Universidade

One of our favorite in-town outings was a tour of Amazon State University!

One of the administrators and his daughter were very kind and generous with their time to take us around and explain some of the awesome things they are studying and working on, like modeling rainforests for extraction.

Here they dry and study wood samples from the many kinds of trees in the regions, where they test physical properties like strength and density. 

In another lab they study chemical properties of the wood, like oil levels, coloring and interaction with other chemicals.

They have an enormous collection of rainforest insects, there are more variety than we even imagined!

So many different species of beetles.

 

And all kinds of sizes and varieties of butterflies.

In the labeling lab, we got to see some some new insect samples that they had even recently discovered two unnamed genre never before studied. 

There is also a conservation area of the rainforest where they can do observation and testing.
It was fascinating to learn of the good people who are studying and working to understand and protect the wonders of this beautiful region!