Dia Dez em Belem

This Wednesday is one of the most exciting days I have experienced in Brazil and in my life! We didn't go to the University today, but only because we had an early appointment to meet with one of the veterinarians of the Servico de Parque Zoobotanico (the ZOO!) This was different than any zoo most of us have been to. The plant and animal life in the zoo was diverse and also wild. Walking into the park it was like entering a jungle!

There were giant iguanas everywhere and sloths up in the trees above (none in cages or nets). There were also HUGE rodents running around (they looked like baby-pig size) called agoutis.


















When we met Antonio he gave us an environmental education lesson about the park and their mission of learning from the animals and breaking the cliche through educational sensitization. He is even in the process of writing a book about it.

The first thing we did in this jungle/zoo was to look for the 3-toed-sloth Antonio spotted in the trees above. Helene found it! Can you see it?

Antonio was explaining to us that the sloth only eats leaves and small fruit, it has long hair to protect itself from rain, and its only water consumption comes from the leaves it eats.  This makes it's droppings very dry and the sloth only defecates once a week when it comes down from the tree. The animal presses its anus on the soil in order to defecate... What a strange and interesting animal!

At the zoo we saw and learned about many new trees.
Brazil was named after trees! Specifically the Pao Brasil tree, which is the national tree.
There were also many types of "walking trees" that regurgitate nutrients back into the earth. They are relatives of a palm trees and move their location over time. The pachiubo tree looks like an Indian tee-pee and its roots can be used to scrape potatoes and make "farafa" a very commonly eaten side dish here in Brazil. It is delicious to put on all your meats, vegetables, or even eat alone.

A lot of the trees in the Amazon drop leaves which rot on the top of the soi, which is where it leaves most of the nutrients. Some of the trees even serve as repellents to insects. There is also a tree with thorns, which is the the suma uma,and it can grow up to 30meters high.

The Carnauba is the tree that was used to make vinyl records and still is used in making wax.

There is a funny kind of plant that is called the "tongue of mother-in-law" which leaves have serrated edges all around each blade.

The mahogany tree is the most valued tree in the Amazon. And unfortunately is is the tree cut down the most and reforested with the cheaper Eucalyptus.

Also, the Rosewood tree here at the zoo is the type of tree used in making the Chanel No. 5 perfume!

"The Cananga Odorata tree is considered to be the true Chanel No.5 Perfume Tree. More often referred to by it’s common name, Ylang-Ylang…(pronounced “ee-lan ee-lan)"

Chanel No. 5 is considered the best selling perfume of all time! So it's interesting that the scent comes from a tree in the Amazon!

Another important tree in the Amazon is a medicine tree, called Ceiba. They dig out of the sap which is used as an anti-inflammatory. The Ceiba is considered the tree of life and some people suspect it will contribute to the cure for cancer.
There are many natural healing sources in the Amazon forest and Antonio believes that with enough education and research: Brazil can be responsible for great things around the world.

In the pond at the zoo there are lily pads and also these flowers named after Queen Victoria and having unique colors and timing. At 5pm one day it will be whit, then opens at noon the next day, closing and back to opening to a red color that evening. Very interesting.

There were also these leaves from a bushed that smelled very heavily of garlic but were a normal looking green plant leaf.

My favorite part of the day was the JAGUAR!

The jaguar is not a pack animal, so the two the zoo has are put in separate cages.
The older one has a "behavioral problem" he is hyper sexual and masturbates... Bet you wouldn't have guessed that!

The pink building is the first institution of research in the Amazon (1866)

The founder of the museum was Ferreira Renna

Towards the end of our zoo adventure we went in to the cage with the tapirs, which is an animal I had never heard of but resembles an anteater.

We concluded out zoo trip back in Antonio's office where he shared amazing photographs he has taken over time of the plants and animals at the zoo, openly answering all of our questions.

Then he joined our class for lunch at a different park a few blocks away.

I gained so much knowledge from speaking with Antonio and he was so kind to show and share so much of the zoo with us. At lunch he taught us a Portuguese word "saudade" which does not have a direct translation but means many things about "missing you, remember you always, you are special" kind of feeling.

After lunch Isabella and Lucas met us to take us to a private kind of country club in Belem. We went swimming, we got amazingly priced 1hr massages ($15) went in the sauna, stretched out by the pool, got drinks at the wet bar, and basically had the most spectacular vacation with friends feel to the day.

We learned so much with Raul in the beginning of the day and relaxed so much with Isabella in the afternoon, and then ate so much with Lucas in the evening when we went to an all you can eat Japanese food cuisine of SUSHI!
Oh, fun fact: they have California Rolls here but instead of the avocado they use mango!