The Begining

As this ant points her left feeler over the hole, the right one still securely touching the ground, her nature tells her to keep moving it down. Only once her feeler strikes solid ground will she know what exactly is ahead, and how exactly deep that hole thing is. The bottom of this abyss isn’t exactly just when she feels the tunnel floor. That chasm in the earth leads to the hive, and for me thats even less known than every next step for the unintelligent biomachine (this little ant). As I stand at the edge, reaching out to feel my first step into a world of ants I’m feeling rather scared. I just do not know when my feet are going to take me to the bottom of the colony, and when this little ant hole is going to end.

On the practical side, I have my tickets for Brazil, it turns out Copa air panama’s regional air provider has great deals from JFK to Manaus, only just over a $1,000. I now have a contact in biology, though he is a mammalogist, in Brazil. I will beleaving NYC on the 17th of July. While talking about flights I have decided the best way to get my Brazilan visa is at the consulate in the Big Apple. As an amusing aside, On the consular’s site for Brazil it says “there will be a $130 charge for a US Citizen to get a visa to Brazil, the exact same price the US has been charging Brazilian citizens for years.” This is a kind of ‘fuck you’ to the US, and I like it. Additionally, I have finally found the last component to my macro photo kit the B150 B macro guiding rail, which essentially allows me to slide my camera backwards and forwards thereby making up for the fact that macro photography has an incredibly narrow depth of field (i.e. the camera only focuses at a very specific depth).

Furthermore, if you like the picture above you can see my first roll (at much higher resolution) at Anthopper.smugmug.com