WOW

I am in town!  Volunteers are allowed to go into town every weekend but it is quite expensive for us... it would cost Heather and I $600 to go every weekend if we wanted to.  Therefore, I will probably not write for another three weeks or so. 

It is breathtakingly beautiful here.  The trees are unique and the forest is so dense.  I took a 4 km hike the other day to feed grown spider monkeys.  They are secluded so far away because we are trying to make them independent and introduce them back into the wild.  They are not too friendly to humans anymore so to feed them two people must go in the cage.  One has a net to catch monkeys trying to bite us.  We do have a 10 months year old spider monkey named Nicole... she is a sweetheart.  Nicole stays in a cage with a young howler monkey named Muneca (toy in English).  Muneca is a little rascal.  She`ll climb all over you and then try and bite you.  It doesn´t hurt though.

There are so many animals here it is amazing.  We get to feed most of them, but only the staff gets to feed the jaguars and other dangerous ones.  There are macaws, a toucan, spider monkeys, howler monkeys, squirrel monkeys, chapichin monkeys, tapirs, jaguars, an otter (his name is Sid and he is very friendly, I might get to swim with him in the river), wild dogs, a few wild cats I am not sure the name of, butterflys, turtles, and much more. Of course there are the unwanted visitors, too.  Our room happens to have cockroaches.  Other rooms have had termites, tarantulas, geckos, and of course other spiders and various insects.  Perhaps our worst enemy while we work are sand flies.  They don´t get repelled by mosquitoe repellent much and leave a nasty red circle.  They do not itch though.

The people here are very friendly.  There are about 20 volunteers here and they are from all over the world.  Me and Heather have been teaching them lots of American games and most of them like them.  Some think they are too ridiculous.  Anyways we have people from New York, Boston, United Kingdom, Austria, France, Germany, Denmark, Quebec, and we just me a volunteer from Poland.  It is fun to try and understnad each others languages.  Most everyone speaks English but some we have to talk slow to, understandably of course.

There are so many things that have happened it`s hard to include in just one blog.  Yesterday in the evening we played futbol (soccer).  It was immense fun! We have just a small clearing big enough to play.  First the goals were wheelbarros but then we got more people se we made them bigger.  The Peruvian staff were extremely good.

We do not have many modern things here.  We have electricity only from 6pm-9pm each night.  The wáter is not completely clear, that is it is slightly murky and has flakes of something Brown in it.  It is still good to drink though.  We only hav cold wáter for showers bu that feels awesome because we are always hot and sweaty.  The river is completely murky and includes paranhas, leeches, camans, and sand flies.  Our romos are covered in spider webs and dirt.  Oh ya and sometimes we run out of wáter and have to Yell AGUA! When we are showering to get it turned on again.  It sounds like I am complaining, but I am not.  I absolutely love everything about this place.  It is a break from the technology obsessed, fast paced, and Money obsessed world.  We are all here to help the environment and help with the ongoing research of animals.  Not everything is easy though.  Yesterday morning I helped build parts for the new encolsure for Sid the otter.  It took us 3 hours in the humid and hot weather to build 4 walls.  The Wood is extremely hard.  It has to be because the termites like soft Wood.  It took all my effort and might to hammer in just one nail.  The boys had trouble, too.  My hand is sore today and I have two tender blisters.

So as we were on our way to town our boat broke down haha.  We were on this Sandy beach about a mile wide.  WE went swimming through and were goofy.  We were stranded for about 2 hours.  A man that owns the hostel w estay at saw us though and picked us up.  Everyone is tired now because we had mud fights, played baseball with a stick and a round piece of Wood I found, and just messed around.

Forgive me for the random capitalizations and weird spellings.  The computer I am using does not know English and so every Word is almost underlined haha it also capitilizes random things. I love you all and miss everyone.  My dear family and friends I hope you are having a wonderful time where ever you are.  And live a french saying i just learned yesterday… Live your dream, don`t dream your life.