Birthday, Carnival and Caves
As the workweek ended we all geared up for Imran’s birthday
weekend. The volunteers and the IPBio staff all met up for a few drinks in the
early evening, and then we all made our way to an amazing fish restaurant. This
restaurant was great for a few reasons. First, fish is hard to come by in
Iporanga, and by hard to come by I mean, you just don’t find it. The locals
don’t really have a taste for fish, and the ones that do either go to the fish
restaurant or try their luck in the river. Second, the restaurant is located
outside of the town in an area that we had never really ventured to, and it’s
absolutely beautiful. Situated within a valley, surrounded by mountainous
rainforest at all sides, with a pond directly to its rear (where they raise all
their own fish) this is definitely one restaurant I’ll commit to memory. The
food was delicious, the price cheap, and the quantity, never-ending. Post
dinner we stuck around for a while to get a little more “energized” and to
witness one of the more incredible lightshows I’ve ever seen. We’re talking
lightning, and lots of it, in every direction dancing atop mountains from cloud
to cloud. I even saw a comet burning up as it plummeted towards Earth. Overall,
it was spectacular, and a great way to end dinner before heading back into town
and calling it a night not too long afterwards.
Our next week at work was met with mixed feelings, as it was
largely transitional. We had some volunteers leave and others arrive, and as a
result the work we had been doing also shifted. Sadly, we will not be doing our
usual hike in the jungle as often because the frog project has, for the time
being, been put on hold. Mainly due to the fact that the breeding season is
coming to an end, and consequently data collection becomes a lot more difficult
as the animals become less active. Yet, one thing I have quickly come to
realize is that there is always something to be done at IPBio and always fun to
be had. We started to help design and build new terrariums for some of the
lizards and frogs. We also helped with aquarium maintenance, feeding the
turtles and the eels.
On the whole it was a very relaxing week, which was welcomed
because with our weekend came the start of Carnival… and it was crazy.
Most of us probably have some kind of preconceived notion of
what carnival in Brazil is all about: parades, music, plenty of dancing, plenty
of drinking, and a shortage of clothing. Now having experienced carnival first
hand I can say I have learned a few things. First, the stereotypes are, for the
most part true, but only within the larger cities. One of the volunteers left
to Rio for carnival and after he returned we had a chance to compare carnival
experiences. Aside from looking absolutely awestruck – seriously I’m not sure
exactly what he got up to but the smile on his face said everything – he was
able to confirm that Carnival more or less conformed to what he expected with a
lot more cross dressing. With that being said, the second thing I came to learn
is that smaller towns tend to, as you may expect, add their own unique flare to
carnival. Iporanga is no exception, and as a result we were treated to a rather
unique carnival experience.
The holiday itself officially runs from Friday – Tuesday and
each night the town square came to life in the form of a massive party. The
whole village shows up and from 8pm – 5am men, women, and children of all ages
do not stop celebrating for any reason. A rather hastily constructed stage
housed DJ’s and live bands all through the night, and street vendors setup shop
selling various homemade snacks, and beverages. One night I sampled some kind
of radioactive-looking blue concoction. I have no idea what was in it, but can
confirm it was both fantastic, and fantastically boozy.
Maybe I’m getting older, maybe wiser, hopefully both, probably just older, but the prospect of constantly partying Friday – Tuesday seemed daunting. To my relief I was not alone as we all agreed we should at least spend a day in nature doing something different. Turns out, different was misinterpreted for ambitious, because we embarked on what was probably our most difficult expedition yet, to Casa De Pedra.
Literally translating to “house in rock” Casa De Pedra is basically just that, a massive cave. In fact, it is the largest cave entrance in the world measuring 172 meters high, and impressive is an understatement. It’s a 5 km straight uphill hike to reach the behemoth, during which time you pass through all kinds of terrain. Swinging from vine to vine, we climbed, swam, jumped, and tumbled our way there. All the while accompanied by a local farmer’s dog, which we nicknamed Kendrick, keeping to our theme of pets named after rappers. We couldn’t believe his resilience and thought he would surely turn around at any moment, yet he kept on trekking with us. Midway there we got caught in a massive thunderstorm that made the terrain even harder to traverse. River levels had risen considerably and as we approached the cave it was clear Kendrick was too wet, cold and weak to cross the final obstacles. Fearing he would pass out from exhaustion I decided it was our responsibility to bring him home safely. I carried him across the final few rivers until we reached the mouth of the cave, which sheltered us all from the rainfall. We had lunch there and made sure to share with Kendrick, who was overjoyed. Overall, this lunch was a pretty surreal experience. There we were, sitting in the middle of the rainforest, not a soul around, in the largest cave opening in the world gazing out onto a misty valley of lush greenery. It was the kind of moment where you really feel connected to the Earth, one of those rare introspective moments. Fleeting, but special for that very reason. Then we all climbed down closer to the cave and took some wicked selfies.
Stay tuned for more updates!
Written by Morgane Holley, Swiss Photography Volunteer
Written by Morgane Holley, Swiss Photography Volunteer
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