Marta Ferracin artblog two: LARGO DAS ARTES: DAY 47

Today I went to walk in the tropical forest of the Floresta of Tijuca with Jungle Me hiking tour guided by Ed who gave a very deep insight of the Brasilian history from 1500 to 2015 century.In the tour there were other 5 girls from America working temporarily at Rio. I discovered that the name of Brazil comes from a name of a tree called brazilwood tree, translated in Portuguese as pau-brasil where pau means wood and brazil means brasa or ember. Ember was used to burn while the tree was generating a red liquid used for dying textiles, so it was a very precious tree.

The Petra Bonita trail was super easy just 35minutes walk. In the past this area was destroyed by the coffee plantations and now it is a kind of replica, so there was not so much chance to encounter a wild tropical forest while I had a very little feeling of it, becoming aware of the roots, shadows, ray of lights, plants, butterflies and birds.

There was a plant called crocodile because of the formation of the bark protecting itself from lianas and others with huge pointed thorns used for sewing... Another plant had so perfect geometrical holes made by the caterpillar when the leaf is young and rolled into a conic shape.

The best part was arriving to the summit where the big rounded rocky formation or petra bonita similar to the old Australian stones, was there waiting for us! Here the clouds were formed from the heat coming form the land, city and sea travelling up to the 600meters high mountain. It was like to be inside of a cloud and I re-visioned my Zenite - the totem I exhibited one month ago - surrounded by steam created with the dry ice like a giant cloud. Then the wind cleared the view and the top of the mountain in front of us! The vegetation on top were created a low bush with different flower and lichens.

On the way back I spotted a nocturnal butterfly, a strange lizard jumping like a Dinosaur when running away and getting closer to another site called Vista Cinesa a group of black monkeys eating the fruit that somebody left on the soil for them...