Day #16: Friaje .....

Alright a lot of things happened this morning and a lot of emotions. Right now, I’m pissed off, but let’s start off with this morning. Woke up to a downpour. I was pissed off. My laundry wasn’t dry yet last night, although I still should’ve brought it in when my gut told me. So there goes that, but at least it had been raining all night so not like it was ”Muhaha you just woke up downpour no clothes for you” lol So it’s whatever, its also a friaje yay….last data collection day -_- So it was a constant downpour for the next few hours, so I read and then went back to sleep. Woke up, sarted reading again, and then I heard a branch break so I looked up for a while waiting and a monkey came into view. So I went oh it’s a Titi, since they’re always there. Krista said it wasn’t cause it’s tail was curled, which to me says Capuchin but it looked so small so I was like Squirrel? But those travel in huge troops haha So we thought tamarin? Went out to explore and found it to be a capuchin! Ran to get my data book came back and it decided to run…..yesterday all over again.

I told Anneke I was going to go find it, and do something with my day to be honest, and so I went down the trail…nothing! Ugh! Headed back up to the cabin and heard a monkey. YAY! Got a bit of data and it started to head up the hill. Followed it by going up the trail and around, found a little off trail to this little shelter thing? Anyway watched it and another rest, move around, forage, eat all that jazz haha It was great. While watching them there were sattleback tamarins running around, but I stayed watching the capuchins trying to not get distracted. THEN, a bat flew around me and went into the shelter….which FYI during lecture a bat flew around me haha it was cool. Anyway looked in and found a bunch of them resting, I’ll get back to that later as my current mood is based off the bats. As I continued watching the capuchins, I noticed this white animals tearing at the bark and went back and forth between it and the capuchins trying to see what it was. It was the anteater! A Tamandou, as I learned :D Anyway extra cute, it was SO tiny, and I didn’t have my camera. I grabbed Minny cause she loves them and I thought it was a pygmy but she said it was the same we’ve been seeing. Anyway, once my capuchins left I headed back and saw Anneke watching Titis and sattleback and told her what I saw so she came with me to explore and I showed her and we took pictures. I took a flash with them and I feel utterly awful and demoralized L UTTERLY

I showed everyone the bats, and I can’t remember the name of them. Krista looked them up and ID’d them. Otherwise the rest of the day was blah. Lunch was chicken noodle soup which was good on a cold morning, and then (we’ve had it before) that shredded chicken yellow curry sauce weird thing. I justify it as a curry sauce, but we now this it was tuna? Anyway, half a boiled egg and a kalmata olive which I gave away. I gave half the food away haha and I plan to do the same tonight, especially because we didn’t do much. I got a lot through my book, and went out in the afternoon. The drinking water they put out is the same color as the water in the toilet, which doesn’t mean anything since they filter, and boil it before giving it to us. The color is just off-putting, but Gatorade packets take that away haha.

Adam, the French guy, saw an Ocelot today….LUCKY! He showed me where so I’m making a point to find it xD So, when I went out in the afternoon all I saw was a glimpse at squirrel monkeys and juvenile capuchins running over the trail and disappearing just as quick. Haha a blah day. Tomorrow we are visiting an abandoned gold mine which will be extra cool J This firaje isn’t as bad though, It didn’t rain as much and it isn’t as cold….thank god cause I wouldn’t be able to handle it!

Saki lecture tonight by Dara, I'm also contemplating talking to Minny abotu how to apply for their program for ya know upcoming years as a research assistant. I talk to her and Gideon alot about their research. So we shall see :) And dinner tonight is.......soup...which you'd think we'd be sick of but it's amazing on such a cold night. It's filled with more vegetables and barley so good. Big 'ol plate of spaghetti haha and half a plantain haha Gave half to Gene xD No way I could stomach all that.

Well unil tomorrow with a longer blog,

REN

Day #15: Horrible data collection

This morning SUCKED! UGH!

Started out good with pancakes for breakfast! Put a tiny bit of strawberry jam on there just to give it some flavor Yum!

Left at 6:30 WITH everything. In a nutshell, found the same troop of squirrel monkeys comingled with capuchins…..EVERYTIME I started taking data on a capuchin by the next data point, 2 minutes later it’d be gone but ONLY right before the timer went off UGH! Even the ones I could see from an open tree in the distance, for 1:45 they would just sit there relaxing in the sun and the right before the timer went off they took off like they were on fire UGH!

I can say I got good pictures, even a couple of capuchins FINALLY! The squirrels came extra close as usual, these seemed more skittish as they realized how close I was. I got some pictures of a squirrel right above me and a capuchin in the background checking me out. As the squirrel monkey ran overhead of me the capuchin started following haha, hoped it would come over to me for a second there.

Otherwise, my morning SUCKED. No data collection UGH! I’m exhausted too haha. On the way back some plant wrapped around my hand, and I’m guessing it had hairs or something. It felt rough as my hand pulled through it. Fine at first, little spots where the skin broke showed up then a red line then burning….lots of it. Mild stinging from just the motion of the hand naturally swinging in the air as I walked back to camp. If I lifted my thumb up or did anything to make the skin on the back of my hand crinkle the burning began and pretty bad. Now about 20 minutes later I’m fine haha. Exhilarating right -_- I’m happy I got good pictures though, I got some good ones I need to edit and sharpen and such but some squirrels got REALLY close so it was fun at least. Just got tired of them by the third time I found them because I wanted the capuchins not them, and they kept running away startled which made the capuchins go away ugh!

Now sitting here, to do more work on my paper, and wait for lunch haha. The kitchen made more ahi YAY ugh it makes the food so good with a little kick! Also we are getting new sheets! YAY Because mine reeked of mildew and sweat after sleeping on it since……well I arrived……My blue towel is also turning brown -_- ahahahaha

So lunch was a big deal. We got of course rice with sliced onion, I added the Ahi to it. We got a piece of corn, but the kernels were HUGE!! You could individually pick them off and eat them haha. Then the main part was like fried pork essentially haha Chicharone?  One of my pieces was all fat which I gave to Christian along with half of my rice. I of course ate my yummy corn J

I made a hypothesis. Most of the energy expended is during the morning. Monkeys are more active therefore you spend all morning hiking and following them. You don’t usually hike as much in the afternoon, and that’s when they give you rice and beans, or rice and pork or something and then the same for dinner. AHA! So yeah, just going to give half my meals to Christian J Mushy fruit for dessert haha Gave it away.

After lunch, Courtney, Linda, Stephanie, Adam, and I took a hike on a nearby path and did a big loop around. We found a little stream? It was tiny so I’m not sure what to call it but I tried to get some good photos, interesting ones at least. We didn’t see anything on the way, and wound up where the boats drop us off at the bottom of the stairs! Bumbum buuuuuuuh haha I climbed a tree there to get some starfruit for Stephanie who had turned back to camp earlier. Then we took to the stairs, which Courtney and I vowed to do that afternoon hike and stair climb every afternoon from now on to get some afternoon energy going through haha. I hoped to find some more capuchins but had no such luck L

In other news, we got new sheets!! YAY! Also, found out they don’t give us new towels, and that I must wash our own……-sigh- At least I finally have clean non-reaking pants to wear tomorrow haha. The ones I’ve been wearing are now quarantined in the laundry bag.

Otherwise quiet again waiting for dinner. Last night, our teacher Anneke lectured on her own titi research, and tonight we have a tamarin lecture from Minny and Gideon. Tomorrow will be a Saki lecture from Dara….NO CAPUCHIN LOVE! Ugh. Anyway, relaxation time while I try to quiet my belly!

dinner is chicken noodle soup and some corn, potatoes, unfortunately cheese with a good sauce. 

Welp, until tomorrow :)

Day #14: OMG :D

OK! Guess what I didn’t have breakfast…shocker. I was so tired this morning too, more so than I’ve been, mainly cause I go to bed usually at like 10:30 when I finish reading not midnight xD Ready and out at 6:15 Hiked up to trail two and found capuchins………but I forgot my glasses -_- Soooo after 10 minutes of attempting data I headed back –sigh- Grabbed them and went to other trails. I was worried that would be my only group but I found another! And a BETTER one at that! I got 24 complete minutes on an individual without it leaving my sight it was awesome. I called him Momo cause he always look at me look me over and was like crazy low to me at times and couldn’t care I was there. That ‘Murica guy walked by on the trail and saw them too and hung out a bit, not next me but a bit next to me. He then left to carry on with his duties. Later two girls from the Saki team came and were so loud they scared off the juveniles ;( I kept saying SHHHHH but was trying to not be loud to scare them off, but they just kept talking. Oh well. Anyway my buddy ended up taking his leave at that point when they showed up so I was sad L

There were a bunch of trumpeter birds pecking the ground near me, and they couldn’t care less either that I was around. Which is odd. Found out later while following a capuchin that there’s a bunch of ants everywhere……when I say a bunch I mean my boots got swarmed…..-sigh- Also Momo peed on me but eh, I was busy dodging another capuchin’s pee, he only got a few drops on me but meh I just showered when I got back even though it was just on my shirt. Anyway, as I lost capuchins I kept going to the ones behind me until they were all gone……I need to work on my following haha

It was cool though, I watched Momo jump between trees. Yeah Momo and I bonded, and I’ll never find him again cause he has no distinguishable features xD I really need to find the capuchin with the gimp leg from a fall THERE’S a distinguishable feature. But he’s had it for 2 years, everyone thought he’d die but he’s still around J

Anyway, so I watched Momo jump from tree to tree, usually I never get a good look but he did it low next to me. He walked to the edge as if assessing the situation, then would walk backwards and walk forwards and then back again. He then grabbed the branch with his hands and feet and rocked back and forth and then propelled himself to the next tree. I’m guessing to make sure he grabbed a thick branch. See capuchins don’t aim for sturdy branches, they go for the twigs so they make a ton of noise haha

Also watched him grab small branches, maybe three times his size, that have fallen into another tree and start picking this from it and then get utterly destroyed when he drops it. That solemn look and just staring at the ground that makes you go “awww” haha I also enjoyed watching him creep to the end of a tiny branch trying to grab something at the tip and unable to, so he gripped the branch with his tail to reach even further. In the end he just took a plunge and grab onto another lower branch but good effort!

Got back to camp around 10 or so, showered read for 15 minutes, posted yesterdays blog, working on this one waiting for lunch to be ready UGH.

I can say I’m definitely still apprehensive of following too far into the bush, the idea of getting lost again, alone, for hours regardless of having a GPS still stops me. Juice is coming out, lunch is going to start….live blogging and all its tangents! If I was with someone, ANYONE, I’d run into the jungle I don’t care, and I don’t. I don’t care about getting swarmed by ants or mosquitos or crawling in the dirt, I care about getting lost alone. Eh weird but oh well. I got a total of 2 hours of data this morning so I’m happy with it. Going to read articles and start taking notes to work on my Introduction to my paper.

Rice, pinto beans, and a vegetable medley of broccoli and carrots. Cantaloupe for dessert, I don’t partake hehe. Also, the cocoa is back :D I don’t make it but it’s a big deal. Oh there’s cauliflower in here too….yay. I wish there was Ahi that spicy pepper and onion mix….makes everything great!

OK so before I continue from today, Courtney made a good point! She thinks she’s gaining weight! I totally believe her, see it’s not just me! Not her, I mean me. I can honestly say or at hopefully so that I haven’t GAINED! My pants are a lot looser on my inner thighs, they were tight when I first started wearing them but not unbearably so. Now they sag a bit. However, as I’ve said my waist hasn’t gone down :/ I don’t snack on cookies, honestly, I don’t eat protein bars as snacks or anything. I don’t have Gatorade excessively usually one right when I get back from my morning hike. But I don’t know. I’m grumbling before the food bell rings so I don’t know. I walk 10 miles a day burn about 3k calories each day :/ Maybe it’s too much rice         –sigh- I dunno but it makes me sad L Gave the girls some protein bars cause I have so many –sigh- Not fair!

Anyway! So my day got EVEN better! I took notes on some articles to write my introduction. Started laundry, went out on a hike with some music, half listening to my surroundings. Almost a kilometer in the trees start moving a lot and I chalk it up to the wind that’s been picking up. I look up, pretty much at THE best time, and there’s a monkey in the tree about the size of a capuchin but all black. So immediately I go, “oh a capuchin” and it just like unfurls its wings…not really, it’s a monkey they don’t have wings. Turns out it was a spider monkey and I just about dropped everything gaping mouth and all. The most absolute fantastic fascinating thing I’ve ever seen. The way they move through the trees using their tails as a fifth limb, flying through the trees. It’s incredible! There were THREE! I had a frikkin’ hernia….I never expected them to be on that trail so close to camp it was phenomenal. They move so frikkin fast, I was too caught up in the moment to get a picture, I got a blurry one but I just needed to watch haha. I’ll try and find them again, but I’m so happy I saw them I’ve been wanting to! So Lucky!

Also when I got back to camp the anteater thing was back! Right out in the open so I got great photos of it! Extra cute! Watching it attempt to slide down from one branch to the other and use it’s tail to stabilize itself, it looked like it was going to fall constantly haha! So it was a good day! 2 hours of data collection, my best so far, I had Momo, spider monkeys, and ant eater  WOO! My laundry is all hung to dry, I did so in my flip flops in the chigger field haha. My eczema is flaring up pretty bad on the inside of my elbows, neck, and under my eyes. Otherwise, nothing else going on. Just a crazy day.

When I saw the spider monkeys I was hearing thunder and not realizing it haha and I suddenly realized as they continued off faster, and the wind picked up. So I ran back to camp, made it just as it started raining, I had no backpack for the camera haha. But then they were like ant eater so I shrugged and went over there in the rain. Camera is perfectly fine, just aimed the lens down put it in a dry bag after and boom. Now sitting in the dining hall waiting for dinner. chicken noodle soup and then beef stew with rice and banana chips. Gonna start giving half my food away haha, too much rice ad the portions are getting bigger

Day #13: ......Wasted day :( Sort of lol

Today was an unfortunate dull day, not what was expected. First, let’s go to last night J

After dinner Linda and I gathered in our room with Christian and Stephanie. We started playing some card games which incorporated drinking. Now it was only beer, but either way I wasn’t a fan but I barely drank half a can in the end. It was fun, Krista and even our teacher came to join for a bit. Those two didn’t drink, but still. They ended up going to the dining hall where a group of people were playing “air hockey” with the cap from the pepper haha.

Anyway, we decided that we would go for a night hike and hit the tower, but wouldn’t tell the teacher in case she said no. Peter then came into the room and told us his bootleg booze arrived and they were going to drink in the lab. They as in Varun’s group. By 9:30 I was getting tired, weird right? I didn’t really want to drink and knew it wouldn’t last a bit to then go on a hike and climb  a tower that’s so high there are rest stops haha.

So I opted out. By 12:33 the group in the lab was drunk, a light way of putting it. Christian and Stephanie didn’t get back until after 3 am. I definitely contemplated going there to sit and hang out because it sounded fun, but I didn’t want to fumble around in the dark finding my stuff. Also, bed is comfy haha. More also, creatures crawl on the floor xD

Anyway, but it sounded like they had fun based off all the laughing and what Christian filled in last night.

This morning we slept in, I was shocked when I woke up at 7, I kinda assumed I would naturally wake up at like 5:30 like I have been without an alarm but that could be me waking up from other alarms. I ended up reading in my bed for a couple hours, finished my now tenth book for the year (third for the trip) and started my next one haha. Apparently there was eggs for breakfast. However, Seamus and Stephanie went out to find spider monkeys, I didn’t know they were going mainly cause they didn’t say anything and he just waited for anyone to come out. Mainly, a bummer because I’ve been talking about going up there to find them since I got here. I’m planning on going there for my morning hike while looking for capuchins.

We ended up just relaxing all day……..It was a bummer because I assumed we would do all the things we talked about the day before. The anaconda, rive otters, cocha lobo, all these things we wanted to do and it was our last free day. It was the only reason I didn’t do data collection, but I missed the part where we were playing it by ear I guess. I still feel dumb. I felt lazy today, I couldn’t do my paper, or read or anything because everything died. But more importantly because I didn’t go out and that bummed me most of all. I really should’ve woken up at 5:30 and gone out, I can’t afford free days. Not a fan of them anyway, I don’t like to relax here, that’s for at home. I’m in the amazon I want to explore and see things I won’t see at home. Maybe I should’ve gone by myself? I was mainly just looking forward to being with the group all together for once, and not hiking by myself. I do that enough haha.

I CAN say that I saw a type of ant eater :D Don’t know the name, and wouldn’t be able to spell it anyway haha But I got good pictures, it was so cute. Maybe like 3-4 feet total. Extra cute, very sweet, could’ve cared less we were there making so much noise. The whole camp took off running to see it haha.

Lunch was great! I think they did it special for fourth of July but I dunno It was rice of course, with some French fries and two slim halves of like fried up sausage or something. Like pan fried. Soooo yummy, my stomach was soooo not having it though –sigh- Not used to the grease. Good news there, family back home ;)

We may go on a night hike after dinner, it’s again being played by ear. I didn’t go to the sunset tower hike because I promised to talk to someone when the power came on. And now it’s just quiet while I play the waiting game for dinner haha. I wonder if they’ll do something else special J

It’s a really short blog today I know, but nothing happened aside from the ant eater L I did help Madeleine and Hannah re-tag tamarin feeding and sleeping trees for a bit. I ventured out on a little hike in a cotton shirt and just sneakers, not optimal for bush wacking. So I hung out for a bit, got but by something right away and was worried I’d get red ants in my pants haha so I didn’t stay long.

I will love nothing more than a decent internet connection when I’m home. It makes it so much easier to talk to people or do something simple like post a blog! I don’t care that it’s slow…..or anything I don’t! I just need it to stay up and running and quit cutting off.

I can say my schedules for the next few days, since my presentation is on the 12 and we are losing another day for the trip to the abandoned gold mine…..REALLY shoulda went on a data collection trip this morning so stupid! I really should’ve known –sigh- High hopes I guess. Anyway, I plan on leaving by like 6 and getting back by around 11 so I can enter data, read articles and slowly work on my paper until my computer dies, go back out and then work some more at night.

I’m planning on finishing my introduction and methods, as she suggested since that’s what we can do as of now, and have her look it over so it’s perfect when I turn it in. So that’s my plan for the next few days, I wanted to go out in the afternoon and hike but it was so hot. Otters will be in the river shaded and cool, anaconda hidden in the shade, and most importantly monkeys will be in the canopies out of sight –sigh- UGH! Can you tell I’m frustrated J I do hope we do a night hike at least, it’d be fun.

Chicken noodle soup again to start J OH for the first course for lunch it was like ring pasta with the tiniest amount of ketchup NOT put by me haha I was eating and was like this tastes so familiar. It was like mac n cheese with ketchup, but I guess no cheese I dunno but ah the childhood. I miss Kraft macaroni L The soup has shaved carrot piece in it and weird little pasta miniscule things it in? Weird but eh good. Chicken looks off, weird not mixed up looking soup. Not a special meal for tonight haha, guess just for lunch.

ALSO, I posted yesterdays blog, CHECKED to make it posted and that was it, come back today and see 2 new posts haha Theres a French guy here  xD That’s all I can say haven’t talked to him. He just got in. Anyway, I’m blah so that’s it until tomorrow J Here’s hoping for a night hike

 .

Ok lied been talking to the french guy, don't know his name. Attempted french butchered my sentence, I know for shame. But I'll practice :) It has also been confirmed: a lesson learned, French people DO hate Americans, and French people HATE Parisians, or however you spell it. Confirmed! Also if anything tell people you're Canadian xD It's horrible, but we all know it's true ;) At least stereotypically so haha but we all were laughing Haha We are going on a night hike and I invited him, so this will be fun. Also There are now botflys in the camp :) Matt has them in his head POSSIBLY the lip, and Gideon got one on each shoulder haha. We all crowded around to see, anyway time to go.


Okay i'm back :D Internet went down so the post never went up. Se we trekked somewhere between 1.5 - 2 kilometers before getting to the swamp. By that time at the end we were walking on docks and listening to the millions of frogs haha. The boats were tiny and extremely rickety oh lord! While getting on the boat Courtney and I saw a large orange eye maybe 10 feet to the right....oh yeam caymen alligators ya know it's a swamp. So we climb into the boat trying so hard not to MOVE and do weight distribution and then we were off. That boat had so many people in it that it was like 2 inchies from the edge of the water haha. I contemplating touching the water but it was gross looking like when the Patuxent is so gross it just paints the boat brown immediately haha. Anyway we went around, it was a decent sized lake creepy and cool. I saw a couple orange eyes in the distance haha but nothing in the water :( We found something little and went up to it a few times and then watched it recede into the reeds. we think it was a snake, and we hope it was the anaconda. We rode around in the dark too, all the while we could hear twigs snapping the distance. Also something pretty huge kept flying over us, all we heard were the wings haha. No not a bat, that'd be frikkin scary a bat that big. We did see a shooting star though! So it was fun :) Got back to camp around 11 pm, chugged water, read and passed out

REN