It is said that the first European to land in Brazil was the Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvarez Cabral in 1500.  At that time the Atlantic Forest ecosystem extended some 2000 miles along the coastline and inland in some places for hundred of miles but today less than 5% of the forest's original flora remains.

In 1832 Darwin wrote of his first encounter with this lush forest:  "The day has passed delightfully.  Delight itself, however, is a weak term to express the feelings of a naturalist who, for the first time, has wandered by himself in a Brazilian forest.  The elegance of the grasses, the novelty of the parasitical plants, the beauty of the flowers, the glossy green of the foliage, but above all the general luxuriance of the vegetation, filled me with admiration. ... The noise from the insects is so loud, that it may be heard even in a vessel anchored several hundred yards from the shore; yet within the recesses of the forest a universal silence appears to reign.


To a person fond of natural history, such a day as this brings with it a deeper pleasure than he can ever hope to experience again." (Voyage of the Beagle, pp.11-12)  Logging operations, sugarcane and coffee plantations, huge agricultural schemes, hydroelectric dam projects, highways, and increased population have each taken their toll of destruction on this ecosystem.

The Portuguese named the country after a tree of the Atlantic Forest , brazilwood, coveted for its red dye.  Today, although nearly everybody knows of the threats to the Amazon rain forests, we hear little of this forest and of the tree that gave Brazil its name.  Today, although government-funded reserves have been set up to protect brazilwood, and although it is not in danger of extinction, few of these trees can be found in the wild.

Brazil (officially the Federal Republic of Brazil) is the fifth largest country in the world and the only South American country where Portuguese is the national language.  Almost twice the size of Western Europe, it is the largest country on the South American continent, occupying about 47% of the land area, and sharing borders with every country except two--Chile and Ecuador.  Most of the country lies between the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn.  The four major ecosystems are unrivaled in their diversity and expanse.  In addition to the Atlantic forest, these ecosystems are:  the pantanal (Portuguese meaning "large swampland"), the world's largest fresh water wetland, bordering Bolivia; the cerrado, a vast expanse of grasses, shrubs and trees resembling the African savannas, although the trees are small and misshapen with thick bark that gives them protection against fire, sun, and insects; and the great Amazon basin that lies in the north, occupying some 42% of the Brazilian land area.    In a country celebrated for its natural beauty, about 75% of the population lives in urban areas.

We left Bolivia the day after returning to Santa Cruz from our trip into the Noel Kempff Mercado National Park and we were already running out of time.  With barely a month left, we had to choose our Brazilian destinations carefully.  We had no time to visit the world- famous cities of Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo, on the coast. 

We very much wanted to experience the pantanal; however, the remoteness and difficulty of travel simply did not allow us to go in the time we had remaining.  Next time!  We decided not to try to see the Atlantic forest that Darwin saw because the area where he visited is now largely urban.  We were going to Brazil mainly because we had a long-standing promise to visit a professor friend, Dr. George Eiten, who is now retired and living in Brasília, the capital city. 

Brasília is a completely planned city, built in the cerrado in less than three years.  On April 21, 1960, it officially replaced Rio de Janeiro as the capital.  The decision to move the capital was made to encourage movement of people into the sparsely- populated interior from the overcrowded coast.

Today more than two million people live here, mostly in the blocks of apartments all planned and built when the city was built.  The climate is so mild that no heating or air conditioning is needed!  Because it is a dry area, water conservation is a must and electricity is very expensive.  We were very watchful of our energy use because we didn't want to increase the bills for our hosts!

Dr. Eiten is a well-known botanist who has spent more than 30 years studying the cerrado vegetation and he had promised to travel with us to see the area and its rich flora.  Sadly, he suffered two strokes earlier in the year and was unable to travel more than one day at a time; nevertheless, he showed us some of his research areas and introduced us to many new plants.  We were reminded that waiting 25 years (as in this case) to visit friends is not wise!  His wife told us that he was determined to take us out into the field and that she knew our impending visit had helped his recovery.We felt good about that!  Although we could only stay a week, we were able to see and learn much about this unusual city.  

The nature of its avant-garde architecture has earned it a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) designation as a World Cultural Heritage Site.  It is certainly the least traveler-friendly capital I have ever visited.  One simply must have a car for transportation because the buildings are very spread out and there are no pedestrian walkways. The main government buildings are surrounded with water over which huge ramps were built so that officials drive directly into the parking areas on the lower levels and take elevators to their offices.  Security is certainly enhanced with this arrangement!

The history of this city is well-told in The Capital of Hope:  Brasília and Its People (1980) by Alex Shoumatoff.  We were interested to learn that the city's designer, architect Oscar Niemeyer, never lived there--he lives in a traditional house in São Paulo.

We decided that we simply had to visit the Amazon basin for several reasons:  we are botanists and this is the greatest expanse of rainforest in the world; Ed and I first met in the Peruvian region of the Amazon and wanted to revisit this great river; the fascinating cities of Belém and Manaus figure prominently in one of the greatest botanical stories of all--the boom and bust history of the rubber trade in the mid 19th - early 20th centuries.  This story is told by many writers; however, one of the most interesting books that relates some of the history is One River (1996) by Wade Davis.  Dr. Davis visited the Meredith campus and spoke on this topic at the 1997 Honors Convocation.  

We were able to fly non-stop from Brasília to Belém, a distance of ~1400 miles to the north.  A nearly straight road runs between these two cities, although by flying we were able to cut the travel time from days to hours.  We're often reminded that a traveler can have a faster, more comfortable, more expensive trip by flying, or a slower, sometimes less comfortable, less expensive trip by bus or train.  Because it's possible to see the countryside (very important for biologists!) and to stop along the way to get a better understanding of the areas being traveled, we choose ground transportation when we have the time.

Leaving the plane in Belém is like walking into a sauna after the pleasant temperatures of Brasília.  This city, founded by the Portuguese in 1615  near the mouth of the Pará River, 86 miles upriver from the mouth of the Amazon, is known as the "Gateway to the Amazon."  We spent our few days here visiting a large botanical reserve, learning about the fruits and vegetables for sale in the markets, sampling new foods, and trying to survive speaking Portuguese, which is even more limited than our Spanish.  We really missed George and his wife!

Most of the Amazon basin is impenetrable except by water and travel is extremely slow and laborious; flying from place to place is necessary for all except the most leisurely travelers who have the time to spend days getting from one place to another.  We flew from Belém to Manaus late in the evening because planes do not fly this route during the day when tropical thunder storms are most likely to hit.  

Manaus is a wonderful city with a mixture of everything Brazil has to offer!  Indians from many tribes in various types of clothing mingle on the streets with people dressed in the finest Western clothes.  Located some 1200 miles from the mouth of the Amazon, it is the major Brazilian city on the river.  Manaus is a free-trade zone where people from far and wide come to buy foreign-made goods free of import taxes.  Streets are lined with shops announcing prices over loudspeakers that compete with blaring music coming from huge sound systems.  Traffic is heavy and pollution is evident.  One of the pleasures of being here is eating foods, especially fruits, that were new to us.  Fruits with names such as guarana, caju, and acerola are used to make delicious fresh drinks sold in small shops on nearly every street.  The national soft drink of the country is made from the guarana, which tastes unlike any juice drink we've ever tasted!

One of the most unexpected pleasures was meeting the director of a travel company, Swallows and Amazons, Tourism Unlimited.  A young American, he is married to a Brazilian whose family owns a lodge on the Rio Negro about a day's trip out of Manaus.  He is anxious to have students travel to this area and learn more about nature in one of the world's richest rain forests.  A graduate of Bennington College, he has invited Bennington students to come to the area to assist in making a guide to the local flora and fauna.  [Meredith students would be welcome as well.  I hope that some Meredith students will be interested in this opportunity.  I also am thinking of taking a group there as a part of our international study program.]  Ed and I could not have found anyone more interested in helping us plan for a boat trip on the Rio Negro (the major black-water tributary of the Amazon) and the Solimões (the official name of the Amazon above Manaus).  The Amazon, as you might have heard, was named by the Spanish explorer, Francisco de Orellana, who made the first descent of the Amazon in 1541-1542 down from the Putumayo.  He  told of seeing female worriers along the river who cut off a breast in order to hold their bows to their chests like the legendary Greek Amazons.  The longest river in the world, the Amazon is fed by 1,100 tributaries as it makes its way from its source in the Peruvian Andes to the Atlantic Ocean over a distance of some 4,000 miles.  

The highlight of our time in Brazil was our boat trip!  We spent a week on a small boat with the captain, a cook, and an Indian guide.  By day we watched life along the river, tried to identify the birds, plants, fish, and other living things we saw and by night we listened to the sounds of the forest from our hammocks or watched the sky from the blackness of the river almost wholly without artificial light.  The Milky Way never ceases to thrill when seen in true darkness, as ancient peoples saw it with the billions of stars making it look as if a great splash of milk had been thrown across the sky.  The Southern Cross, simple yet awe-inspiring, reminded us that all too soon we would be crossing the equator and heading north to the more familiar (and certainly less-dark) skies of home.  We ate delicious fish that had been bought in the market in Manaus since fishing from the boat is not always productive, especially if I'm the one fishing!  Along with the fish, fresh fruits and vegetables and the staple beans and rice were our main foods.  We took several canoe trips into the surrounding igapó, the flooded forest, where the water rises more than 70 feet in some places during the rainiest season, making it   possible to canoe among or over the tree tops.  We really want to return sometime in December to see what the area looks like when it's possible to walk instead of paddle through these same areas!  In our idle moments we read accounts of the great naturalists who first described the flora and fauna and wrote the earliest descriptions about life and travel in the New World Tropics.

Our most memorable experience of the trip was our night in the forest.  We went with our guide and a local man who was hunting game to feed his family.  After canoeing for about four hours up a small tributary, we found a place where we would be able to fashion a campsite before dark and have some time to take a walk through the area.  We had carried rice cooked on the boat that morning and chicken to cook on sticks placed over a fire.  We hung hammocks between trees and fixed tarps above them as a makeshift roof in case of rain.  After the long canoe ride, the walk in the forest, and making our camp, that food really tasted good!  We drank water that we had brought with us and spent the night listening to the sounds of the forest, many of which we could not identify.  We had hoped to see a tapir, one of the most elusive large animals; however, we were not lucky on that score although we saw and heard many monkeys and birds.  

All too soon we had to return to Manaus and prepare to leave a city that we had grown to like very much.  Again, we left by bus, this time heading  northwest on the paved highway that leads to the Venezuelan border.  

Venezuelan Farewell!

Our trip through Venezuela was a trip of frustration--too many things to see but no time.  We saw the tupuis, high flat-topped mountains known to botanists everywhere for the many species of plants that occur there and nowhere else.  Although we had good views of them as we passed, views could never replace going onto them and seeing the vegetation up close.  Our destination was Caracas, the capital city, where  we would visit friends we have known since we lived in Africa 10 years ago.  We spent the final nights of our south-to-north trip through Venezuela in Ciudad Bolivar on the banks of the Oronoco,  made famous by the work of Alexander von Humboldt and others.  We spent our last three days on the continent we had come to love in the huge city of Caracas with our friends and left for the U. S. A. knowing that we would return at the first opportunity!