Belem dia dez

Today was such an exciting day no class!!! WOOO!! But no really it was. We went to the zoo. Belem's zoo is very different from the one back at home because they don't have many animals but they do have very interesting trees. The zoo is about 120 years old.

The zoo was even better because we had our own personal tour guide, who was just amazing. Antonio Messias Costa, who is a veterinarian, covered everything in the zoo and much more.

At first he let us pet a baby jaguar it was amazing. He played with my arm and licked my hand. His tongue was very rough rather than moist. We also were able to carry and pet a baby sloth he was just adorable. He kept licking my neck. We were also able to pet a baby tapir. It was a bit difficult because it's mother was very protective so she kept coming back and we had to move away.

Messias, as he liked to be called, also told us that sloths, iguanas and agoutis roam freely in the zoo. A sloth can turn its head 270 degrees and it consumes it water from nearby plants.

He also told us that manatees are the most endangered species in the amazon. All the animals in the zoo can be found in the amazon.

In addition, he said that deforestation is a huge problem for jaguars and that there's actually some talk from the government to make long corridors that will stretch out from Mexico all the way to Brazil to protect them from harm.

This pink house in the zoo was used for research in the amazon. The zoo also has a museum and a library. There is actually a research institution in the middle of the amazon.

We saw many different species of animals at the zoo like big headed Amazon river turtles, giant south american river turtles, giant otters, alligators, parrots, spider monkeys and many other different kinds of birds.

He also showed us a lot of different trees. One that really stood out to me was a palm tree that did not have its roots in the soil. He said that it actually walks and that in probably 50 years from now the tree would have walked maybe like 3 or 4 feet.

Messias shares the passion of photography with me and every time he would see an amazing scenario to take a picture he would stop us all and tell us to pose.

Another of the trees that he showed us was a Samauma tree. They actually grow up to 90 feet in about 80 years.

Another tree he showed us was Carnauba and they use this tree to make wax and also to make vinyls.

He showed us other trees like Copaipa, which is used to make medicine and Anderoba, which is used to make bug repellent as well as medicines such as ache oil.

Messias, is actually a very active person in the Amazon, who has visited many different parts of it and has actually lived with the indigenous population. This was very interesting and beneficial because i'm writing an article about that topic.

He talked a bit about the indigenous people and how many tribes are actually left in the Amazon. He said there is more than 100 tribes left, which was a bit shocking because there were thousands of them, of course this was a long time ago. But i'm sure that there is a lot of people per tribe.

However, over lunch we talked more about the issue.

At around 1:30 p.m. Isabella and Lucas came to pick me and the group up to take us to this amazing private club. This was all thanks to Juliana, a SIFE CESUPA member. Apparently, her father use to be the director of the place and so they got us in for free. This place was amazing it had various pools including a wet bar! It also had a sauna,tennis courts, beach volleyball courts, basketball courts, a massage parlor, an auditorium to hold events, restaurants and a gym.

We all went swimming for a while and then got massages.

In the club I ordered quibe, which is fried meat, it was just amazing.

Brasil eu te amo!