Belo Horizonte is the 6th largest city in Brazil, but where I am, it doesn’t seem crowded. It is sunny and warm and people are jogging and riding their bikes around the lovely Pampulha lagoon. This is all near the very large and spacious university, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais where I am based this week. I will be one of the plenary speakers at the Parasitology conference here.
I must say it is nice to be in the warm sun after arriving from Vilnius where it was beginning to snow. Delicious mangos, papayas and pineapples, plus greens, beans and rice are a nice change after the last few weeks of winter foods.
My talk will be on Tuesday about the effects of habitat and climate change on the prevalence and diversity of avian malaria. I will present our work in Alaska and Africa, and how although there is much more research to do, we do know that with the rapid environmental changes, we are seeing differences in types of malaria and also the diversity. It is nice to be interacting with students and professors here. Brazil seems to have money to send students abroad and also invite professors for collaborative work. And the lab and facilities are not much different than what we have at San Francisco State.
There are some nice birds, and I will see more nature and more of the state of Minas Gerais over the next few days.