A plague on both limbs!

Itch, itch, itch; scratch, scratch, scratch. In an effort to stop scratching I'm blogging about scratching. Not the most effective way to forget about it but at least it's keeping my hands occupied. I'm so frigging itchy; I fall asleep at night shaking the bunk bed because I'm rubbing my feet together so hard, and I wake up in almost exactly the same motion, it's a good thing I have the bunk to myself. Brazil has the distinction of having an estimated 10-15 million insect species, according to the guide. Great. And it feels like they all want a piece of me. Borrachudos are a type of mosquito – I think they are the ones to blame for the bites with the blood spot – although they look more like a flying ant than a mosquito to my untrained eye.

It started in the rainforest on my hands - my right hand puffed right up one day because there were so many bites on it. All from teeny tiny little black mosquitoes that I never saw or felt on me but left me with swollen red knuckles that would become an itchy blister after a couple of hours. My insect repellent did not deter them. Then there were the ticks...but as I only had 2 of them I think the all over itching sensation was purely psychological – everyone was scratching with the thought of them.

I heaved a sigh of relief on leaving the rainforest – that was it! The end of the bugs! No, not to be...Boissucanga, a sleepy beachside town where I spent the last 4 days...I got annihilated; forthwith a catalogue of the bites on my legs...

Right leg: 2 on big toe (one with a blood spot in the center), one on middle toe with itchy blister, one on outside of foot near little toe, 5 of top of foot, one on instep, one on heel, 7 around ankle, 7 on shin, one on outside of calf, one on inside of calf, 2 on inside of knee, one on back of calf, one massive one at back of knee, one centre of knee with a blood spot.

Left leg: 2 on big toe (one with a blood spot in the center), one on little toe with blood spot, 3 on top of foot, one of arch of foot (with blood spot), one of sole of foot (with blood spot), 4 around ankle, 3 on shin, 5 around scar on outside of calf (v. discerning of them not to bite the scar I thought), 2 on back of calf, 2 on outside of knee, 2 above knee.

OK, itching has stopped – sort of – except for my right knee and my left shoulder, and, and, and....

Lost World – Day 11 – Last day

I woke up freezing & very happy this morning – last day of trekking – yeay! Last day to put on smelly, dirty, damp clothes & socks and head into the jungle. Happily we had good weather this morning to bid our fond (or not-so-fond) farewells to the rainforest. And only a half day of trekking too. Again 2 groups, one to collect the camera trap on the Waterfall trail, and one to follow the Housekeepers trail. I returned to the scene of the first day's crime – the Housekeeper's trail.
We started from where we finished late on Tuesday night and continued into the forest. We found where we had lost the trail and where we found it again in the darkness. Some of the people whose first time it was on the trail acknowledged how difficult it was and that we had not exaggerated when getting back on Tuesday night. Anywho – we got back fine this time, no problems. Have just eaten lunch and having a meeting now to discuss packing up all the equipment & baggage in preparation for tomorrow's departure.
The other team who collected the camera from the Waterfall trail had some good news to share when they got back – there was a picture of an ocelot on the camera – which is great because it replaces the picture that was on the stolen camera.
I am so happy to be getting out of the forest J. And while I MAY consider another Biosphere Expedition at some point, because I do like the idea of helping with conservation, it will definitely not be in a rainforest next time!
Update (May 24): It's now 3 days since I left the rainforest. I still have a divided opinion of the expedition. While weather & lack of animals are out of our expedition leaders' control – the "getting lost" incident and how it was handled afterwards really negatively impacted my experience. Maybe it was a bad choice on my part – I should have gone somewhere else other than a rainforest, given my abhorrence of all creepy crawlies. I think getting lost also (for sure) impacted our expedition leaders – we never split into smaller groups as was expected – I think they were more cautious after that night (which is to be expected). But as a result, we didn't cover as much ground as expected – and I didn't feel like I was making a contribution or that my presence on the trail actually mattered – it doesn't take 7 people to walk a muddy trail in the rainforest and record & photograph animal prints.
I debated this with Anne (one of the other volunteers) yesterday before she went back to Germany, and she made some interesting points. Our "work" in the rainforest does not just involve looking for the prints – by being there in large numbers, we draw attention to the project and local people become more aware of it and the issues of jaguar protection. We also create employment for locals (expedition cook, trail guides). Yeah...ok...maybe...I can sort of see that point...but I still feel that if I had just donated the cash & not been there in person the result would be exactly the same.

Lost World – Days 9 & 10 – Rain, rain & more rain

[Photos not available yet]

Day 9: This morning the clouds rolled back in & it spilled rain all day. One team went in the morning to meet another scientist who lives in this area of Brazil and has also studied big cats here. We went to Limeira trail to collect one of the cameras left out last week. It was a miserable walk in the rain. In the afternoon, the other team arrived back – due to the rain they were unable to make it to the planned sight, so the scientist Renata came back to our base camp with them to give us a lecture on her masters and the results she had found. Then Marcelo & I drove her back to Curitiba (well, Marcelo drove & I kept him company and watched out for places to buy chocolate). Renata kindly gave us tea & a tour of her beautiful home which is built in an area of replanted secondary forest on the outskirts of Curitiba. After which we headed back to basecamp, stopping off to replenish my junkfood stores J.
Day 10: I've been lazy today – my foot was aching this morning so I didn't go out walking with the group. Instead I took down a couple of the tents in camp not being used – in preparation for packing up on Friday morning, transferred some pics to the BE computer to share with the rest of the group – and remained on laundry duty while the others were out collecting cameras from trails. It has been raining on and off today and the hut resembles the Magdalan laundries at the moment. The last 2 days were so wet, nobody's clothes have dried, and everyone got extra wet again yesterday – so Sylvia & I have been taking advantage of the short sunny intervals to dry clothes and transfer them inside when it starts to drizzle again.
One group has just arrived back from the Donkey Trail. Although they had nice weather on the trail, there was some bad news to report L: one of the project's digital camera boxes was stolen from where it was attached to a tree on the trail; worse news again is that it is the one that contains the good pics we checked earlier in the week – of the tapir, ocelot and armadillo. Very disappointing. There is some talk of a night walk tonight – not sure about that after my earlier experiences on night walks in the forest...but I am hearing this through my ipod earphones so maybe I'm hearing wrong...

Lost World – Day 8 – Day Off

[Photos not available yet]

We went today to Paranagua – the port town from where it's possible to take a boat to Isla do Mel. We arrived too late for the morning boat, so instead we wandered around the town, had lunch, sat by the riverside & generally chillaxed. There's not much to do in Paranagua on a Sunday – most shops & businesses are closed, and cafes close about 3 or 4pm. The old Jesuit college turned museum is a nice building, well renovated & quite modern in comparison with the town, but unfortunately it lacks exhibit explanations in any language other than Portuguese – so it held only a little of my attention.
Our expedition leaders did some shopping & then we rode back to camp. We were supposed to have a journalist join us yesterday for the remainder of the expedition but her flight was delayed or she missed her connection so she should arrive tomorrow. For the remainder of the week we will be re-hiking the trails already done to check the mud & camera traps and to collect the camera traps and take them back to base.

Lost World – Day 7

Today was a beautiful day – we split into 2 groups again and our group: Malike, me, Martina, Frank, Nancy & Felicity headed off up the Donkey Trail. The weather was sunny & warm. We had to ford a river thigh deep, for which I borrowed Gosia's sandals. The Donkey Trail had plenty of animal tracks; tapir, deer, armadillo and even ocelot! The ocelot had followed the trail for a good distance and was even caught on the camera trap – it was a highlight of the day. We continued on to the end of the trail and set another camera trap. Then back home to discuss our day off tomorrow.

Lost World – Day 6

Today was to be an easy day – we were to drive along the motorway to a bridge that had an underpass full of brush – it is assumed that this underpass allows animals to pass from the north side of the mountains to the south side – and we wanted to set a couple of camera traps there. But as expedition life has proven recently J things do not always go according to plan. We parked up on the motorway, crossed at some road works and went to make our way down underneath the bridge, but the sides of the underpass were too steep. So a trail had to be cut through the brush...Felicity, Michael & I opted to stay up on the road rather than run the risk of getting lost again. An hour later the rest of the team were back and we made our way back to the cars, picked up some shopping and headed home to find out what the rest of the team got up to.

Lost World – Day 5

So I went out on the Limeira trail today with the group. It was fine – wide, impossible to get lost. I again had to explain how I am not afraid of the forest but do not want to get lost again. I will be sticking to similar trails for the rest of my time here – no more exploring for me...