Before the Blue

Now that I got my explanation of being blue out of the way... I can continue with more adventures! 

  Our baby monkeys Nicol and Muneca, who are everyone`s favorite, gave me an experience of a lifetime. 
Nicol and Muneca get transported twice a day to two different areas.  I have taken Nicol from the Animal Hospital to her cage and it`s quite cute.  You giver her her blanket (a tiny baby blanket) and she curls around it.  I held her like a baby as we walked to her cage.  Another time I took Muneca from her cage to the Animal Hospital. She wraps her tail around your neck and kind of chokes you, but I lifted up my left arm up and she laid on it so it didn´t choke me as much.  I just pet her like I would have Sadie (miss you puppy).  It was so cute and a wonderful experience.  Although, I love those monkeys...the past few days have not been my best experiences with monkeys.  I was helping feed Muneca and Nicol in the animal hospital and everything was great.  They jumped and climbed and cuddled with me and Heather.  Then I decided to lay down and have them crawl on me.  Maybe that was a mistake... Nicol climbed on my chest and then I felt something wet as she dragged her bottom across my chest.  Yes, I got peed on by a monkey hehe.  Then Raul (our mono man super hero... meaning monkey man) grabbed Nicol`s tail and started pulling her away from my face and exclaimed She`s about to poop!  I had no idea what to do so just laid there making random noises out of disgust.  I thought my weird monkey experiences would be over after that experience... but I was wrong.  The next day I was outside the cage of the capuchin monkeys (small little devils) and put my face close to the cage.  One white capuchin monkey looked at me with these sweet, innocent eyes that drew me in closer to look into them... then the monkey punched me in the bridge of my nose hahaha.  Oh, the surprises in life:)

We had a lecture on bats this past week and now Batman is even cooler than he was! ;)  70% of the mammal species in the rainforest are Bats.  Bats evolved from small mammals, not rats or mice which is the common misconception.  The bats have five ¨fingers¨ in their wing and the skin in their wing is very much alive; not dead skin as most people believe.  The bones of the fingers are hollow because hollow structures are lighter and much stronger.  Most people know that bats use echolocation to locate insects and such.  However, bats are not blind and actually have very good eye sight; they see in ultra violet light.  They also have a good sense of smell.  Bats sleep up side down to get blood to their head to save energy.  They also give birth up side down (ow! gravity helps with birth with most other mammals). 

As many people know, I love to dance.  I can dance all night!  The Macarena and YMCA have been very popular dances lately at Taricaya.  Most people get really into it... I´m always doing it haha.  My Peruvian dancing is getting better!  I´m still learning a lot and can´t teach anyone, but we have some very good dancers here to learn from. 

The feeling of being content is a strange one to me.  At home I am like Yosemite Sam as my mom says.  I walk into a room and go POW, POW, POW, POW!! everywhere.  Here I am surprisingly relaxed.  Me and Heather have had quite a few recluse days in which we relax in our bungalow and are completely content with ourselves.  I hope I can have this feeling back at home when I get back. 

In my opinion, any experience that has given you blood, sweat, and tears is a fulfilling experience.  I have definitely experienced all of these at Taricaya and me realizing this has brought it even closer to my heart.  We are one third of our way done here, which seems crazy.  Time is a tricky little fellow that seems to move so slowly and so quickly.