From mountains to rivers

The past couple days were a real whirlwind. Thursday, for my plant geography class, we went to explore the submountain region of the state. After spending the first part of the hike trying to decipher the difference between "nublidade" and "nublino" which I now belief is something like "cloudy" and "foggy" we started our ascent. The problem with hiking with people interested in plants is that we have to stop every two meters because someone is taking a picture of a flower. This makes me ancy...even though I am often part of the problem. 

The other slight problem with this trip was that it was the first time they had taken a class to this particular "sub" mountain. And perhaps the guides didn't realize how long it takes 24 people interested in trees to hike up 500 meters. We stopped a lot in the beginning to talk about the vegetation, but the single-file nature of the trail made it difficult for everybody to get all the info. So, tired of stopping and not hearing what was being said, I wiggled my way up to the front where I could scoot along with the guide and a few others with a faster pace.

 

Overall it was a really cool hike, it's amazing how many plants can live in one tree. I took a picture with one of the biggest trees in the preserve...I think it's a ficus? The other important reason not to stop for too long is that after a couple minutes the mosquitos start to find you. If you're walking you can more or less out run them. 

So we marched on, and finally made it up to the top with a really spectacular view. 

I made it back with the first group around 6pm and started to get a little worried at this point about making it back to catch my bus that night to Piracicaba at 10:15pm. We hung around for a while longer, checked out a swing bridge, and made it back to the university about 9:40pm. 

Luckily my friend Rafael drove me back to my apartment where I had about ten minutes to collect my things and change out of my dirty pants and pack them up for the bus ride. I made it to the bus station with about 3 minutes to spare and caught the overnight bus to Piracicaba. 

I got in about 6am, I grabbed a coffee and a cheezy bread bun in the bus station and then went to meet stape at the university. Changed back into my dirty field pants and boots and we drove out to the Anhembi research station to check out all my possible sampling locations. whoosh. But it was a good trip and I now know more about what I need to do. AND I think we're going to arrange horses to make our way around the site next time. woohoo! Did I mention I love my work?