Saturday, July 5, 2014

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


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