BBQ's and Beaches

SO! It has been a few days since I updated. This past while we have been going to so many BBQ's that I feel like there is one going on all day every day! I've been eating a lot of meat and buns and drinking a lot of giant beers while meeting a whole bunch of really great people.

One day we went to see a few of Florianopolis' 42 beaches with Vanessa. So far we have made it to 3 of them haha. First we went to Mocambique. It was pretty windy and there were lots of strong waves crashing. We walked along the waters edge for a while and collected some shells - there were so many everywhere! It was so beautiful that I don't think I could ever get bored of just being there and taking in the scenery.

Next was Barra da Lagoa - it is the only beach that has a backpacker hostel (all the rest of the hostels are downtown) so this beach has a lot of tourists on it. The water stays shallow for a pretty long time and the waves stay fairly calm so it's also very popular to learn to surf there. There was even a guy on his surf board with his dog too! There weren't so many tourists there when we went though since it's still "winter" but once summer hits the beach gets crazy crowded. It also has a canal that connects Lagoa Conceicao with the ocean that the boats follow to get from the docks to the ocean. While we were here Tracy and I bought our first Brazilian souvenir! Everyone lays on the beach with their "Kanga's" instead of just laying on beach towels the way that we would at home. So we bought some designed like the Brazilian flag! We also stopped there for lunch which was all types of shrimp, salad, fish, rice, fries, and fish pirao "for two" - the three of us couldn't finish it though haha.

The third beach we went to was Mole. Mole means soft and it earns this name because of how soft the sand is. Another thing this beach is known for is the dragon and the indian. These are a couple of rock/land formations that look like Falcor from "The Never Ending Story" and an indian laying down taking a nap. We were taking pictures on the rocks that make up the indian holding up our Kanga's and a couple of guys came up and asked if they could borrow them to take some pictures. They were talking with Vanessa and were surprised to find out that Tracy and I were foreign! They must not of looked at us very closely because we're pretty white and don't fit in at all haha.

Other than that the only thing new I have to report is our first trip to R3 which is the animal rehabilitation place that we are going to be volunteering at and where my project will be. They have a few capuchin monkeys. They tried to introduce a few young ones that came in to the larger cage but the dominant male wouldn't accept them into the group - poor little guys are sooooo cute though. There are a couple marmosets which are a large problem in Santa Catarina State because people buy them since they are SO cute but then they become mature and turn evil. When this happens they release them in the parks here. Because they are so cute people like to see them there and then want one for a pet and thus the cycle continues. They have LOTS of birds there - all sorts of parrots and finches a couple vulchers and some tucans. Then there's the marine area where they have a little fur seal who is simply adorable. He had an eye infection, and I think he is now blind in that eye, but he's on the mend and I think he'll be able to be released again. They have SO many penguins there, and apparently the number they have now isn't even that large because they just released a whole group of them. The last pen is where the tortoises and the turtles are! This is where my project is going to be. Right now the Turtles are in this one pool that is really gross and they can't walk very well on it and it's pretty small for the number of turtles in it. The project is going to be making them ramps that allow them time on the substrate around the pool as well as time in the water as they please. First we need to build a seperate area for the turtles or a wall between where the turtles and the tortoises live. They have these legions on them and they think that they will get better if they have more time out of the water and this pool so part of the project is watching where they like to stay and if they spend more time on the substrate and the other part of the project is to measure the legions to see if they are improving. If we get nice results Vanessa Kanaan was saying that we might even be able to publish in a small journal! Now that would be cool! Since the turtle project isn't very demanding I'm going to be helping her with her large project that is with the purple chested parrots. There are going to be three of us working with the turtles and on of the girls is out of town so once she gets back we can start! I'm so excited to be working and volunteering around all these animals. Hopefully I can take some pictures to show all of you to see!