing in the sun, before we had to head back to catch the last ferry across to Salvador. Thankfully, the taxi ride back was a little less hairy, if only because the driver was somewhat more cautious and drove at what most English people would consider a sensible speed. The boat ride back was also a little calmer, and finally we were back in Salvador, safe and sound.

It was Sunday night, and most of the bars closed early, so we had a couple of beers at the hostel, and I managed to actually get an early night. There was one, almost incident, while we were looking for an open bar, in which some, seriously dodgy looking, locals began to approach us, and I got the distinct feeling they were trying to separate me from the group. However, we stuck together and, probably realising we were on to them, they backed off.

My final day in Salvador was supposed to be the best - I had planned to head a couple of hours up the coast to Praia de Forte, where, alongside beautiful beaches, is a sea turtle sanctuary. However, the day started off badly, when just after breakfast it began to absolutely poor with rain. Since it was my last day, I decided to try and go anyway, since the weather forecast seemed more favourable out of Salvador anyway. The rain seemed to be easing of a little, so I gathered my things and headed out. Only a few minutes after I left the rain became heavier again though, and within minutes I was completely drenched. Determined not to give up, I continued to battle my way up the hill, over cobblestone streets in flip flops, through the rain. It was awful, and by the time I reached the lift down to the lower city, I was miserable and completely soaked. After a quick cigarette I felt a little better, took the lift down to where the bus stop was. The rain finally stopped, and I began to try and find the bus I needed. Both my guide book and the hostel staff had said there were, fairly regular buses from here to the beach. But the bus stop consisted of several shelters in a row with an almost constant stream of buses coming through, with no intelligible system which determined which buses stopped where. After over an hour of waiting, with no sign of the correct bus, I gave up. I just wasn't meant to go there today. Instead I spent the afternoon wandering the streets of the historic upper city, taking in the architecture, and doing a little gift shopping.

Campo Formoso Week Two: Taxis and Troubles

At the end of my first full week of field work, one of the students I had been staying with invited me to visit her in the nearby, and slightly larger, town - Senhora de Bomfim. Aline seemed keen to get me out of her hair, so I slightly reluctantly, agreed to go. My reluctance might seem a little strange but Cleia and I had barely exchanged two words during the preceeding week, probably mostly due to the language barrier, but I felt a little awkward spending 2 full days with her. When I arrived, my concerns were initially confirmed by the uncomfortable walk back to her place and an afternoon of difficult communication which left me with the distinct impression that she was laughing with her friends, in my presence, at my lack of Portuguese.

However, that evening we went out for drinks at a nice bar in town with an outdoor terrace, and she introduced me to a Nigerian friend of hers who spoke English and Portuguese fluently. After a few beers we all began to relax and have a good time. Sunday I awoke relatively early, considering the level of alcohol consumption the night before, and after lunch I sat down to type up the weeks data. This ended up taking most of the afternoon, but I was relieved to have it finished and spent a relaxing evening with Cleia and her housemates. 

My second week in Campo Formoso has presented a whole series of new field work challenges which have driven me, at times, almost to distraction. It begin with the discovery, over the weekend, that Aline, the lady who has very kindly been putting me up in her house, has some major mechanical issues with her car. This is the car we had been using to get to the field site, and by Monday it was clear it was going to take quite a bit of time to repair, so we needed to find alternative transport arrangements. Unfortunately, the site I had hoped to work at this week was at the top of a mountain, albeit a relatively small one, and after the first day working there the taxi driver refused to take us up again. Even taking a taxi to the farm site, which was relatively easy to access, was going to cost R$50 a day (about £20) and for various other reasons that I won't go into, my field work just became impossible. So, we decided it was necessary to move to the farm house asap. This farm house is in walking distance of my ant colonies, but is, to say the least, a little bit basic. Nobody has lived there for, who knows how long, so it needed a serious clean, and all the basic living amenities (plates, cultery, bed linen, etc) buying. So that has been my week this week. Trying to organise moving to the farm house and making the place liveable.

The day of cleaning was a rather interesting one. Four of us set out at 8am by taxi to the farm, with cleaning products and personal belonging in hand, ready to turn the run-down farm house into a place we could live for the next 2 months. About half way there, we were met with quite a steep hill which had always been easily passable in the past, but after the heavy rains in recent days had turned into a mud bath. Even in the 4X4 taxi, it was impossible to pass. So we backed-up and tried an alternative route. After a few minutes drive we met a patch of road so full of rocks and stones it was also impassable. It became clear we were going to have to walk. So we took as much of the stuff as we could carry, and marched up the hill under the now-baking sunshine. Less than a minute later, and half way up the muddy hill, one of the locals in his pick-up truck decided to just go for it. He got a decent run-up, got as much speed as he could and pelted it up the hill. Remarkably he made it to the top, and he offered us a lift to the farm. We gratefully accepted, and climbed into the back of the truck. However, as he took of the handbreak, we started rolling back down, and after a few, slightly terrifying, attempts to get going, he announced that he was now out of petrol. So, we got out again and set off in the heat to walk. We made it most of the way to the farm house before someone else picked us up in their truck and drove us the rest of the way.

After a long day of cleaning, the place finally looked like it might be liveable, so we headed back to the house. The following day I planned to get the final bits and pieces together before heading to Salvador for a birthday weekend by the beach. However, when I awoke on Thursday morning, I found a note from Aline slipped under my door saying that she was ill and needed me to leave for my trip a day early, as she needed medical attention and couldn't have me stay with her. So I rather hurriedly packed up my things, altered my hostel booking and headed to the bus station to begin my 7 hour journey to the coast. More on that adventure, to follow!

Mosquito Update
After my torturous first week here, with nearly 300 mosquito bites, I learned exactly which of my clothes were bite proof, and managed to dramatically reduce the number of bites I was getting. Not being able to get into the field has also helped to buffer me from the bites, and I probably only gained 10 or 20 over the course of the week.

Whether it is due to the absurd number of bites I got last week, or my body finally adjusting, or my improved defenses against bites, but I haven't really been noticing the few I do have as much. The odd scratch, here or there, but they are no longer driving me insane!

Campo Formoso Week One: Rice and Beans

Ah, rice and beans, the staple of the Brazilian diet, how I've missed you....

My journey to Campo Formoso, Bahia, began at 8am, sleepily boarding a bus to Salvador. Thankfully I had my lovely friend Fernanda to help me to get my luggage there and sort out the formalities, I don't know how I would have coped without her! As was the case in Argentina, the long-distance buses in Brazil are really quite good - very comfortable seats which recline most of the way back, and regular stops to get food (or smoke a cigarette!), although they do insist upon over-air-conditioning to the point where I was actually far too cold most of the way. The other less comfortable aspect was the on board video. After about half an hour of traveling, they put on Legally blonde 2, badly dubbed into Portuguese. I was so tired that I didn't mind too much because I was able to sleep through it, but when it finished, they let the title soundtrack play on repeat for about 10 minutes before finally pressing play, and making us watch it again. If this is their idea of entertainment, frankly I'd rather be bored!

But if I thought this was bad, it was about to get much worse. I arrived in Salvador feeling pretty good, I'd managed to sleep through Legally blonde 2, twice, and felt quite refreshed from my sleep. But Salvador was about 5 degrees hotter than Aracaju, and more humid, and as I entered the bus station I realised that everyone in Brazil was also trying to travel today. I was the thursday before Easter, a holiday in Brazil, and the station was absolutely teeming with people. Every available patch of ground had a hot Brazilian person sitting on it, and with all my luggage, just trying to navigate as far as the bus company to buy my next ticket was quite an ordeal. When I found out I was going to have to wait here for 4 hours for the next available bus to Senhora de Bomfim, I was just about ready to kill someone. Thankfully for everyone concerned, I managed to find a place to store my luggage, which just about appeased me sufficiently to prevent a homicidal rampage. The 4 hours at Salvador passed slowly, but finally I boarded another freezing cold bus and got comfortable for the 5 hour journey to Senhora de Bomfim, where my new friend Aline was waiting to drive me to her house. When I finally arrived at nearly midnight, I brought my bags into the house and went straight to sleep. At least I didn't have to be up early the next day!


The following day, Good Friday, was also a holiday here in Brazil, so we went for lunch with Aline's husbands family, who own the small farm where we are staying. Although they didn't speak much English, they were very welcoming and more than happy to point out which of the dishes they were serving contained fish (which was most of them) so that I could avoid them. I have a feeling they only prepared a beef dish because I don't like fish!!

That afternoon they offered to take me up to a nearby mountain to have a look for some ant colonies. We set out in their pick-up truck and I quickly discovered that the Brazilians had dealt with the problem of driving up the mountain, not in the usual way of building long roads which wind slowly up the incline, but by simply putting a dirt track directly up the hillside. Nevermind that it was ridiculously steep and full of pot-holes! It was a beautiful sunny day, and from the top of the mountain the views were wonderful. On top of that we quickly started finding ant colonies and within a couple of hours had found 5. I was even lucky enough to see one of the dinosaur ants catch some prey!

The next few days proceeded in much the same way - time spent out in the field looking for ant colonies, and finding absolutely loads of them, and meals of rice and beans with various family members and friends. I started to put together a field work plan for the next couple of weeks while I had Aline to help me. Getting out into the field is great because there are so many dinosaur ants here, and it always feels good to start collecting data. I also found a second site, located in the forest, which is really good for data collection, and has an almost constant supply of cool, weird, tropical insects (and arachnids).

The only downside of my field work now is that the forest site is absolutely teeming with mosquitoes. More than I have ever seen in one place before. Unfortunately at the moment my field work involves a lot of sitting or standing around, doing behavioural observations, which makes me ideal mosquito bait. Yesterday I foolishly wore some slightly thinner trousers than I had been wearing previously, and apparently the mosquitoes can bite straight through them, because when I got home and had a shower that evening I found I was completely covered in bites. Luckily my body is starting to get used to them now, and they don't swell up quite as much as they had been doing previously, but they are driving me absolutely crazy.

As I mentioned above, I'm currently staying at a small farm in the town of Campo Formoso. Along with chickens and geese, they also have some ducks (including some very cute ducklings) and some tortoises which they found and are now taking care of. They have two adults who recently had babies which are now about a month old. After having lunch at the main farm house for the Father-in-law's birthday, I helped clean them out and they were just adorbale. There are 10 babies who, as soon as we took them out of the box, tried to make a break for it and scattered across the concrete floor.

I'll be spending at least another week here in Campo Formoso before hopefully heading to Salvador for a few days to celebrate my birthday with some friends from Aracaju, and then back here to get set up at a different (larger) farm closer to my field site where I will probably be spending the rest of my time in Brazil.

More updates soon!

Mosquito Bite Update
I finally summoned the courage to try and count my mosquito bites. I give you only a very rough estimate, because there are far to many to count now, but:

1 week in Campo Formoso; ~ 271 mosquito bites

A few days in Aracaju

After my wonderful 16 days of holiday, I headed up to Aracaju in the north east of Brazil to begin my fieldwork. I had a rather interesting journey up, as I took a flight from Rio but had to change in Salvador. I was expecting to have to pay excess baggage since I have such a ridiculous amount of luggage, but at Rio they didn't charge me. I thought myself rather lucky, and didn't question it too much. But when I arrived at Salvador they made me collect my bags and check them in again (*sigh*) and when I got to the counter the man told me than one of my bags would need to be retagged because it had increased in weight by 20kg since Rio! I told him I hadn't touched the bag other than to carry it from the baggage claim, and so I couldn't see it had gained all this weight?! Clearly the woman in Rio had cheated the system for me so that she didn't have to charge me excess, but I was surprised at how unperturbed the man at the check-in desk was about this miraculous increase in weight! It wasn't too expensive though so I paid the fee and got on my final flight. 

I arrived in Aracaju mid-afternoon and headed over to the home of my friends Hans and Becky, who had very kindly offered to let me stay for a few days. I spent the rest of the day chilling out and trying to feel human again after all that traveling. They were both quite busy that weekend so I had some time to myself to relax. They had the most adorable kitten which they had found on the street, who had most certainly learned that cute things can get away with almost anything, because he was constantly trying to play with everything - shoes, cables, my feet, and yet it was pretty much impossible to be angry with him for more than a few seconds. While I was checking my emails and generally faffing that evening, he fell asleep on my laptop cover, very cute!

The next day I did some much needed clothes washing (by hand, which made me appreciate my washing machine at home very much!) and then in the afternoon headed out to the beach. I managed to get about an hour of sunbathing in before a rather ominous looking black cloud started to approach and I decided to flee! That evening Hans and Becky took me to a party at a friends house which was really nice because it gave me a chance to socialise a bit with some lovely people and practice my Portuguese.

On my third day in Aracaju, I caught the extremely hot and bumpy bus up to the university where I met Fernanda, who had offered to have me stay at her house. That afternoon (or technically prevening, to quote Sheldon Cooper) we went to a free yoga class in the park nearby. It was really nice because the sun was just beginning to set and the air was cool and fresh, but there were mosquitoes everywhere which seemed to be relishing my exotic English skin, and it is rather difficult to follow yoga instructions in Portuguese! I also confirmed my expectation that I'm really not very flexible at all, but it was nice none-the-less.

The next few days I spent trying to organise heading south a little to a place in Bahia called Campo Formoso, where apparently there were loads of ants for me to study. Trying to find out about which buses to catch and buying tickets was an interesting experience but eventually it all came together, and I booked tickets to catch the bus that Thursday. I also got the chance to spend some time with Fernanda and her friends, watching films and drinking beer at a local bar, which was a lot of fun.

 On my last day in Aracaju, I had an unscheduled and completely unappreciated tour of pretty much every single bank in the entire city. My bank card had been rejected at a few cash machines, and I'd called my bank who told me that everything was fine at their end. So we went to one bank and spoke to someone there who said to go to another bank, where they would definitely know how to help. But, of course, when we got their they said they couldn't help and that we should go to another bank, where they would definitely know how to help. And so this continued all afternoon until eventually I tried calling my bank again, and within 5 minutes they fixed the problem. Why they couldn't have fixed it the day before when I called with the same problem, will forever be a mystery to me.

That evening, after showering and taking a nap, we finally felt human again. I went out for pizza with Fernanda and her family, and then quite a bit later headed out to see a local band play at a bar called Captain Cook's. Of course, before going to the bar we had to stop a petrol station for a few beers there, because apparently this is what people do in Brazil. The petrol station is the cool place to hang out! When we finally got to the bar, it was really good. It would seem most of Aracaju were there and the band was good and the beer was cheap. It was very busy and quite hot there though, and knowing that I had to catch a bus at 8am the following morning, I flaked quite early and headed home at about 2am.

I didn't realise at the time just how grateful I would be for that extra bit of sleep, during my extremely traumatising 17 hour journey to Campo Formoso, but that is a story I will save for later!

Update: 1 week in north east Brazil; 25 mosquito bites

Relaxing in Rio

For the final part of my holiday, I took a short flight from Iguacu over to Rio de Janeiro for a few days relaxing in the sun. After all my traveling I was quite tired and so I decided to take it fairly easy here and not try to do too much. The first day I arrived, I settled into my hotel in Copacabana and in the late afternoon I headed out for a stroll along the beach. I walked along the famous Copacabana beach all the way to Ipanema, where many of the wealthier Cariocas (locals) now live. I arrived here just in time to watch the sun set over the beach, which was very beautiful. My initial concerns about safety in Rio were quickly overcome by how beautiful the beaches were and how lovely the sunset was. That evening I went out for dinner in Ipanema and then headed back to my hotel for an early night.

Although I mostly wanted to try and relax here, I had two main things on my agenda which I felt I absolutely couldn't miss - Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) the famous statue of Jesus which overlooks the city, and Pão de Açúcar (Sugar Loaf Mountain). However, my guide book recommended visiting both of these attractions on clear days, as the views from these mountains are very beautiful. Unluckily for me, the forecast was fairly bad for both days - hazy with a good chance of rain. When I woke up on Thursday morning, this forecast was confirmed and it was quite foggy. But I decided to bite the bullet and try to visit Cristo Redentor anyway, at least there was something to see there other than the view! I took the bus up to the base of the mountain where you can catch a cog train up to the top. However, when I arrived I quickly found out that there were more extensive tours by car, which stopped at several locations on the way and included an English speaking guide, for only R$1 more (about 35p).

So I joined a group of Dutch girls and together we headed up the mountain. We stopped about half way up to admire the (slightly misty) views, and bumped into some quite friendly monkeys, which were very cute! When we arrived at the top of Corcovado mountain, the statue was really very impressive. It can be seen from most of the city, and the mind boggles at how it was possible to get this 600 tonne statue to the top of the mountain! The views of the city from here where quite good, but I could only imagine how much better they might have been on a clear day.

After visiting Christ, we headed back down the mountain to visit a lake nearby, where we sat and enjoyed the sunshine and the views for a few hours with some delicious fresh fruit juice, before heading home.

If this post seems a little less superlative than some of my previous ones, I have to admit it's because Rio didn't grab me in the same way that some of the other places I have been did, or in the way people had told me it would. Perhaps it is because I have been so spoiled by beautiful scenery and surroundings everywhere else, but Rio was just not as magical as I had expected. Perhaps it was also partly due to how tired I was at this point - I had pretty much run out of energy to be thrilled by a place anymore.

The following day the weather was slightly better although still quite foggy, but I decided, as it was my last day and so my last chance to visit Sugar Loaf mountain, to go anyway. After a short (but crowded) bus journey, I arrived at the base of the mountain. Here I had to take two cable cars up to the top of Sugar Loaf mountain, with a pause in the middle to take in the views. The cable cars were pretty packed with people but it was still lovely to see the views on the way up. At the top, I spent an hour or so enjoying the scenery and watching the vultures circling in the thermals next to the mountain. It was lovely, and in most directions the views were actually quite clear. 

After lunch (a home made proscuitto and cheese sandwich because money is getting seriously tight!) I took the subway over to Lapa where I went to see, what can only be described as the single most hideous cathedral I have ever seen, and then took the Bondes, an old tram, up to Santa Teresa, one of the oldest parts of Rio. I had been warned it was quite dangerous in this area, because the hillside surrounding Santa Teresa is home to one of Rios several favelas (slums). However, I wanted to go anyway to see the old Portuguese architecture, and try out the ancient tram. For just R$0.60, I took the 15 minute ride up the hill past beautiful old Portuguese buildings. I spent about half an hour wandering the main (safer) streets of Santa Teresa, and doing a little gift shopping, before heading down. The ride back down was not as pleasant as the one up because the Bonde was so full of people. Some people simply clung on at the side without getting a seat, and had to press themselves against the tram at certain points to avoid hitting the walls and barbed wire fences we passed. Health and safety would have a field day with something like this in the UK!!

That night I made it back to my hotel early to pack (for the final time) before my flight up to Aracaju the following morning.

Off to work we go...

Today I fly up to my field site in Sergipe, on the north east coast of Brazil. Here I'll spend 3 months catching, tagging and watching giant ants...

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..and sitting on the beach, sipping cocktails :)

Iguazu: Waterfalls and Wildlife

After a lovely few days amidst the dramatic scenery of Calafate, I headed north east to the border between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, where the stunning Iguazu falls can be found. I arrived early evening at the Hotel Los Troncos, in the small town of Puerto Iguazu, and was immediately met with a warm welcome. The hotel was beautiful; fairly basic but charming and made almost entirely out of wood. I had my welcome drink - my first caipirinha of the trip.

The following morning I got up as early as I could drag myself out of bed, and took the 30 minute bus ride to the National Park where the waterfalls can be found. I began exploring the 15 km of trails in the Iguazu national park with the lower trail, which brings you down the hill side to view the Adam, Eve and Bossetti waterfalls from below. The views of the falls were absolutely stunning, surrounding the Rio Iguazu there are waterfalls cascading down almost every cliff, with thick forest peeping out in between.

At the bottom of the lower trail I took the opportunity for two boat rides. The first, known quite aptly as the 'shower' takes you up close to the waterfalls, and includes a seriously intense dip into the waterfalls themselves, in which it is impossible not to get absolutely drenched. Mostly this was incredibly fun and exhilarating, although for the most intense dunking I found it quite difficult to breath! After my shower, it took me nearly 3 hours to dry out completely, although my wet clothes provided some welcome relief from the heat.

The second boat trip was much shorter and less intense, and took me across the river to the San Martin Island which sits in between the falls. Here I took a short hike up the island to view the falls from another angle. Hundreds of vultures circle the island constantly, and I was lucky enough to see one perched on a tree quite close to the trail. The paths nearest the falls are constantly showered with a light mist of water from the neighbouring waterfalls, and the paths were quite slippy. At one point I lost my balance and spent a few seconds fumbling to regain my balance. Luckily I managed to stay upright! 

Heading back up the trail I stopped at the cafe for some lunch, where the tourists are constantly badgered by a small relative of the racoon, known in Argentina as the Couti. They were adorably inquisitive and friendly, coming right up to you and even climbing onto the tables to try and steal some food. The adults are about the size of a medium-sized dog, accompanied by lots of babies. Many of the other tourists seemed to find them a nuisance but I thought they were very cute.

In the afternoon I continued up to the upper trail, where you can see the falls from above. This tested my vertigo a little in places, but the views were spectacular. Finally, I caught the train up to the main attraction - the Garganta del Diablo, or devils throat. Here 1500m3 of water per second flows over a horse-shoe shaped cliff and plummets 150m to the river below. The water is so powerful here that it is impossible to see the base of the falls because they are obscured by a contant mist. This trail is quoted as taking 2 hours, however the walk itself takes just 10 minutes; you need at least an hour to come to terms with what you're seeing.

My day ended with a quiet dingy ride back down the river to view wildlife and appreciate the river at a slower pace. This was lovely, and during the ride we saw Caimen, Turtles and a Toucan.

The Iguazu national park was opened in 1934, and covers 67,000 hectares of sub-tropical forest, housing a miriad of different wildlife, including Puma, Armadillos, Birds of Prey and many more. The national park on the Brazilian side adds an extra 185,000 hectares of forest under protection. This might sound impressive, but it covers just 7% of the original size of these forests, and conservationists are still working to determine how severe an effect this level of deforestation has had.

On my second day in Iguassu, I headed over to the Brazilian side. They say that while Argentina got the waterfalls (80% of the Iguazu falls are on this side of the border), Brazil got the view. Only on this side of the border can you really appreciate the scale of the falls.

The short trail culminates in a view of the devils throat from a greater distance, and a close up view of the Brazilian 20%.

Viewing the falls, from both sides, is mesmerising. In contrast to the beautiful, but static scenery I have seen so far on my trip, the waterfalls are in constant motion, and it is easy to become entranced watching the motion of the water.

The Brazilian side of the waterfalls has a much less extensive set of trails, and takes only a few hours to view in its entirety. So that afternoon I was transferred to my hotel and had the afternoon free. I decided to visit the Bird Park, which was conveniently only a few minutes walk from the hotel. Here they have 5 acres of land housing numerous aviaries set amongst the forest, some of which you can walk in. The best of these was the first walk-in aviary, where they had about 30 Toucans, who are comically friendly and curious, and hop about on the trees and railings close to the path, begging to have their photo taken. I made friends with one in particular, who posed for a photo, let me stroke him, and only after about 10 minutes together did he tire of my presence and start trying to eat my top. 

Up next: Rio

On the final leg of my Argentinian adventure, I'm heading over to.... Brazil! I'll be spending my last few days of holiday in Rio de Janeiro.

Patagonia Part Two: El Calafate

After an exhausting day of travel, I arrived in Calafate - the most southerly point on my Argentina adventure. On the airport transfer I met two dutch girls, Suzanne and Marloes, who were staying at the same hotel as me, and when we arrived we immediately made plans to go for dinner together. It was so nice to have other people to have dinner and conversation with!

We had dinner at a small pizzeria in town, where I ordered a ham and pineapple (probably the best I have ever tasted!) and the dutch girls opted for a spinach pizza humerously entitled "Green, I love you green". After dinner we headed straight back to the hotel - we had a very early start the next morning for our glacier tour.

At 8am we were picked up from our hotel to make the 45 minute journey to the port on lake argentina where we would begin our boat tour. When we arrived at the port, we were presented with a rather upsetting reality - it was very windy, and the boat captain was not sure if it was safe to go out to the glacier today. We spent 10 minutes anxiously awaiting a final decision, fearing the worst. However, when the guide returned, he said we were able to go out in the boat afterall, and so we bought our tickets and boarded.

The boat tour began with an extremely rough 20 minutes crossing the widest part of the lake, but once we we reached the smaller channels, it calmed down considerably, and we were able to go out onto the deck and take photos of the scenery, which was absolutely stunning. Large, snow-capped mountains surrounded the lake on almost every side, and as we progressed, icebergs began to appear in the water. It was very beautiful, but it was still extremely windy and cold and being out on deck was a fairly intense experience.

After about an hour, we arrived at the first view of a glacier. This was the Upsala glacier, the second largest in the area. The huge wall of ice was incredible. It ranged from pure white in colour to a deep turquoise blue - this difference in colour reflects the age of the ice - older parts of the glacier are a deeper blue colour. Continuing on we passed more mountains, with a strange contrast between ice, mountain and thick forest. The colours were amazing. One part of the glacier we visited was particularly special. Here only a small edge of the glacier was visible, surrounded on both sides by mountains, with forest at the lower altitudes and snow at the peak. As it is autumn currently, many of the trees are beginning to turn a deep auburn red. A light rain was falling, and this formed the most spectacular rainbow over the glacier. We stopped here for about half an hour, before continuing on to the main attraction - the Perito Moreno glacier.

At the glaciers edge, a 60m wall of ice emerges between the mountains. The top of the glacier was jagged, whilst the walls were much smoother. Occasionally, large chunks of ice would fall from the edge of the glacier and come crashing into the water below. Perito Morena is the 3rd largest of the glaciers in the area, but it is one of the only remaining glaciers that in Argentina that is growing rather than retracting, at a rate of about 7cm a day during the winter months. It is also the only glacier here that is accessible by land.

After about 10 minutes of viewing the glacier, I started to feel rather unwell. I was developing what I now know as my glacier headache! The glacier is so white, it is almost painful to look at without sunglasses, and this combined with the rocking of the boat and the extreme exposure to the elements, started to make me feel quite ill. So I went back inside the boat, and tried to feel better. I spent most of the return journey sleeping, and when we arrived back at the hotel, I felt much better.

My second day in Calafate began with a 2 hour drive back into the national park and to Perito Moreno, this time to view the glacier from land. Along the way we stopped to see flamingos and some condors feeding! Once we arrived at the glacier, I had 3 hours to explore the trails, which offered various views of the glacier, some very close. This time, the ice falling from the glaciers edge was even more dramatic, although unfortunately just as we were leaving we heard a several huge crashes which probably would have been incredible to see up close.

That evening, my last in Calafate, I decided to go out for a meal and some drinks with my new friends, Suzanne and Marloes. We had a nice, if very expensive dinner at a crowded restaurant on the edge of town, and then headed back into the center (if you can call it that!!) to see if we could find anywhere good to go out for a few drinks. We stopped at one bar and had a beer, but it wasn't very busy and so we decided to move on elsewhere. By this point, I had reached the conclusion that Calafate was an extremely safe town, and after a couple of drinks and in good company, I started to let my guard down. Out of the blue, a man, who I hadn't even given a second glance to as he walked past us, tried to grab my bag. I'm not entirely sure how, but in the moment, I clung onto my bag, and he pulled me over onto the floor as he tried to run off. Luckily, he gave up and ran away, leaving me bruised and shaken, but with all my personal belongings. Apparently, this was only the second time anyone had been robbed in over 2 years - I must have been very unlucky!

Having calmed down a bit, we went onto another bar as planned - supposedly the most 'happening' place in Calafate. The Argentinians are notorios night-owls, so we had been warned that things wouldn't really heat up until about 2am. So we had a drink and waited. Slowly the bar started to fill up, but with almost exclusively middle-aged men who looked like farmers. At about 2.30am, we gave up and were going to head home when we spotted another bar, and this one was much better. We stayed out drinking and dancing till nearly 6am! Luckily we had been told that there was no check-out time the following day, and my flight wasn't until 3pm, so I had plenty of time to catch up some sleep before heading over to the next stop on my tour - Iguazu.

Into the Jungle

Today I fly back up into more tropical clines, visiting the waterfalls at Iguazu (or Iguassu or Iguaçu, depending on who you ask).

My flight is slightly later than originally planned, since apparently the airline, aerolineas argentina, like to change their minds.... a lot!

Patagonia Part One: Puerto Madryn

Having settled into my hotel and had a much needed shower, I headed out to explore the town. My first afternoon in Puerto Madryn was free so I headed along the beach up towards the nearest peninsula, where I had been informed there were beautiful views, and a much anticipated nature museum, the Ecocenter. The views, were as promised, and the weather was lovely, so I really enjoyed my stroll up to the top of the peninsula. However, upon arriving at the Ecocenter I found that it was only open Thursday to Sunday, and then only from 3pm to 7pm. With opening times like that, it seems hardly worth bothering. Sadly for me, it was Monday, and I was leaving early on Thursday morning. So, I sat and enjoyed the views for a while, and, wandering around the perimeter of the museum I found I was still able to catch a glimpse of the skeleton of the famous Orca - Mel who used to rescue lost sea lion pups (usually a tasty snack for an Orca).

Heading back down towards town I stopped in at a museum that was actually open, detailing the colonisation of Puerto Madryn by the welsh in the 19th century. Did anyone else know that the Welsh colonised Patagonia? Because I certainly didn't. Apparently the were trying to escape persecution by the English. Its just a pitty that the European settlers didn't bring sheep to the area until much later, or they would have felt even more at home! The museum was quite good though, and just down the shore I was able to visit some man-made caves where the first settlers made their homes.

As an aside, one of the main problems that early settlers of the Chubut region had was a lack of fresh water. There is only one rather small river that serves the entire region, and even today water is a limited resource. Although this doesn't seem to stop the current residents from almost drowning their lush green grass and elaborate flower beds in water in order to maintain them!

Just after sun set I headed out into town to try and find some dinner. After getting a quick drink at a highly recomended bar called Margarita, where I enjoyed a cold beer and watched the owner change a lightbulb, I headed to a restaurant recommended in my guide book as serving the best pizza in town. This restaurant did not disappoint, and for the extremely reasonable price of 50 pesos, I had a really wonderful dinner. Early to bed that night though, as I knew I had an early start the following morning for my tour of Peninsula Valdes, starting at 8am.

An hours drive, and a chance to wake up properly, into my tour, we arrived at our first stop, the visitors center for Peninsula Valdes, where they have a skeleton of a baby (but still absolutely enourmous) Southern Right Whale, the whales which the area is known for. Unfortunately for me, it was out of whale season, so this was the only specimen I was likely to see. But, beggers can't be choosers, and it turns out this was exactly the right time of year to see baby sea lions. So we headed on, past Caleta Valdes, a bizarre mound of sediment deposited just off shore when the seas retreated some 90,000 years ago. Another 40 minutes later and we arrived at Punta Norte, where the sea lion colony was to be found. We had been informed that, if we were very lucky, we might get to see an Orca (or killer whale, although actually a dolphin, not a whale), as at this time of year they sometimes beach themselves rather dramatically in an attempt to catch a baby sea lion.

Seeing the sea lions was wonderful. As I said, at this time of year the mothers have young babies, who have just begun to enter the water alone, and watching them play in the waves was magical. They are quite a noisy bunch though! Waiting in tense anticipation, we watched to see if an Orca would appear. I wasn't quite sure if I should be willing one to appear, or not, as of course it would be an incredible thing to see, but equally the idea of seeing a sea lion pup being eaten was not something I relished. Either way, the orcas never turned up, and after about an hour, we headed home. 

My last day in Puerto Madryn was the trip I had been looking forward to most - a visit to Punto Tumbo and the largest penguin colony in Patagonia. After about 2 hours driving, the last half an hour of which was on a gravel track, we arrived at Punto Tumbo, a nature reserve south of Puerto Madryn. Here we bought our tickets and were given an hour and a half to wander through the reserve on specially laid out wooden paths. Immediately upon entering the park, we saw our first penguin. Right there next to the path, just minding its own business! It was amazingly close, and seemed totally calm about our presence. As I continued along the path up a small hill, there was another penguin. And then another, and another, and before I knew it, they were everywhere! Under almost every bush we passed there was a penguin or two, sitting or laying in the shade. At this time of year, the chicks have grown up and only juveniles and females remain, spending most of their time on land whilst they molt their feathers ready to head back to sea. Some of the penguins were looking a bit dishevelled, with half of their feathers missing, and the ground was absolutely covered in lost feathers. 

My initial excitement about the few penguins near the entrance was premature. Within the main part of the park, there were penguins everywhere. Apparently in total this colony contains about half a million birds, and it is hard to describe just what 500,000 penguins looks like, but it was absolutely incredible. Dotted about the landscape like pieces of black and white litter, literally everywhere you looked there was a penguin... or six. It was amazing. Best of all was how calm they were about humans. When you got too close, some penguins would look a little upset, tilting their heads from side to side in an attempt to judge how close you actually were, but we were still able to get within less than a meter of most of them, and it was amazing.