Well recently things have pretty much followed suit of the previous post, with many more hours spent in the labs, (not too much time left over for blogging!) but also a couple of happy gatherings with friends and professors as well to break up all the hard work.
Last week did however begin with a sad but fond farewell to Eduardo, as he jetted off on his exciting trip to Australia to attend the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation conference – but not before I grabbed the opportunity to sit in on one of his plant physiology lectures in the morning. Not sure I quite caught everything, but nevertheless I think I absorbed a fair amount about the structures and distribution of cacti around the world! Well, it has been truly been a great pleasure working with Eduardo over the last few weeks and months here, and I have learnt much from his help and expertise –we’ve had a lot of fun too of course. Next time we’ll just have to have some adventures up Lancaster way!
The following days saw the continuation of the quiet methodical work in the soil department, which through the endless repetition of little tasks became quite meditative in the silence of the laboratory. I’m also getting a sense of something almost alchemical, as the samples are processed and prepared for analysis to reveal their hidden stashes of elements.
(The office door of very enthusiastic lab technician)
Besides the baking, weighing, grinding and sieving, I’ve also been enjoying delving into the world of tree allometry, to try and estimate the potential for carbon storage across the different stages of regenerating forest. I’ve been spending some quality time in the exciting realm of statistics as well, to help reveal the relationships between the different environmental factors and plant communities that we found out in the field. It’s exciting to start to unpick the possible connections, seeing how what’s in the ground might determine what can grow – but also how the plants might be restoring the soil, changing the elemental composition of the earth itself and allowing for the next steps in the ongoing cycle of succession. In the wise word of Guilherme, plants really are amazing engineers.
Eventually though I have to let go of the soil and leaf litter samples as they get used and finished with. It’s strangely hard to part with them after all this time we’ve spent together, as they go on their way to become one with the ground again.
But besides the work, the week has been made more eventful by the presence of our good friends Will and Danielo who have made the trip up from Itatiaia to come and stay for a couple of weeks. Turns out it wasn’t such a very long time as we’d expected before seeing each other again!
One weekday lunchtime I was also treated to a delicious traditional meal of feijoada (a kind of pork and bean stew – but I won’t give more details about the ingredients here…) down in town with the guys at República Cabaret, followed by a fresh coconut and pineapple cake, made by their very own and very lovely housekeeper.
(Fernando and the guys tucking in…)
(…and resident pooch Tequila enjoying a post-lunch nap)
I was also treated to a tour of where Fernando works in the mammal lab, with some little surprises in the drawers!
(Apparently each of these furry critters represents a different species, but they all look the same to me!)
Although I had thought by now I was practically a native of the area, Lavras always has a trick up its sleeve to completely disorientate you – as I found out on Friday night on the way home. Legend has it the roads actually shift in the night, or when you aren’t looking. After a few more unnecessarily steep hills I did eventually make it to somewhere I recognised, although completely not where I expected it to be…but at least I had the chance to discover some new corners of the city…
…and after such a long time of thinking people were having me on about there being monkeys here in the city (curiously always seemed to just miss them for some reason…) I finally spotted one!
On Friday night there was (yet another) do in a local haunt, this time for the currently graduating biologists – lots more live Brazilian music of course, and I was even taught how to dance in the proper Brazilian way. Not as easy as they make it look…
To change things up a bit, on Saturday night, Carol, Fábio and I decided to have a quiet night in and do something English – so naturally we had a curry!
We spent much of the evening chopping up locally available vegetables – turned out to be a bit of an English-Brazilian-Indian fusion, but turned out pretty successful in the end. Which is more than can be said for the fairly miserable apple pie that came afterwards… but we were too full by that point to care much anyway.
On Sunday afternoon the Ecologists got together once more – this time to celebrate the birthday of Professor Julio, another honorary Lancastrian (and fan of the White Cross). Here we discussed the possibility of the creating a beer-making module in the department, over a couple of bottles of his own very nice home-brew. Perhaps it’s a good way to teach sustainability…
(Julio and his team of beetle scientists)
We were also happy to welcome the renowned Hannah, a PhD student from Lancaster who had just flown in the day before. It was nice to hear a familiar northern accent as we shared some common experiences of Lavras – mainly of embarrassment through accidentally using the wrong (often very inappropriate) words for things, and of the incredible vanishing ant swarms that seem to completely disappear even seconds after they have been taking over the kitchen.
After that busy weekend it was time to literally get back to the grindstone, with lots more samples to prepare for the next stage of testing.
(The soil workshop, run by the witty Pezão – or Bigfoot)
In the next few days there are still quite a lot of things still to do! Next week will (hopefully) see a finishing off all the sample processing in an increasingly frantic race against time, including the all-important carbon and nitrogen elemental analysis. Fingers crossed things will all work out before catching the overnight bus to the airport on Thursday night… I’m starting to think even two months in Brazil isn’t really long enough, there’s still so many things I want to see and do!
Aside from the busyness, I’m also going to spend the last few days simply enjoying being in Lavras too. I’d like absorb as much of the sense of what it is like to be here, and appreciate the company of the friends I’ve made, before the long journey home…
a brazilian excursion 