If you missed part 1 of the Fredventure, be sure to check that out in addition to this post. We also recently performed our Brazilian music at MIT President Sally Kornbluth’s inauguration party this past weekend – go and give it a listen!

Day 4

A top-down shot of the rainforest. I’d never held onto my phone so tightly before taking this photo.

Day 4 was the highlight of my trip because we did so many awesome activities that day. Our first stop was the Museu da Amazônia (MUSA for short), where we got to hike around in the thickets of the rainforest. At MUSA, we were split into several different tour groups; my group started at the main attraction – a 42-meter-tall observation tower looming above the rainforest canopy.

The view from there was breathtaking, with trees as far as the eye could see. However, we couldn’t stay up there for long – it was also scorching hot, and a few of us even pulled out our umbrellas to shield ourselves from the sun.

An (honestly kind of bad) panorama of the rainforest I took from the observation tower.

The things we saw back on the ground certainly didn’t disappoint either. Our guide, a zoologist with an extremely keen eye, could spot even the tiniest, most well-camouflaged critters among the leaves. At one point, he even casually scooped up a snake from the ground while we walked!

Some kind of stick insect on a tree.

A little snake that our guide just casually scooped up from the ground.

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“Guys, smell the snake!” he told us. So I smelled it. It smelled awful. Not sure what I was expecting, honestly.

The rest of the special exhibits (giant sloth/crocodile skeletons, giant fish, and giant water lilies) flew by quickly. That is until we got to the arachnids exhibit (finally, some small things!). Did you know that arachnids make up 10% of all arthropods in the rainforest? Or that adult scorpions glow bright cyan under UV light? I certainly did at the end of our tour because our zoologist was really into arachnids. Like really, really into arachnids. So much so that we spent more than an hour at that exhibit.

(Though, it was interesting to learn that baby scorpions don’t glow under UV light because they don’t produce the necessary fluorescent protein.)

Surprisingly, we weren’t the last group to finish, even though we spent what seemed like an eternity staring at tarantulas. (It turned out that one of the other groups all decided to get fruit juice at some random juice bar in the middle of their tour.) While we waited, I read some local myths they had posted around the place. My favourite was the story of “Devil with No Ass”, which… is certainly one way of explaining why we have electric eels.

That evening, we finally saw the famous Teatro Amazonas in person. When Fred told us the theatre would be pink, I imagined a muted pink that blends in with the background; I would never have imagined it to be bright, Barbie-dream-house pink instead.

Barbie Dream (Opera) House.

In the theatre, we listened to a thrilling jazz concert performed by our own FJE and a local jazz ensemble. It was incredible how well the two groups played together despite not speaking the same language. I later learned that FJE only found out they’d be performing a few hours before the concert, but I never would’ve guessed.

And the cherry on top? For dinner, we went to a restaurant that served us 15 different types of pizza, each with a distinct Brazilian twist. (Unfortunately, this included a cupuaçu dessert pizza, but I suppose you can’t win them all.)

Not sure which pizza Fred is eating in this gif.

Day 5

After FJE’s performance the previous evening, everyone in MITWE was itching to play some music as a group too. Luckily for us, the first activity of the fifth day was meeting and improvising with indigenous percussionist and instrument maker Eliberto Barroncas.

It was quite amazing how Eliberto’s instruments (all made from natural materials he harvested himself or reused plastic) sounded uncannily like the rainforest itself; we later learned that those instruments were originally used for hunting and made to mimic animal noises.

For dinner, we went to another “floating restaurant”⁠01 Is an airplane a floating restaurant? Is a pop tart a ravioli? We got into some heated debates about these questions; drop your best arguments in the comments below. (i.e. restaurant on a boat), this time with live jazz performed by a group of musicians who performed with FJE the previous day. I ordered “ribs”, but was served fish ribs instead, which just about ruined the whole trip for me.

(Just kidding, the fish ribs actually tasted decent, against all my expectations about fish.)

Day 6

Day 6’s main activity was touring the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA) – Brazil’s premier institute for rainforest research. First, we listened to a few talks by VJE’s Talia K. and two of INPA’s scientists. I was surprised to learn about their research facilities there, including a cleanroom (akin to MIT.nano) and a 325-meter-tall observation tower (taller than the Eiffel Tower), all in the middle of the rainforest!

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We then took a campus tour and saw all sorts of exotic plants and animals, including an albino turtle and a sloth eating cacao! (No birds, unfortunately; apparently none of their favourite fruits was in season yet.)

They even had manatees there! “Manatee” in Portuguese is “peixe-boi” (literally “fish cow”), but it’s pronounced almost like “pastry boy”. So when I heard Talia excitedly refer to them in Portuguese, I initially thought she was comparing them to the Pillsbury Doughboy because of their rotund bodies.

Just before lunch, there were a few more talks. First, we watched the winning entry to the 2023 Dance Your PhD competition in the biology category, which was filmed at INPA. Next, some of MITWE/FJE’s own gave presentations – Axel V. (on engineering anti-CRISPR variants), Rachel M. (on a CubeSat she recently launched), and Scott S. (on the science of disaster movies).

I was still pretty excited about seeing a sloth up close earlier that day, so when they let us choose between seeing reptiles/amphibians and a science museum they had on campus, I chose the former option without hesitation.

Unfortunately, they failed to mention that the animals wouldn’t necessarily be alive.

At least the snakes look pretty I guess?

As soon as I stepped foot into the reptiles/amphibians room, I was hit with the stench of death. Indeed, every single reptile and amphibian in that room was suspended in formaldehyde and other nasty chemicals. I still don’t understand how the researchers there can stand working in that room all day, but kudos to them for doing so.

We had a few hours of free time back at the hotel, so I went to a nearby mall to try some fresh açai (which everyone had been recommending). That decision was by far my best decision of the day. The açai was delicious (and tasted much better than the açai in the US), and the mall also had a mini rainforest in the center. I even got a Brazilian Happy Meal at the end of the excursion!

I promise there's açai somewhere under all those toppings.

I took this picture from inside the mall!

The Happy Meal definitely lived up to its name.

(Plus the toys that were inside.)

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We’re just two days away from the big concert at the end of the trip! Stick around for the third and final part of the Fredventure, which I’ll post (hopefully) next week.