As we continue our journey down the coast of Brazil, we enjoy the opportunity of day at sea. The opportunity to be entertained by a maze of subjects, deep thoughts, and impressive talents in photography. Each one of our selected speakers continues to piece together the historical natural wonders of this journey along the east coast of South America. This morning we enjoyed Mark Curran’s presentation on religious belief and ceremony in Brazilian society. Then Tyron Turner, National Geographic photographer, presented a very powerful photography secession in black white film of the hardship reality of street kids of the Favelas of Brazil. The story through images that would soften even the hardest of hearts…as shown in the image of a street kid in a chemical-induced euphoria.
The afternoon continued our diversity in subjects. Doug’s Gualtieri presentation was an inside view to the upcoming Atlantic forest Mata Atlanitica, located on the southern coast of Brazil. This forest is unique for its large costal extension, endemism, and forest location. It is now extremely vulnerable to habitat lose, due to human population, which is threatening its existence and perhaps could disappear with the current rate of deforestation. This forest still yields great opportunity for wildlife sighting and is where the endemic and highly sought after Golden Lion Tamarin monkey and Blonde Capuchin both reside.
A day at sea is always a wonder of what can appear in the open ocean. Today we did have a breach of a humpback whale in the distance, a fish that trashed the surface and several sightings of shearwaters, common terns, and masked and red-footed boobies that followed the ship. There were lots of amazing swirling dives from the boobies as they strived to catch the flying fish.
Our shore visits to all these places show the local residents how important their natural areas and cultures are to the visitor. It great to see the efforts of the local guides and people proud of their communities and eager for us to visit them again.
