We arrive

Our team and equipment. The dry shipper made the customs folks very nervous. It turns out "hummingbird" sounds a little too much like "human-bird". Read more below.

We've arrived in São Paulo. The flight was rather uneventful, which was fine by me. I'm glad I paid extra for the non-stop flights from Toronto to São Paulo. Colleague Jason Weir recently returned from a trip to the Brazilian Amazon and lost bags (and more than $1000 in supplies) on his trip most likely because of the stop-over in the states. The items eventually arrived in Brazil, but were confiscated by police because Jason couldn't be present to receive them.

Processing through immigration was relatively simple. It was the trip through customs that took longer than usual. This was expected. We were traveling with specialized scientific equipment and I expected these foreign looking items to raise suspicions. I wasn't wrong.

The biggest problem was with the 'dry shipper'. For those that don't know: a dry shipper is a container designed to hold biological samples at very low temperatures for transport. Liquid nitrogen and dry ice are not allowed on planes for safety reasons. A dry shipper is 'charged' with liquid nitrogen. The liquid nitrogen cools a solid-state material in the chamber and then the nitrogen is allowed to boil away. You are left with a container that will keep things very cold for days and days, but doesn't have any potentially explosive solids or liquids inside. The metallic dry shipper is contained inside a padded plastic bin when travelling.

The shipper raised suspicions because it's a large metallic, cylindrical object. The customs officials didn't speak English, so they had to wait for a Federal Police officer to arrive to translate. The customs officials seemed especially worried because they were confused about what we intended to carry in the dry shipper. When we explained that we were going to transport "hummingbird" tissues. They heard "human....bird" tissues. The potential transport of 'human' tissues was especially worrisome.

Luckily, the translator was able to provide the Brazilian/Portuguese word: "beija-flor". In hindsight, I realize I should have gone ahead and memorized that before the trip. It's actually a wonderful description of hummingbirds. Translated literally, it means "flower kisser". That pretty much sums up hummingbirds.

Satisfied we weren't up to any mischief, the customs officers made copies of our export and scientific collection permits and sent us on our way.

Ah, the many destinations in Brazil.

Taubaté is a 2 hour drive from São Paulo. The drive was quite nice. It was good to leave the polluted confines of large São Paulo for the more scenic countryside. Taubaté is about halfway between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. A side trip to Rio will have to wait for another time.









We arrived at our hotel in late afternoon and settled in for some dinner and much needed sleep. It's good to finally be here.