Ilheus, Brazil
Every time you travel to Brazil, it means adventure. And today it was. After arriving in the early morning to the port of Ilheus, and after an early breakfast, we left the ship in two groups. Those of us on the first one went into town and visited the old part of this city which was the center for cocoa production and exportation for many years till a fungal disease called "witches' broom" decimated the plantations, almost eliminating Ilheus off the map for this agricultural and delicious product. From there we were taken to a cocoa plantation, where we saw the plantation trees, and learned even more about the horrible disease that affected the life of so many farmers in Brazil. After a delicious lunch, we watched two young couples dance the marvelous "lambada" dance. From here we were driven to a reserve in the jungle, where a Brazilian researcher is doing research on a rarer species of sloth, which she has in the jungle.
Those of us that went on the second group, drove South along the coast, and with big jeeps, into the jungle to a private 18,000-acre ecopark, with big parts of recuperating jungle, as many others, primary, in a good state. Here we were shown the different trees and birds, including a red-headed mannakin, saw different mushrooms of the tropical rainforest, and went along a high-up hanging bridge, where we could see the top of the giants of the forest, loaded with lianas of so many different species, including the monkey ladder. As an extra bonus, we saw two different bats species very close up; one, a small insect-eater, and the second one a carnivorous bat, quite large, which specializes in frogs along the rivers and ponds of the jungle!
At midday we drove to a lovely hotel at the beach, where we had a very interesting and tasty Brazilian lunch, after which we visited a mangrove, where the dominant species were the red and the black mangroves.
Every time you travel to Brazil, it means adventure. And today it was. After arriving in the early morning to the port of Ilheus, and after an early breakfast, we left the ship in two groups. Those of us on the first one went into town and visited the old part of this city which was the center for cocoa production and exportation for many years till a fungal disease called "witches' broom" decimated the plantations, almost eliminating Ilheus off the map for this agricultural and delicious product. From there we were taken to a cocoa plantation, where we saw the plantation trees, and learned even more about the horrible disease that affected the life of so many farmers in Brazil. After a delicious lunch, we watched two young couples dance the marvelous "lambada" dance. From here we were driven to a reserve in the jungle, where a Brazilian researcher is doing research on a rarer species of sloth, which she has in the jungle.
Those of us that went on the second group, drove South along the coast, and with big jeeps, into the jungle to a private 18,000-acre ecopark, with big parts of recuperating jungle, as many others, primary, in a good state. Here we were shown the different trees and birds, including a red-headed mannakin, saw different mushrooms of the tropical rainforest, and went along a high-up hanging bridge, where we could see the top of the giants of the forest, loaded with lianas of so many different species, including the monkey ladder. As an extra bonus, we saw two different bats species very close up; one, a small insect-eater, and the second one a carnivorous bat, quite large, which specializes in frogs along the rivers and ponds of the jungle!
At midday we drove to a lovely hotel at the beach, where we had a very interesting and tasty Brazilian lunch, after which we visited a mangrove, where the dominant species were the red and the black mangroves.
