Farewell Brazil!!

Well, our time in Brazil is now behind us but the knowledge, the laughs and the memories will live on. It was an extraordinary trip - filled with adventure, excellent luck and a constant sense of discovery. Every person contributed to our quirky, scientific little family - Morgan, our caretaker and rock, Mary Ann, our Nutella connection with the big heart, Marissa, our negotiator and snack source, and Maddie, our fearless adventurer and friend-maker. And of course, Aunt Karen, she is more lovely than the Brazilian flowers she obsessively photographed.

None of our adventures would have been possible without the help of our brilliant Dr. Scott (you are not our burro) and his passion for topics such as the food chain, invasive species, predators, tools and our very favorite, the mangrove.

As for me, I feel more priveleged than ever to do the work that I do (despite the 27 bug bites on me & still itching, good times...) - What a joy to be with each of you!!!

Thanks to all of our blog followers!!


Until the next global adventure!!

Coastal Erosion

We could not have been more mesmerized and awed by the magnificent white fine sandy beaches of Bahia. Coconut trees are to be found everywhere, inland as well as along all its beaches.

However, today in Bahia as in other parts of the world, one can clearly see the effects of rising sea level. Areas considered beyond and above the highest tides some 25 years ago, are now susceptible to invasion by waves during storms and subsequent erosion,

This erosion has an effect on people, the economy, land occupation and the environment. Desperate measures taken by residents north of Salvador are relatively futile. As the coast is eroded, coconut trees, houses, boat sheds, seaside bars and restaurants all are taken up by the sea. Even sea turtle nests must be moved to higher ground!

Can man revert this trend?

Or will this be one more of his destructive footprints on the planet?

Visit to our sister school, Nossa Senhora da Piedade

Perhaps the best part of being in Ilheus was the opportunity to pay a visit to our Ursuline sister-school, Nossa Senhora da Piedade. The Ursuline school is located on the highest hill in the town and is an awesome sight to behold.
Like our school, they have a new building - it has a student "cantina" on the first floor and will have special language classrooms on the second floor when it is complete.

We were welcomed warmly by the principal, our dear Sister Georgina, as well as the teachers and students of Piedade. Even though this was a casual visit, everyone at Piedade took the time to greet us and to celebrate our short visit. There was a beautiful reception prepared in our honor by one of the talented math teachers who will soon visit us in Dallas. The visit gave us time to reunite with old friends (many of whom have visited us in Dallas) as well as to make new ones.

It was no surprise to discover that our students were already skyping the students back at Piedade the next day from Salvador - what joy to make new Ursuline friendships!!

Cocoa Research Center

On Monday, (Aug 2) we visited the foremost cocoa research facility of Brazil - CEPLAC. Although Cocoa is native to parts of the Amazon, its successful introduction to Bahia meant that only a few plants were brought in and thus, plenty of space for improvement and research is needed. The fact that the Witches’ Broom disease devastated the state’s plantations makes it all the more important that solutions to recover this important commodity be found. So we visited the center's facilities following the complete production process, from planted tree to final chocolate bar/truffle of which we were able to have a taste!

Sloth male, with its adopted baby

Our visit began in the tree sloth conservation area where these curious, teethless treehuggers are brought in for recovery and release. They are native to the same area where cocoa plantations, are found - the Atlantic Rain Forest, an ecosystem of which only 7% remains. Our group had the chance to see them in action in the early morning when they are playing, swinging about and 'combing' their fur coats and long dark manes.

Marissa tickles a new friend

Sloths are curious animals, and one of the younger 3-toed sloths came up to chat with us... He was very surprised to be tickled on the tummy!

cocoa beans drying in Bahia morning sun

We then visited CEPLAC's farm and production area. cocoa 'barges' - a system of rolling sheds over suspended wooden flooring is a crucial part of the post-harvest. The cocoa beans are raked evenly in rows allowing for plenty of ventilation and exposure to sunlight so that they can dry after the fermentation in large wooden vats. As rain falls (2,000 - 2,500 mm /year) regularly almost every afternoon, the sheds are rolled over the beans every day to protect the harvest from excessive moisture and fungal attack.

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Marcelo, Yuri, Lucas and our Brazil Science visitors

Once the beans have dried they they are removed from the barges and taken into a building where they are weighed and stored in rucksack bags - 60 kg each. They are then ready to be shipped to markets world-wide.

from left to right all phases of chocolate manufacturing

CEPLAC has a mini-chocolate factory. There, dried beans are initially processed by mild roasting (121 C). Other steps include removing the bean's shell, separating shells from beans, breaking the beans, making a base chocolate paste with 6% maximum of moisture, and removing cocoa 'butter' from the extract. Once the chocolate base is ready, it can be mixed with other components including sugar, milk and others to make delicious chocolates of all sorts. Cocoa butter is used in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and for making white chocolate.

2 large Anaconda skins and preserved snakes

The Taxonomy lab holds a collection of over 5,000 specimens of insects, with representatives of over 1,000 different species, only a few of which are considered damaging to cocoa plantations. The labs' collection is mostly entomological (insects) although it also has specimens of all the snakes found in this area of tropical rainforests.

In center, Dr. Santana, CEPLAC's tropical soil specialist

Our visit included CEPLAC's soils lab, where we heard Dr Sandoval Santana, a specialist in tropical soils explain to our group the main types of soils found in Bahia and their relative suitability for cocoa and other crops such as rubber, coconuts and sugar cane. Dr Sandoval explained the importance of knowing soils 'genetics' so they can be properly managed so as to avoid excessive erosion and degradation.

cocoa plant in 'tubettes'

Finally, we entered one of the institute's many greenhouses where research on genetic manipulations result in improved varieties of cocoa plants, cloned and grafted. These are then distributed to farmers in partnership programs were the plants can be followed for performance and further manipulation.

cocoa clones recently grafted and ready for planting

The people of the Sant'Ana Village

As we were sitting on the boat preparing to leave the village, our students struck up a very simple (in Portuguese!) and friendly conversation with some of the local little girls who were standing on the pier. And this is when one of my favorite moments of the trip occurred...
Our students decided that they wanted to give a little gift to the girls as well as to the children that that they just had seen in the village playing and cutting coconuts. Our fun students had a stash of "silly bands" with them that were just perfect for the occasion.
For those of you (like me), who do not have children to inform you of the latest trends, silly bands are rubber band-like bracelets which come in a huge variety of shapes (Disney characters, animals, etc.). They are special because they never lose their shape. Our students gave them to the girls and then ran back into the village to share them with the other children. Then more children came out and even a few adults, including the steward of the church who had been so nice to us. It was a touching scene of encounter and exchange and I was very, very proud of our girls for reaching out and making a simple but beautiful human connection.

A bit of Brazilian and Catholic History

During our time sailing around the mangroves, we stopped at the Sant'ana village on the Engenho river to see a small church which was the second church in Brazil, built by the Portuguese in 1537. It was small but very beautiful. Behind the altar is a lovely image of St. Ann from Portugal which also dates back to the 16th century.

The Rio do Engenho area was initially occupied by Tupiniquin and Aimoré native peoples inhabiting the southern coast of Bahia. Tupiniquins subsisted on basic agriculture and fruit gathering while the Aimorés, were hunting and fishing nomads. Upon the arrival of the Portuguese in Brazil, Tupiniquins were already negotiating Brazilwood (Caesalpinia echinata) with the French. To discourage this, and to gain more control of the newly discovered lands, the Portuguese crown decided to colonize Brazil, implanting a system dividing the country into regions donated to court noblemen, who had the obligation of financing the colonization process. Thus in 1534 the region known as São Jorge dos Ilhéus was donated to Jorge de Figueiredo Correa. In 1535, Francisco Romero, his representative, sent from Portugal set foot on Tindaré Island and weeks later founded São Jorge dos Ilhéus. Soon after, in 1537 Mem de Sá founded the Engenho de Sant’Ana, a sugar cane mill on the margins of the Santana river later known as Rio do Engenho. Although Tupiniquin inidians participated in the sugar cane plantations, it seems the Aimorés were not too happy with these new times and ventures, having chased Portuguese and other coastal inhabitants to the point that sugar cane plantations became abandoned or decadent. Many Aimorés were later killed by order of the Portuguese king.

As you can see, the little church is beautifully and lovingly preserved by a most cheerful steward who happily explained details of the building and its history to us.

In the Mangrove!!!

Mangroves are water forests which have a high degree of salinity. Mangroves can be found in tropical and sub tropical areas and their elaborate root systems contain unique ecosystems (where you can find crabs, shrimp, oysters, algae and all sorts of interesting microorganisms).

Thanks to Dr. Scott and his former brother & sister bio students, Lara and Titako, we were able to spend a day investigating the wonders of the Bahian mangroves. Lara, who has visited us in Dallas, is a biology teacher at our sister school here in Ilheus. Titako, in addition to being a mangrove expert, is a deep sea diving instructor and guide on a near-by remote island. So, we were in excellent hands as we took on this manly expedition! (But we did ask, Why aren't there womangroves??)

A Special Thank You to Lara and Titako for accompanying us through the mangroves and a HUGE thank you to their sweet mother who surprised us with some delicious cake after our expedition!!

By the way, in honor of our exciting experience "In the Mangrove", we have composed a little tune by the same title which we sing to the tune of "In the jungle" - the first line is "In the mangrove, the mighty mangrove, the crabs creep tonight..." Feel free to sing along!!

Grafting clone #1188 by Dr. Philip Scott

Our visit today to the Maron family cocoa plantation nearby Ilhéus, Bahia, could not have been more fascinating. The Maron family descends from Maronite Lebanese who immigrated to Brazil at the turn of the century. Many of them are well known as excellent professionals in areas such as Law, Medicine, Education and of course, Agriculture!

The Cocoa plantation we visited today is in one of the first areas colonized by the Portuguese in Brazil - the Sant'Ana village up the Rio do Engenho river. It boasts of what is believed to be the second church built in Brazil by the Portuguese back in 1536! Maron’s family cocoa plantation has suffered with the ‘Witches Broom’ disease which rampaged the region some 20 years ago. The monilian fungus which causes a general ‘melt down’ of the cocoa tree’s physiological condition was exotic to the region and was introduced under dubious circumstances. The result was devastating and reduced Brazil’s cocoa bean production by 80%. EMBRAPA, the state agricultural research agency - which we will soon visit, has developed a number of disease resistant plants to pull the economy back together.

Clone number 1188 is working this technological miracle at the Maron family farm up the Rio do Engenho river.The clone (#1188) is not only resistant to the monilian fungus, but is also a highly productive plant, producing cocoa pods almost double the size of the wild variety and shows a distinctive purplish color as opposed to the wild yellow. With this clone, it is possible to use an uninfected wild variety of cocoa tree as a start-up for the genetically ‘improved’ cocoa clone.

Maron showed us how this cloning is done in practice. ‘Runner’ shoots from a healthy tree are clean cut at about 1 meter height and 2 parallel vertical slits are made in order to fit in a 15 cm long clone #1188 sapling. Both are then tightly held together with a plastic tape for about 2 weeks before results can be evaluated. The sapling is further protected from the elements with a simple plastic bag covering both areas affected. The operation is very similar to open surgery, where the parts need to be kept as clean as possible and ‘bandaged’ together so as to avoid principally bacterial or fungal contamination of sorts.

As one man can perform about 100 grafts a day, Maron will hopefully soon have a fully restored and productive cocoa plantation.

Meanwhile, he produces complementary cash crops including banana, ornamental flowers such as the bird of paradise and peppers.

Rubber is tapped from trees planted by his forefathers. This tree is well over 60 years old an still producing!


We wish to thank Maron for his excellent explanations on the many agricultural and botanical aspects of his cocoa farm and wish him success in restoring such an important crop to the region. Cocoa agribusiness has always provided many jobs in agriculture and industry. Cargill, who processes approximately 40% of the world's chocolate has a strong processing base in Ilhéus.

Projecto TAMAR - Save the turtles!!!

The TAMAR project began in 1980 and has as its main goal the protection and preservation of Sea Turtles on the Brazilian coastline. As we learned from Morgan's informative presentation, there are only 7 species of Sea Turtles and 5 exist in Brazil.

As you can imagine, we were very, very excited about our visit to TAMAR which is located near Salvador on the beach Praia do Forte. It is a beautiful area where turtles are studied, monitored and released. Over the last few years,TAMAR has broadened its focus to include conservation of other sea creatures since all are critical for the environment of sea turtles. During our visit to TAMAR, we encountered sea turtles (including babies!), sharks, sting rays, sea stars and more! We were impressed to see the representations of the different types of turtles as well as all sorts of displays explaining the whole process of protecting, hatching and releasing the turtles. Also noteworthy is that sometimes TAMAR rescues animals that could not survive in the wild - for example, last year, we saw an albino turtle which would surely never be able to go unnoticed by shark predators in the ocean. As Dr. Scott constantly reminds us, all creatures are part of the "food chain."

We thought that you would like to discover more about the 5 turtle species found in Brazil so we spontaneously produced this thrilling turtle documentary for your viewing and learning pleasure. And don't worry, no actual turtles were harmed in the making of this film....

Note: In order for the video to run smoothly, it is best to let the entire video download and then replay it...