I received a letter from my friend who works in the pampas. She wants to find a cure for all the diseases, yeah, for all of them. As per her, we have only tapped 1% of the entire forest potential to cure diseases. I haven't heard from her since she accidentally poisoned herself from a dart frog (Dendrobatidae) "Baaka".
" Dear Bird-Sherlock,
Thank you for not calling me and asking me 'how I am?'. I am not dead, thanks to the Yanomami tribe.
Let me cut to the chase, while I was with them I happened to know about the "Azul" bird which appears or rather appeared during the last El Nino, they say that the "Christ's Child" sends in the bird to warn the tribes about the upcoming floods. Yeah, I know it's the warm Peruvian current which causes floods in Peru while droughts on the east coast of Australia. I thought you would be interested to know that the "Azul" bird which flew into the Sabancaya came back as "Roja" bird with intense Plumage after the season!
Note: Get me the tooth, or else don't come!
Cel."
Celestine Josef, my senior in the sophomore year, respects me a lot. "Azul" - Blue, "Roja" - Red, I quickly googled, it was in Spanish. This bird has to go in my diary, and I started imagining and drawing birds since I was 12, like Davinci, but yeah, no one except me can read it. Now, what is the tooth she was referring to (:-\) darn, I should pay more attention to what she says.
I quickly skimmed my emails and found one where she sent an image of a viper's skull (Crotalus Durissus) with only one fang. Yeah, now I remember the other one was recovered by Gabe, our osteologist. She could have asked him herself, but they are not on talking terms since they fell apart. Gabriel and I have been friends since our college days. He sucks when it comes to women, but can tell their skeletons apart even with just looking at their teeth, his recent study focused on how to use dental data in any forensic study. He once told me that this particular tooth (fang) was probably used to administer the tribal injections as it had some medicinal content inside it.
I have to leave quickly to Rio, wait, I did promise my lil' sister that I would take her to the "standing Jesus" when we were kids, should probably take her too, and I think it is easy to convince Gabe to come with me rather than ask him to give the fang for Cel. "Ikuzo" let us leave this week.
Journal entry: 256 - "Azul / Rojo/ Roja" bird - Species unknown
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Blue and Red plumage
Was seen near the Andes mountains - South America
Adaptable to hot temp even inside an active volcano
Puzzles:
How did the color change? I know there are birds that change their feathers color when they grow up, but it is usually, white/ black to radiant color. Not from vibrant blue to radiant red.
Was it a male or a female bird, cause if most of the male birds are attractive, so if the red was attractive then, it supposedly should be male and "Rojo" not "Roja".
If it was an offspring then, where is the mom?
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I, Gabe, and the devil left that Saturday to Rio-de-Janeiro. Wow, this place is full of exotic species, the marvelous macaws (Hyacinth macaw) which can live up to 50 years, the smart Toco (Ramphastos toco), which look like hornbills but American. I left Ana in Rio with zoo authorities and Gabe and I left to meet Cel. I told Cel, that I am getting the tooth she asked for, and Gabe that Cel found something about the Fang. Grr.. your personal life should be isolated from your profession if you ask me, and I think Gabe breathed her out of his system, but Cel still loves him, after all, she is his one true love. (You don't know that yet)
As soon as they met, Gabe greeted her as if nothing happened, but Cel took me aside to punch me in the belly. "As I said, I got the tooth, but he came along with it (:-D)". I left them to catch up and quickly rushed to my cottage. We are in the Selvas, the northern part of amazon forest, and as per the plan, Cel shall take me to the Yanomamo from where I can track down the mysterious bird. As soon as I relaxed my self, I saw them at the table, Cel with the coffee and Gabe with his stupid green tea, as if nothing changed, She looks at him with the same eyes, he looks hollow though, but dumbo, why can't he see that she still has his tea at her cottage, though she hates it.
We left the cottage early before the rise, and first birds speak, on a boat ('na na hai ya na… na na nana...') sunrise, I know it's frozen (:-)). The Tribal contact seems to trust Cel a lot and as they speak, I see the magnificent Sabancaya peak (active) and the explosions of November 2019, were exclaimed as "What was gone is, as you can see, infinitely more than what came in" by (E.Galeano). But, when we saw it from Lake Titicaca, it looked harmless, like a kid smoking a cigar. We had to trek for 50 km with the specialized suits and crew that would help us after we drive for 256 km to the Tuti district. Gabe says he doesn't need any mask, I need one. I can't even breathe with my inhaler, so, I can very much die here.
Plan:
Trusting in the tribe's story, I and Gabe will be allowed to enter the scientific path built by the meteorological department for a 15 min inspection.
I asked Cel to stay, but #feminism, she will come with us and I see she wants to tag along with Gabe too
If we don't return within 15 min, the Disaster Response team would jump in and pull us out or (our bodies :-p)
As we enter, we can't see a thing, and yesterday as per Cel's description, I drew a parabola of the bird's flight and we are looking for some evidence to establish the existence or the residence of the bird. We took some pictures and yeah the magma was cool and scary and I don't trust the story. I don't think any organism shall sustain such a temperature , let alone a warm-blooded fancy bird. There is no way it can come and leave without a fire on its tail unless it is a F@#king Phoenix.
We left early, and I was a little disappointed. On the brighter side, they got to catch up and my sister saw the God, Huh and I get to strike off an entry #124. Visit an active volcano.
I came back to the office with those pictures and Gabe, "She is coming back for him, soon" that's what I thought to myself. Her eyes said something that she couldn't say, like a chick that fell from its nest, asking for someone to pick and put her back in her nest.