Among the most common birds in the school yard were these :
The Great Kiskadee is a common flycatcher from the southern United States to the warm parts of South America. Like most flycatchers it eat insects, but it will also eat small reptiles, amphibians, crab, and occasionally will catch small fish like a kingfisher. They live around human habitation as well, eating the various creepy crawlies that call towns home (like huge cockroaches). If you're wondering why they're called a kiskadee, search for a video of the bird's call! They are rather loud and pairs would duet every morning in several locations that I stayed.
Snakes were around too! One morning I heard a bunch of kids yelling and going crazy, when I looked out the window, I saw this Sipo slithering across the schoolyard! I grabbed it, and this 4 foot long snake repeatedly tried to climb up its own body to bite my hands. There are superstitions about this snake, that it sits in the trees and lies in wait for people to walk underneath to bite them and kill them. The sipo is however harmless, and to prevent it from being killed it was released behind the school in the mangroves.
After working at the school for a while, I took a break and stayed with a family who had a home by the beach. It was a quiet and secluded, which was good because I was sick. I felt bad for my hosts because I ended up sleeping until 11 am, which is not normal for me, as I tend to wake up around 8 am. Any later and I wake up with a headache. When I did wake up though, I usually took a walk to the beach, as this are was safe for me, being in a gated area and far away from any town or city.
Often when the tide was low like this there would be people digging in the sand for shellfish. They often found quite a few to eat. If I sifted through the sea weed I could often find small shrimp, crabs, sand dollars, sea urchins and pieces of coral. Some of these I brought back home with me. On one occasion I brought back a couple sand dollars that happened to be alive, and when I put them on a wet table on the patio (it was raining) they started to walk around!
I also got the chance to go to a reef about a kilometer offshore, where I got to see and feed lots of tropical fish. I don't know if I want to share the pictures however, as the camera man didn't really time them well and just held the button down and let it capture what ever happened XD. Some of them were taking while I was talking...and I'm also shirtless which in my 18 year old body is slightly unflattering!
This few weeks brought about a lot of exploring of the Sao Jose-Maragogi area. I stayed with several families during this period, and each in turn took me to see various sites around town. I must admit that in hindsight I don't feel i was the nicest guest, but I mostly blame this on the fact I was slightly sick all the time, didn't get much sleep (lots of mosquitoes and other bugs). My body, though having been there already for quiet some time, hadn't adjusted to the time change, even though it was only two hours ahead. I felt like i was lazy, but at the same time I understand why I didn't feel 100%. This is not to mention that i traveled to a foreign country with nobody I know, away from family and friends in Canada. I knew one person only vaguely, a minister who our churches supports with our mission down there. I had met him a few times but still barely knew him.
That is not to say I didn't make new friends down there, some of which I still talk to often today. A few were minsters (as a side note, all the people I stayed with are from our churches in Brazil, and most know each other), one of which took me on a tour of the area, along the beach to the mouth of a river that exits right next to town (bull shark heaven), and up on a hill that over looks town, where a huge radio tower is placed.
Miles of hilly brush country lie behind the town. On the way down there were also miles and miles of sugar cane plantations.
One of the garbage clean up crew - a Black Vulture. I saw many Black and Turkey Vultures here. They often scavenge the streets for scraps.
South of these areas lies the small town of Japaratinga, where I spent the day hiking with friends. This was the wildest area I went, saw many different animals.
This secretive bird is a Squirrel Cuckoo. Cuckoos in the Americas generally do not parasitize other bird's nests, rather building their own. This was in a coconut plantation, and we had a coconut for a snack. It was a fresh green one, so not that pleasant. Personally I find them best after they have fallen and have been de-husked, as the meat is thick and they have milk rather than water. They meat of the fresh coconut was slimy and tasted like white glue.
A short ways up the path was this small ravine. We climbed to the top to get a good view of the area.
At the top of the hill were these three. The big guy is a black vulutre, the smaller two (bottom left branch) are a pair of Guira Cuckoos. Guira Cuckoos are common in Brazil's scrublands, they eat insects and small vertebrates.
On the return walk we went along the beach. The reef was really close to shore here.
I went back to the school the next day, where we finished our water tower project.
From the top of the water tower I spotted some Common Marmosets hopping about the trees next door.
After a couple days I went back to the Recife area. One morning I jumped in with someone who was headed to the town of Caruaru for the day. Caruaru is inland, in a dry scrubby area, very different than the wet jungle/forest area I spent most of the trip in. We spent much of the day in the market in the town,
On the way back we stopped at this mine. This picture doesn't show you how big it actually was. I'm not entirely sure what was being mined here, but the miners would break chunks of rocks off manually, then break them into squarish blocks.
One of the canals in Recife had a Caiman in it!
The night after going to Caruaru, we had lots of rain. While eating supper a bunch of Cane Toads (highly poisonous) started showing up. Someone mentioned to me that there is a frog species native to the area that if touched can cause a burning sensation on the eyes and cause blindness.
Soon enough someone spotted this large tree frog, which I quickly grabbed. I let it go on some palms in the yard, and washed my hands. Later I Skyped my family, and started to notice my eyes hurt. Before long my eyes started burning. I ran to find someone to help me. Everything in that area started to get swollen, and apparently the whites of my eyes turned red. I wasn't able to open my eyes or close them at all, so they were stuck slightly open. It was the most painful thing I've endured to date. I ended up going to the hospital, where they gave me special drops for my eyes. After a couple hours the pain and swelling went away. Pretty soon everyone in both the Recife and Winnipeg communities knew about it.
A week later I went home. Perhaps I will go back one day if it works out. I miss it from time to time, and though parts of it weren't enjoyable, after time you begin to forget those parts and remember the good ones. In the end, definitely worth it!
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