Parque Nacional Ubajara

This past weekend, I made my second journey to a Brazilian National Park, this time to Ubajara in my home state of Ceará. Ubajara is Brazil's smallest national park, and is home to a cave, hiking trails, and waterfalls. The park is a bit inland, directly west of Fortaleza, 5-6 hours by bus.

A day before we headed to the park, we welcomed another American student to Fortaleza. Alex Rogers is a fourth year medical student from Wake Forest who will be in Fortaleza for two months working in our lab. Despite arriving early on Thursday morning, she was willing to join Nate and I for an early Friday morning bus to the park.

After a six hour bus trip west of Fortaleza passing through the town of Itapaje and the apparently "reviled" town of Sobral, and concluding with an ascent of roughly 2500 feet, we arrived in the town of Ubajara. We began walking in the direction of the pousada where we had arranged lodging, unsure of the distance to the pousada. After 45-60 minutes, we arrived at Sitio do Alemão, a pousada run by a German who has lived in Brazil since the early 1980s. We settled in to a nice chalet at the pousada, and joined the owner for a trip to a nearby spring to collect water. We rested for the remainder of the day enjoying the views of the surrounding area from the pousada.

We awoke Saturday and prepared for a hike through a nearby area that had a series of waterfalls. After a somewhat harrowing trip in the very old car driven by the German owner of the pousada, Herbert, we began our hike. We stopped at each waterfall, spending time swimming, or in my case, slipping on wet rocks into deeper pools of water soaking my clothes...

Finally we approached the final waterfall in the series, which apparently was the tallest and most impressive. Viewing this fall though required a bit of effort, in the form of a descent down a 30-40 foot cliff using tree branches and a rope ladder. The water fall proved quite impressive, and allowed us a chance to cool off before beginning the hike back out of the canyon. After an enjoyable afternoon hiking and viewing the waterfalls, we retired to the pousada to rest before our Sunday hike through the national park, descending to the cave.

Sunday morning, we began the 7 km descent to the cave at around 9 am. During the descent, we viewed a few waterfalls which currently were rather dry due to the late start to the rainy season. We also passed a series of donkeys being steered down the same trail to deliver supplies from Ubajara to a town at the bottom of the mountain. After a few hours of hiking, we arrived at the Ubajara cave, and were taken on a guided tour of the cave's outer chambers. The cave likely pales in comparison to some of the famed caves of the US, but still was impressive. After the cave tour, we boarded a cable car for the journey back up the mountain. After an afternoon at the pool of a nearby pousada, we headed into town for dinner before we boarded an overnight bus back to Fortaleza.

The weekend in the mountains was a welcome respite from the heat and traffic of Fortaleza, and I'm already looking forward to my upcoming trip to southern Brazil and Argentina. Lab work is actually progressing quite well also, and I'll probably write an update regarding my research later this week. Photos from Ubajara follow.


Pousada Sitio do Alemão

Overlooking the Sertão of Western Ceará and Eastern Piaui

Lunch at a Local Restaurant: Free-Range Chicken, Claw Included

View of the Sertão and Mountain

Waterfall 1

Another Waterfall

Yet Another Waterfall

Cacti!

Beginning the Final Descent

Cachoeira do Frade: The Final Waterfall

Pondering the Best Approach for the Rope Ladder

After Successfully Completing the Descent


Under the Waterfall
A Rather Dry Waterfall in the National Park


Descending the Mountain
All that Separates one from a 1000 foot+ drop - Only in Brazil...

View of the Cable Car from the Trail

Waiting for the group to catch up


In the Cave

Stalactites and Stalagmites

Nate, Alex, and Chris in the Cave

Preparing for the Ascent

The View from the Cable Car

The View from the Cable Car

A Very Comfortable Bus Ride back to Fortaleza

Ceará vs. Maranguape

Campeonato Cearense
Estádio Presidente Vargas
13 Jan 2007
1630

Ceará opened defense of their Cearense championship in the first game of the 2007 Campeonato Cearense. A spirited crowd packed Estádio Presidente Vargas to cheer on the reigning champions as they faced Maranguape, a team based in the town Maranguape in the mountains south of Fortaleza.

Ceará had the better of play early in the match, but a misplay by the Ceará keeper left a rebound free 5 yards out. A Maranguape striker buried the close range shot to give the visitors a surprising 1-0 lead 10 minutes in. Ten minutes later, Ceará answered back after the Maranguape keeper yielded a long rebound off of a Ceará break. The right sided Ceará striker made no mistake in tying the score off the rebound. The teams traded chances for the remainder of the first half with Maranguape's speedy strikers gaining chances and Ceará's midfield possession controlling play. The teams reached the break tied at one.

The second half began with a few quick chances for Maranguape before Ceará again began to control play. Gaining a corner kick 20 minutes in, Ceará played a beautiful arching kick right to the head of a Ceará attacker at the far post who struck a header into the back of the net to give Ceará the 2-1 lead. Ceará would not relinquish this lead, and the remainder of the game was remarkable only for two yellow cards to Ceará for reckless tackles, and a pushing and shouting match between two Ceará defenders after a miscommunication lead to a Maranguape chance. Ceará did not look entirely in control in this first match of the 2007 season, but will look to continue to shake off the early season rust as they return to action on the road against Itapipoca Wednesday night.

Certificação, Campeonato Cearense, Carnaval

After two weeks in the US, I returned to Brazil last Saturday, after what fortunately was a fairly uneventful day of flights. With the large number of flight delays in Brazil lately, I worried that I would miss a connection or have significant delays, but was fortunate to arrive back in Fortaleza more or less on time.

Back in the lab on Tuesday, I was drafted to be one of our lab's representatives to participate in DNA sequencing training. In the US, DNA sequencing is generally done for researchers by "core facilities," which have individuals trained in the operation and maintainenance of DNA sequence analyzers (machines that cost $70,000 - several hundred thousand dollars) who do all DNA sequencing for researchers in a large University. Here in Brazil at the Universidade Federal do Ceará, we have no such facility, but our lab was recently given funding to purchase a sequencer which arrived a few months ago. This past week, five individuals were to participate in training on the sequencer, which would consist of about 40 hours of instruction over four days on the use and maintenance of the machine. Three other labs each were sending one representative, and our lab was given two spots. Now one would think that since the instruction and examination were entirely in Portuguese, our lab would send some Brazilian doctors, grad students, and professors, but alas, Chris Brown and I somehow made the cut for the training. And so, over the last four days, I've spent about 10 hours a day in lecture and practical training with the sequence analyzer. Yesterday, we concluded our training with a 10 question short-answer examination in Portuguese, which the two Americans both passed with flying colors. Therefore, now both Chris Brown and I can proudly say that we are Applied Biosystems Certified DNA Sequence Analyzer Engineers. Indeed certificates are on the way in the mail from São Paulo which will occupy prominent locations on our refrigerator.

With the accomplishment of sequence training in Portuguese complete, I somehow seem to have inherited a number of additional projects related to sequencing which I had no idea I would be involved in a week ago. And so this week, I'll be doing more work with sequencing, while also doing some other laboratory work to prepare for the PCR testing that we'll be doing a lot of as rainy season begins shortly. Additionally, I'll begin analyzing data from our physical fitness study from the fall, and may be able to present some of these results at a research conference in Ilheus, Bahia (South of Salvador) in March. My study of visual function in children should receive final approval in the next 1-2 weeks, which means that I'll also be able to begin this work which is quite exciting.

Outside of work, the Campeonato Cearense begins today with the top 10 football teams in the state of Ceará playing for the next two months to determine the state champion. Among the teams are four teams from Fortaleza: Fortaleza, Ceará, Ferroviário, and Uniclinica. The other six teams hail from elsewhere in the state. Fortaleza and Ceará will also compete in Serie B of the Campeonato Brasileiro which begins in April, and the next two highest placed teams in the Campeonato Cearense will qualify for Serie C of the Campeonato Brasileiro. My favorite team remains Ferroviário, but I'll probably catch quite a few games involving all four of the Fortaleza based sides, beginning with the opening match of the championship today as Ceará hosts Maranguape.

Otherwise, I'll be quite busy at work over the next five weeks, before the lab closes for several days for Carnaval. During Carnaval, I've decided to travel to Foz do Iguaçu, Buenos Aires, and Florianópolis. Foz do Iguaçu are incredible waterfalls in Southern Brazil that some describe as more magnificent than Victoria Falls, which I had the privilege of visiting in Zambia in July 2003. Buenos Aires of course is the capital of Argentina, where I'll spend 4.5 days, also possibly crossing the Rio de la Plata to visit Montevideo, Uruguay if I have time. Finally, I'll conlude my February journey by spending 3 days in Florianópolis, a city that is located on the Ilha da Santa Catarina in Southern Brazil. Then I'll return to Fortaleza to continue work on all of my research projects before returning to the US on May 18. It should be a busy final 4.5 months here in Brazil, and I look forward to getting a lot of work done, and also continuing to enjoy South America.