It's that time of year again when and colleague and I take a group of students to Brazil for a field course. I'm off on Monday, leaving -- with great reluctance -- Mr. Bsag and Cleo to fend for themselves for three weeks. We're in the middle of nowhere, so it's very unlikely that I'll be able to post anyting to the blog while I'm away. As usual, I had intended to make some posts in advance to be published during my absence, but as usual, I haven't had time. No doubt you'll all be busy enjoying the nice weather and/or the Olympics, so I doubt anyone will notice ;-)

Brazil is a gorgeous country and we're surrounded by wonderful wildlife, but it's very intense, hard work, and the heat gets to me after a while. I love the tropics, but I'd like them better if they were a bit cooler! I watched the first episode of Lost Land of the Jaguar this week, and even though the expedition featured is in Guyana, not Brazil, we see many of the same species. I felt slightly smug when they went to great lengths to film giant otters in their totally remote location, when we saw them from a boat about 5 minutes from our hotel. Two years ago, a couple staying at the hotel even saw a jaguar while they were on a boat trip early in the morning. It was sunning itself on the bank, and they got some stunning photographs, which made us wildly jealous.

The area we stay in may not have the same level of biodiversity as the area the team visited in Guyana or be as pristine, but we're very lucky to see so much wildlife.

Have a good August everyone, and I'll post about my adventures in about 3 weeks time, bearing (no doubt) the scars of heat rash and numerous insect bites.