Thursday, November 15, 2007
This One’s Called “Brazilian Sunspot”
Having completed (to the best of my abilities in the time allotted) my work in Argentina, I’ve moved on to Brazil, and am chillying down in the Dirty Leg, Porto Alegre, capital of Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost of the Brazilian states. It’s a fairly progressive city, and at least it’s somewhat safer than Rio. Also, supposedly the close proximity to Argentina and Uruguay (and a history including a long period of Spanish rule) means that the Portuguese spoken here is strongly Spanish-accented, but darned if I can tell—spoken Portuguese in all its forms is absolutely incomprehensible. It’s an easy language to read if you know Spanish, but the pronunciation is just bizarre—it’s a lot easier to understand Italian, as at least the sounds are similar. It’s a madhouse, I tell you, a madhouse. So let me say up front that Terry Gilliam has vastly misled me regarding this nation: expecting a futuristic, ultra-bureaucratic dystopia I brought stacks of forms filled out in triplicate, when instead all I should have brought was sunblock and a “Gloria Estefan’s Greatest Hits” mix tape. Yesterday I worked at Porto Alegre’s Botanical Garden (yes, it has fossils, too), and, as you might imagine, botanical gardens in Brazil are extremely impressive. Although Porto Alegre is too far south to truly be considered tropical, the grounds of the garden could rightly be described as “jungle”, and the beauty of the surrounding vegetation and avifauna did indeed bring me to my sha-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-knees-knees! Hummingbirds, doves, and various waterbirds could be seen, although, oddly, no wild reptiles. They did have a serpentarium (my…my serpentine! I wanna hear you scream!) on the grounds, though, with a number of local snakes on display, including the widely-distributed cascavel rattler and the jararacuçu pit viper. So, at the time, it was a very nice place to work, but today, I was talking with one of the paleontologists at the university here, and he informed me that the gardens, and most especially the fossil collections, are infested with Phoneutria fera, arguably the most dangerous spider on Earth. When I had flipped over a large skull in the Garden’s collections, I noticed a big, shed spider skin stuck to the underside. I was kind of freaked out by it but kept on working. I’m glad I only found out about Phoneutria’s presence after I was done working there, otherwise I may have been too apprehensive to get my data collection done.
Having completed (to the best of my abilities in the time allotted) my work in Argentina, I’ve moved on to Brazil, and am chillying down in the Dirty Leg, Porto Alegre, capital of Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost of the Brazilian states. It’s a fairly progressive city, and at least it’s somewhat safer than Rio. Also, supposedly the close proximity to Argentina and Uruguay (and a history including a long period of Spanish rule) means that the Portuguese spoken here is strongly Spanish-accented, but darned if I can tell—spoken Portuguese in all its forms is absolutely incomprehensible. It’s an easy language to read if you know Spanish, but the pronunciation is just bizarre—it’s a lot easier to understand Italian, as at least the sounds are similar. It’s a madhouse, I tell you, a madhouse. So let me say up front that Terry Gilliam has vastly misled me regarding this nation: expecting a futuristic, ultra-bureaucratic dystopia I brought stacks of forms filled out in triplicate, when instead all I should have brought was sunblock and a “Gloria Estefan’s Greatest Hits” mix tape. Yesterday I worked at Porto Alegre’s Botanical Garden (yes, it has fossils, too), and, as you might imagine, botanical gardens in Brazil are extremely impressive. Although Porto Alegre is too far south to truly be considered tropical, the grounds of the garden could rightly be described as “jungle”, and the beauty of the surrounding vegetation and avifauna did indeed bring me to my sha-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-knees-knees! Hummingbirds, doves, and various waterbirds could be seen, although, oddly, no wild reptiles. They did have a serpentarium (my…my serpentine! I wanna hear you scream!) on the grounds, though, with a number of local snakes on display, including the widely-distributed cascavel rattler and the jararacuçu pit viper. So, at the time, it was a very nice place to work, but today, I was talking with one of the paleontologists at the university here, and he informed me that the gardens, and most especially the fossil collections, are infested with Phoneutria fera, arguably the most dangerous spider on Earth. When I had flipped over a large skull in the Garden’s collections, I noticed a big, shed spider skin stuck to the underside. I was kind of freaked out by it but kept on working. I’m glad I only found out about Phoneutria’s presence after I was done working there, otherwise I may have been too apprehensive to get my data collection done.
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