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4 EVENTS AND PLACES VISITED
Date Dec. 5, 1962 Wednesday
Place Brasilia & Rio de Janeiro
Weather Cloudy in AM; rain & fog in PM.
Doris & I packed our things, but came out on the "vacant lot" in front of Brasilia Palace Hotel to collect insects, I got quite a few by whiffing the weeds with our nets, including some quite good beetles. I also found a clump of wild Amaryllis just opposite the right end of the hotel about 2 blocks away in the wild growth, similar to the one I found at Rio 27 years ago, but with a darker red & more veins showing, I'll ask Dr. Moojen to dig up some for our botanical garden, as I did not bring a trowel.
We got the 12:30 Varig plane for Rio, & after a half hour of good weather, it got misty. We stopped at Bello-Horizonte for a half hour, but we did not leave the airfield. It rained hard after that, & we got to Rio at 5PM in a downpour. Our rooms at Hotel Serrador are sumptuous, & look out on the bay, now ringed with its "circle of diamonds".
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EVENTS AND PLACES VISITED 5
Date Dec. 6, 1962 Thursday
Place Rio
Weather heavy rain & mist; cloudy; lots more rain
I phoned Bertha Lutz early, & she said to meet her at the Museum at 10:30, as she had to buy food for her 5 dogs before coming. She was glad to see us, & brought Dr. Miranda-Ribeiro, son of the frog specialist I knew in 1935. He speaks fine English, & went with us to introduce us to the photographer, since my camera had jammed again. It will be fixed (I hope!) by the Zeiss specialists. Then we took the plants I had collected in Brasilia to the botany department to be pressed & identified, then we saw the bedroom of the Queen, Dom Pedro II's wife, with superb inlaid chests, french-style ceilings & a wonderful view from the windows. This room is now the director's office, but he was away. We had lunch —beef, tomatoes, marvelou, hard rolls & coffee with milk, & stiff banana marmalade for dessert. Then I worked on frogs in Bertha's office, & Doris on beetles, until 4, when Bertha drove us to a place where we could get a taxi home.
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