Salvador, Brazil (2007)

Only 5 months after my first visit to Brazil, I was in the wonderful country once again. That’s good because the 5-year tourist Visa was difficult to get so I’m glad to make the most of it (one can no longer get a 5-year tourist visa). This time I was in Salvador for the Long Term Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA) Ecology conference. It was my first tropical ecology conference and I soaked it all up, connected with people in the field and had a great time enjoying the city. Luiz, Liana, Yadvinder and I all gave great presentations and our Oxford group represented strongly.

Salvador is a city in Brazil that many Brazilians want to go to. It was the center for the African slave trade and subsequently has a huge African cultural influence. The food is incredible, the weather was perfect and the people were friendly.

Every meal was a bountiful feast of amazing food.

There is something spying on our meal from above.

Hungry monkey!

The second day of pre-conference workshops, Luiz and I gathered up our respective workshop groups (we were in different ones) to forgo the afternoon meetings and hop on a boat headed out to an island.

We leave Salvador behind us.

Liana enjoys a conversation in the cool breeze.

Serendipity had me seated next to Ben from Potsdam. We had a lot in common and ended up being roommates at the next conference.

We’re getting our suntans and beer drinking going.

Arrival at the island.

Our new office—talk about open plan! We swam out into the warm sea and actually had our final meetings there floating around.

Luiz, Yadvinder and I have seriously lost the plot.

On the last day we headed out to the beach, got some great giant clams, seafood and strong drinks.

Not sure what I’m drinking here, but it was good and strong.

The palms reminded me a bit of LA.

The beach that we hung out on all afternoon.