Wednesday, June 12, 2013

More pictures

This is a picture from the phonebooth.


My bedroom:


A casual spider. 

Some art I made in the woods.


Me on a rock while our guide buddies nap in the woods... Lol we lost the monkeys.


Everyday is a picnic:


Two curious monkeys:





Pictures 1

This is my home.

This is my porch.

This is where I eat.

This is Maria's house.

This is me on a hammock:

Here are some amphibians: 


Here is a monkey trying to steal my corn:


This is me brushing my teeth at sunrise:





**One month has passed


June 10th, 2013

Here in Brazil I am running an insect hotel in my bed. I charge cheap daily rates... But all bugs must checkout by 8:00pm on the dot. No excuses. 

While we are on the topic of sleeping, quick shoutout to my parents who think I have a sleeping disorder/am still a teenager- I have seen the sunrise everyday this summer, with the exception of three at the most. 
Then I go sleep at around nine or before. Lol probably because I am very very (mentally) exhausted plus I don't have any social media to keep me up.

Not that it is social media's fault; it is certainly my own fault for letting that sort of thing consume me. 
But we are social animals, so it is acceptable.

What am I talking about? Listen, let me describe some things to you and my future self:

There are an abundance of frogs and toads here and I love all of them so much. They are so cute and sweet.

Did I already tell you that I love ants? I started documenting the many local species. It took me four sort photo sessions this Sunday to capture five species here around the house In photographs. Super easy. And it was fun. I also got lots of other animal pics! Doree said I have missed my calling as a wildlife photographer... I told her that I haven't missed it yet!

Yesterday we were following Jatoba's group for the first time in a week. I missed them. And it hit me much harder (since we have recently only been following the other monkey group) how habituated they are! As in, they don't give a FLIP who is following them or how closely. It takes YEARS to establish that trust... What an asset!
   Oh yeah, so we were following them! And they got so close to our house... In fact, at one point, they climbed up the cliff (plateau) that is closest to our house... So we walked on home to wait for them to descend while hanging on the hammocks. Stalking monkeys from our back porch. What.

Today, though, we are following no monkeys because guess whatttttt!!!- we are going into town! Which means that I might be able to get wifi to text my sisters and dad and others with iPhones! I hope my mom is hanging out with my sisters so that I can talk to her too. But mainly... I need another banana Popsicle like the one I got when I first got here.

The other day another school group came here on a field trip. Noemi (that's how you spell her name, sorry!!!) is raising awareness around here for science and the wildlife, so that's why these kids keep  coming. But anyways, Marcio brought a 17 year old girl over to me to juggle the soccer ball with me. It was awesome to see Brazilian style... From a girl! She was great! We traded tricks. She was very clean with her tricks. I would trade some of my fancier tricks for her swag. Marcio said he would invite her over to play with us sometime! Girl power!!

Speaking of Noemi... She is leaving today! And Michelli and Doree!! In fact, that is why we are going to Gilbues. But... Yep, they are all leaving. Micheal left on Sunday, did I tell y'all? Oops. Sooooo it is just gonna be me, Allison, Yonat, Natalie, Alejandra, and Hanna. Until those last two leave later this month. 

Speaking of Noemi again.... I guess I can go ahead and mention the master plan I have been hinting at for the past week or so....
     Noemi, Allison, and I have plans to return here next summer to work on another project. However... We wouldn't be studying monkeys!! We would be studying people! And weather and ecosystems and climate change and conserrrrrvatttionnnn! But, let's not get our hopes up about this... Because it has to be approved by her advisor in São Paulo. So we reeeeally don't know 100% that this is the plan. But they have written up the proposal in Portuguese to send out. And I can't read it. But I guess that is OK since I'm FOR REAL about to have to learn Portuguese. 

By the way, I forget Japanese almost entirely. I have to fix that when I get home. Kalia. Help.

Yesterday Natalie and I made a Jeopardy game for everyone to participate in. It was fun... But we were really nervous that people wouldn't like it or there would be bad language barriers or something IDK!
Turned out just fine. They liked it.

I just finished the book I got last year in India... That I meant to have read immediately when I returned, but that I wasn't in a susceptible enough mindset to absorb. I absorbed it. Thanks, Your Holiness the Dalai Lamaaaaa! (He wrote it.)

Laundry is a beast. And not because we wash our clothes in buckets... But because all of the wasps in the country are really thirsty and this is the dry season. We use water and laundry detergent, but courage is not included. Ahhhhhhh!! 

I got my first tick yesterday. Well- the first tick I have ever known about. There may be more. Don't worry, I checked for more. But only after I ran across the yard holding my shirt up and shouting for Allison to come look! It was right on my belly. And it was just a teeny tiny one. It was kinda cute.

Yesterday we woke up and had breakfast and came back to our little house to gather our field belongings for the day's adventure when... All of a sudden... I discovered under a pile of papers... Right there on our computer work table... A large scorpion. It was legit chillin. Just chillin there as if it were on the table where he was born. No way. Get out of here. They said it was very poisonous. Then we all got a short lesson on scorpion identification; if the tail thing is much larger in proportion to the pinchers- it is poisonous. Cool. How about I just not touch a single one of them. 

What else... What else...

Allison and I have been getting serious about my project recently. But... It is quite a hard thing to study. I'm trying to measure how spread out the group of monkeys is as they travel... Lol but they are wild and fast- so it is hard to count and place them on the iPad map! But we are getting it all worked out. And I'm happy with this project because they don't have this sort of data on this monkey group! 

Oh, after this trip to town... I'm not sure how many more times I will be able to upload blogs. And that is because it is expensive to go to town and because no one will be here to GO to town. But, we will see how that goes.

Only a month has gone by... But I feel so different. I feel stress free. I don't feel disconnected though. I feel honest and happy. Luckily I have a month and a half more to go!! Basically, this trip is so much more than field experience. 

Am I being dramatic? Who cares. That's what you get for reading my diary.

Oops, I mean blog! My blog! :-P

If you know me well then you may be aware that I haven't always enjoyed the beauty of nature as much as your average hipster. But guess what. I even bought a beautiful hammock. Maybe I only love Brazilian nature though. Regardless- tell the American squirrels I said hello. 

Brazil plays Japan in a few days... And I am rooting for my hometown of Japan. Sorryyyyy!! 

Oh snap- big news for all of you out there!! I have discovered Nutella! In other news... I will be returning to Georgia with several new cavities... :-/ lol
Which, btw, hints to you that I'm eating well down here. I know that at least one of you is worried about that. (Hi, Mom!)

Today is Valentines Day here in this country. So, big shoutout to myself for being cute and single and not able mingle! 

Love y'all. 



Sunday, June 9, 2013

Hammock

June 6th, 2013

ProTip: check your pack for toads before you leave camp for the day. Helloooooo! I just got word that a member of the team here is going to town tomorrow! That means my blog will be sent out! Yay!! Everything is fine around here. Except I may or may not have been bitten by a spider. Some creepy things are happening. I climb a mountain every day. ProTip: If a monkey is hanging out above you- you should move. ProTip: If you think a monkey may be above you, look up and check... With your mouth closed. I'm not ready to leave. Have I already mentioned that?? Shout out to my friend Leanna. Today she had a big strong competition... I want to know what happened! Shout out to the chimps in Africa that I want to meet. I am still loving my life. I feel positive. I like being around. I am in the woods for 9 hours every day. For the rest of the time- I'm in this hammock.

Also, I am now completely obsessed with ants.

Those other monkeys


June 4th, 2013

Hello! Today I woke up and realized it was raining. What in the world. Rain!??! But it stopped. So we woke up, all had breakfast at 6, and left the house by 6:30 to go find a different group of monkeys. As in, the group of monkeys that ran Jatoba's off the other day! As in, Zangado. Zangado is thought to be Mansinho and Jatoba's father. It took an hour and a half to find this guy. Um, he is huge. He looks like an ape. He is so big, I couldn't believe it. And all he did all day was threaten us! He would hop onto a branch above us, show his large fangs, and shake the branches all around. It was quite terrifying at first. Not only was he a new strange (large) monkey... But he had a gang of 13 other monkeys around him. Strange monkeys... Who were they!? I don't know them! One was named Emma, though... Lol and I like that name (shoutout to Baby Spice). But for real, their faced looked to be a lighter color. It was interesting to see these monkeys. It was very obvious that these monkeys weren't as accustomed to humans as our other monkeys. Which is probably why they stayed up on that dang cliff all day... I only got 16 good data points. Oh, today was the day that Allison almost got it. One of the monkeys, apparently named Marcio, was threatening us. He was jumping up on a branch high above us and was looking down and acting like he wanted to pounce on us. We knew he wouldn't, of course. But then he started chewing at the base of a branch he was near... And he cut it free... And dropped it down! But luckily, it got caught on another branch before it fell down on us. Allison was directly under this Marcio monkey... And she decided she ought to move. And right after she decided to move, that dang monkey hopped down to where his branch landed, grabbed it, and dropped it all the way down to the ground five feet from where Allison was now standing. I almost died. Allison played it cool. Today Allison and I talked about my future. Made my tummy feel nervous. Other than that- we just gossiped probably more than all of your church friends. :-P Three weeks have passed. I have 6 more to go. I'm not ready for this to be over. I guess I should start making plans to come back.... ;-)

Another grand weekend

June 2nd, 2013

The weekend just happened. It is Sunday night, so tomorrow we gotta get back to work! But we will only be working on my little project. Also, only until noon. This weekend was great for me. I'm getting closer to all of these people. I'm becoming more confident. I feel like I belong with this crowd. ...which is new for me. Allison and I are great friends. We know each other. Natalie and I are getting closer too. And as of today... I'm pretty sure Noami and I are gonna be making more plans really soon. Friday was a special day for my confidence. We all spent the ENTIRE day lounging in hammocks and talking. We were playing pop quizzes. As in, one of us would ask a small pop quiz question like, "which planet has the longest year"... And everyone would try to answer it. But then the questions started to become more personal. The reason this day was so special for me is because it was agreed that I was the one who would be asking the questions. It is hard to describe... But it really seemed like everyone valued what I had to say. Constantly! This day was important to me. Elaborating more on this would only sound boastful... So I won't go on. But just know that this feeling continued throughout the whole weekend... And it really meant something to me. I feel comfortable here. Today we watched Brazil vs. England in Maria's house. All of us! End ended up being a tie, (2-2). I've missed soccer being in my life. Soccer has always been so important to me. Why did I let it go!? Friday night we all watched 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes'. Some of us drank beers. We had fun! We watched it on Michael's laptop outside. Speaking of being outside, I haven't been inside of an enclosed building one time this trip other than our hotel in Brasilia. Air conditioning is not a thing. But mainly, we just stay outside. The room I sleep in is open to the outside. We shut the screen door at night, of course. Mom, Dad, sisters, Jode, Hayes- I'm thinking of y'all. Danielle and Kalynn- y'all too. I practiced Portuguese today after sleeping in until 7:30. Well, actually I did some computer work first. Then practiced speaking. I spoke with Noami over my morning coffee. She speaks English, Italian, Portuguese, French, and a Pygmy language from where she stayed in Africa. We talked about how and why... So I basically was a little inspired. Allison is a great teacher. Basically what is happening here is that I'm being inspired constantly throughout each day. By people who live and have lived all over the world. I want to go to Africa. I want to study apes. I want to study humans. I want to speak to people. I wanna be involved in conservation efforts. I think I want to LIVE all over, not just visit. So many doors are opening right now. I feel so positive. I can't tell if I feel so positive because doors are opening... Or if doors are opening because I'm being positive. Regardless, this trip is the best thing that has ever happened to me.

sup

May 30th, 2013

I'm writing this on this rock out in the wilderness because we just lost the dang monkeys. They went up over that plateau.... We just went over one!! AND BOOM!- they're gone. I'm bleeding the tiniest amount out of my left forearm. We are just kinda sitting here, lol. We realllly thought we weren't gonna be able to get down off of that plateau we just climbed. Lol Allison got cell service up there! We are following a monkey named Chuchu today. She is named after a vegetable that we had in our lunch packs today... But it was made into a kind of salsa that we didn't really like so much. Scratched up a lot. Some of you would think I look quite attractive. However, if you got close enough to sniff me, you would probably edit that opinion. Following this monkey has been hard and boring... The monkeys have been choosing weird paths lately. Oh well, though. Lots of character development back at the house. Makes me giggle! I don't like not knowing the plans when we lose the monkeys. Doree just heard a huge boulder fall off one of the cliffs and called us on the walkie-talkie to check on us. She cares!! Miss y'all. I'm sweaty. Dirt on my faceeee.

Massive Fail

May 29, 2013

Today was an awful data collection day. We woke up and did everything right... But apparently there was some drama with the monkeys before we met up with our Tour guide boys! The boys said that Jatoba's group ran into the other group of monkeys on top of the huge cliff we have our phonebooth on. The two groups got very upset with one another!!! But eventually they split up.... And that was when we spotted our group waaaaaayyyyyyyy up on the very top edge of the cliff! They were bee-lining, ZIPPING across the edge. I have no idea how they got off that tall cliff, but somehow or another they ended up in the trees and were heading straight towards us. We had been hanging out on the dirt road about 150 yards from the cliff, just waiting. Within no time, our monkeys were appearing at the side of the road. ONE BY ONE, the monkeys TOOK OFF across the road. So fast. All together, but one by one. Not spread out and casually like usual. Each mother had her baby on her back. Two different males ran within ten inches from my feet. Drama. It was time for them to GO. So we obviously followed them. BEE LINE TO THE BLIND. They went from point A to point B... How?! How did they? The first monkey to cross the road was one of the four year old twins. SHE didn't make the decision to go to the blind. So who did!? And how? Because monkeys CAN'T TALK! It was definitely a sight to see. Especially for us... Since they were demonstrating EXACTLY what we are here studying. Once they got to the blind, they all laid down, lol. So exhausted, it seemed. And for the rest of the time that they were chilling there, it seemed like all of the monkeys were on edge. And what was cool was that I was worried I was personifying too much... But then Doree came over and said the same thing, but she hadn't even witnessed the drama. She just thought they were all high strung. So, I thought that was neat. Then, the monkeys left the blind and went to another little valley.... And stayed there ALL DAY LONG. We left within an hour because the boys said that they may stay there... And they ended up being right, as we found out later. We got like, 10 GPS points on the monkeys today. And stopped. Super lame. When I got back from the monkeys I played some soccer with myself. Felt good. And then I did some GPS computer work. I wanna be good at those programs like Allison is. We'll see. Fieldwork ProTip: Check the under the toilet seat before you sit down. Always. I played soccer with all the boys and Natalie after some work. I spoke more Portuguese with them. :-) Makes me happyyyyy to do that. Everything is still good. It is 8:38 though... Lol and I am in bed. This place is tiring!! Allison said we were gonna take Friday off to do some other work. Yayayayy!!

Oopsies, sorry

May 27, 2013

You know how bugs love to swarm around street lights? Headlamps are basically street lights that you wear right above your face. I haven't written in a long while. Like three days. Lotsss has happened since then, it will be hard to catch up. I will hit the highlights! Saturday was the picnic that I mentioned in the last post. We all woke up at 6 to leave by 7:30 for said picnic. We rode, all 16 of us, in that beat up truck we used to get to Boa Vista from Gilbues in (end sentence in preposition). All dirt rode for one hour. It was a tough journey. But we finally made it. We had our picnic on the shore of a brilliant river. There were rapids! It was so beautiful!! Everyone swam. I played ball with Michael the archeologist a lot. Then with the Brazilians!! It was incredibly fun playing soccer with them. We swam and ate and drank beers. Lucas played some wonderful guitar; he is so skilled. I got sunburnt, but it wasn't miserable. We were all very exhausted by the end of the day. Then somehow it turned into Sunday. Sunday was the day that two more characters arrived. These two are from UGA! And I already knew them from the monkey lab stuff. Here they are: Yonat: She is from Isreal. She is a graduate student. She is studying mother-infant relations with other members of the group. I think, lol. She is cool because you can just tell that she does not care for one second what anyone thinks of her. And she knows the monkeys and their personalities very well, so I am looking forward to learning from her. Natalie: This girl is... Awesome. She is 20 years old. We have been friends for a few months now, ever since we learned we would be here together. I really like her! She is studying the macaws! And she is gonna assist Yonat in the field. These two new characters are important ones. Today began normally. Allison and I got all geared-up and ready to chill in the woods. We followed Teimoso. Teimoso is the only adult male in the group with all of his body parts intact. But he is inferior... So he gets picked on a whole lot. Quick note: You can tell he is Teimoso from far away because we allllways walks with his tail curled up, and the other males don't ever do that. It is basically adorable. Anyways, he seems to be scared all the time... So I kinda think he was uncomfortable with us following him. And I think that because he was really giving us a run for our money. Lol we kept losing him... And eventually we lost him for good. He climbed up over one of the big cliffs!! To be fair, all of the monkeys were heading up that way. So, because we lost him to the cliff, we made a plan to walk around the cliff and to catch him on the other side. So.... We are smashing through the forest like we aren't worried about anything in the world. I'm following Allison, as usual. And we are laughing and playing and crashing through the thick brush when, all of a sudden, Allison whips her whole body around and shouts at me to go back! She was so panicked! I was like, "what!??! What is it!?" And she just kept telling me to turn around and walk!! Omg, I thought we were walking away from wasps, which is ridiculous because we would have needed to be RUNNING from the wasps... So I needed her to tell me that wasps were in the situation. Lol but she wouldn't (couldn't) answer! Once we got to a safe distance, we stopped and turned around to look. Guess what it was. A 7 foot long boa constrictor. What? Oh, you thought those only grew in zoos? Yeah, me too. Allison almost smashed right through that snake. She didn't even see it! She came incredibly close to ending up like that picture I saw on google once where that snake had eaten that... Well, nevermind. But yeah, where am I? Was it a mirage?! No, because I got a picture. Actually, several- Because when we left the dinosaur snake, we finally ran into our field guide again (we had lost him a ling while ago) and he took us back to it. I took more pictures. And then- I touched it. Petted it. On its tail. He moved it after a few seconds prolly cuz I tickled him. His head was as big as my hand when I hold it out flat with my fingers touching. Same shape too. I know what you're thinking; 'Oh, Leigh Anna is prolly exaggerating the length of that snake, she exaggerates everything.' But I didn't come up with that estimate! Our guide buddy did. He said 2 meters! (That equals 6.6 feet. So, you're right.) That happened, so we left the woods for the day, lol. I also wanna just document really quickly that I was casually and unofficially approached today by someone here about how he/she is looking for someone to help him/her next year on a project in this area... Someone who has GPS experience. I don't wanna say anything more about that AT ALL because I feel superstitious and basically that it is too good to be true. Is this real life right now? Literally, I don't know. I am coming out of my shell here. In fact... I'm becoming confident. Lemme just throw out there- for all of you who may perceive this blog as boastful- that before I left for this trip I was in a very bad place mentally. And I had been in that place for a while. But guess what. :-) I am 100% confident that I am done with that mess. Thanks to Boa Vista and Boa constrictors. and my aunt and uncle. and Shoutout to my new BFF Allison. This trip is important to me- I just wanna write down what happens and how I feel so that I can remember it. Hope y'all are well. Danielle, I love you. Kalia, I love you. Olivia and Layla and Savannah, miss y'all. And momma, love you. Lina, i love you. Kalynn and Cammie- Love yall. John and Lucy- suppppp, roomies. Daddy, Thanks for the hat. Leticia- eu aprendendo Portuguese!! Dinner table laughed at me when I said that I "might could" do something. Lol the Oxford people prolly think I'm a moron. Too bad!

We saw a poisonous snake today

May 24, 2013

Today was long and sweaty. It is really sweaty in Brazil. This is like a summer-long soccer camp. Except instead of being soccer players we are being creepy monkey stalkers. My feet hurt. So listen up- we have three new characters. I will list their names and my first impressions of them that actually don't even matter because first impressions are useless. Michael: This is a different Michael from the Italian who has been here. This one is an archeologist from Australia. He has one of those cute accents. He is prolly like 50 years old. I like him. He is smart and nice, I think. And the main thing about this man is that he has the most amazing field hat on the planet. I have been thinking about it all day. It is Australian and leather. He looks like Indiana Jones. Alejandra: ok, this girl is just awesome. She is from Argentina! And archeologist too. And she is a mic between Mia Hamm and Nelly Furtado and Sporty Spice. She is prolly 40-something. She is very polite and funny and she loves her culture and she dressed like an archeologist and I just think she is really cool, ok? Hanna: She is a graduate student from the UK. Basically she is very quiet... I don't know anything about her at all. Except that she likes House. Really though, she is a mystery. I have been told several times that I look mean when my face is relaxed, like when I'm riding a bus or just sitting there. I think her face is like this too. But this means absolutely nothing. These new characters all work together and they will be here for two weeks. They are investigating something about the rocks and anvils the monkeys use as tools. Today we followed Teninha. She was boring and I didn't like her very much. She made me get sunburnt. But it was definitely cute when she was nursing her baby Tiao. Tomorrow is Saturday and we have a long day planned at some lake. WE ARE GONNA HAVE A PICNIC! I also learned today that chewing gum CAN be digested by our digestive system and it does NOT take 8 years to digest. Wow, world. Nice joke. I know the truth now. Shoutout to the metric system of measurement. Nice to meet you. But for real- listed on my next resume as some technologies I have experience in will be, "...GPS, GIS, the metric system..."

Humidity and Children

May 22, 2013

Today was super got. But we all decided it was because of the humidity. Luckily we didn't have to work super hard today because Lucus and Noami had the children from the school in Gilbues come to the Blind for a school field trip!! These children were so adorable!! And they absolutely loved the monkeys. I wanted to talk to all the cute kids so badly... But I was scared they would respond in Portuguese that I wouldn't understand. Which is most Portuguese... :-/. Hours before the kids got to the blind we were out there with the monkeys. We kept them there by throwing nuts and corn over and over. Mainly Allison and I used today as monkey identification practice. Here are four new monkeys that I kinda have memorized, 24 hours ago all of these ladies looked EXACTLY the same. -Piaçava: She is the alpha female. She has high hair and a lot of white around her face. Especially above her eyes. -Chuchu: she has two wild tuffs of hair. But basically looks identical to Dita. -Dita: is not as light as Piaçava. And doesn't have wild hair like Chuchu. That's all I got. -Teninia: She looks like those other three except has a square face and looks like a pug. I don't like pugs. Don't tell anyone, but I have kinda given up on learning the juveniles. They won't ever be the focal animal of the day like Mansinho, so we don't reeeeeally need to know them. But we will see what happens. They all look like clones though, like wtf, it seems impossible. Today was another good day. I had a serious compassion practice session with an unnamed individual... But other than that, I was 100% in a good mood all day long. That is becoming my normal. This is a very special summer for me. I can't tell if it's where I am or where I'm not... But I feel really good about myself as of late.

Needle Grass is my LIFE

May 21,2013

Today we found those monkeys but mainly the needle grass found us. Needle grass is aptly named for its clever seed dispensary system.... Which destroys all human flesh it encounters. Ok, it isn't THAT dramatic, but listen: The plant's plan is to have its needle-like seed baring leaves stick into passing traffic. Then, whenever the carrier is completely paralyzed by the sharp pains in her hiking boots, she will pluck out the seeds and toss them to the ground where they will sprout up a brand new plant. Hallelujah. Today was hot. Lol. Not funny. We were sweating. But mainly we were following my main buddy Mansinho. I've decided I like him a whole lot. He loves us. Jk, he doesn't give a toot about us. But for real, he was eating a fruit today up in a tree and when he was finished, he tossed the skin down and I caught it. It smelled like hookah. Also, today was the day that Mannie and Another male napped face to face and I almost died from the cuteness. I got an awful picture of it, sadly. We also encountered the wetlands today. Um, that was freaking awful. But we DID have fun climbing over several barbed wire fences. That wasn't sarcastic. We had fun, even though we both acted like it was such a chore. We like being Sporty Spice ;-). Hmm, what else happenedddd...? Oh, one of the monkeys caught a bird today and dang ate it. I was like, 'no way'. It was barbaric! Y'all meat eaters are so wild. Fieldwork Pro-Tip #1: *If you wanna chew gum in the field, chew with your mouth closed. I'm in major love with the reptiles here. Last night, as I was checking my bed for poisonous/deadly spiders, I found the cutest little lizard attached to the wall beside my head. His eyes were so big and sweet looking!! Not "sweet" in a food way, omg. "Sweet" in a 'ahhhh please cuddle me' way. I haz blister. Oh my gosh I just remembered the needle grass. That junk is awful. And you know ya gotta tie your boots up all tight, so when your foot is penetrated by a needle it is a TOTAL hassle, besides the pain. It is 9:00 pm on the dot and I am so sleeeepy. I wanna know if I am losing weight. I'm scared that my will power will lose out by the end of the summer and I will jump onto a foraging monkey to snuggle it like I constantly desire. Quick note: cat+prairie dog+human= Capuchin I need to start taking notes in the field because I always forget what happens by the time I get ready to write these. There was a tiny, lone cactus on our trail up ahead... Me: "omgosh, look!! It is so cute!!.... But also dangerous." Allison: "just like us."

This place is becoming "home"

May 20, 2013

Yesterday was another great day here in Boa Vista! I practiced Portuguese with Allison and just lounged around. It feels so good to only be worrying about the here & now. So, SO good. This morning, however, Allison and I went on a light walk. And by "light walk" I mean this: We woke up at night time. As in, it was still dark. Basically, I think I was the rooster's alarm clock this morning. We ate breakfast (cake, lol woot!) and drank our delicious magic coffee, and put on all our gear. Life is all about gear, you guys. So, this was the situation: We hadn't been tracking the monkeys all weekend, so we had no idea where they would be waking up. Not only that- but today we were tracking the OTHER group of monkeys. So, we picked up three guides (Sons and friends of Maria's) and hit the old dusty trail. Never ending* trail. So we started the day off with a brisk 2km speed walk trip up a trail winding around this vast forest we are living in. But for real, I had trouble with this walk :-(, Y'all know I'm not so good at activity+breathing. But we ended up on top of a beautiful cliff. But guess what- no monkeys. We had split up into three groups.. And none of us found a single trace of those fury baby human cats. So we jumped off the cliff and walked around the world some more. Those men were looking all in the ground for little paw prints. They found none. I DEFINITELY found none, lol. But they DID find some freshly eaten fruits and palm stalks. So that means we would KEEP WALKING. I was very sweaty and tired. It's been four hours. No monkeys. Eventually, the boys deduced that the monkeys were on land that we were allowed on... So we would need to stop trying. We walked another 2km bad home. Oh well. Plus I got sun burnt. Blahhhh. I played soccer again today. Lol my foot got a lil bloody, so I quit. I hope they like me. I feel better that I can understand a little more Portuguese. Marcio and I teamed up for the car game tonight. And we did well. That was fun. Well, I really need to sleep... Gotta be up in 7 hours. *sigh*


First day off

May 18th, 2013

Ohhhh, today was a good day!!! It was a day of learning Portuguese! I woke up late, prolly around 8:30 or 9:00, cuz it was getting warm. Everyone else was already awake.; I felt like the teenager of the group. I went to have coffee. The coffee is spectacular, by the way. The temperature was perfect; I wore a cut off tshirt, no shoes, and boxers all day. So comfy. After my coffee I grabbed a notebook, my iPhone, and a Portuguese dictionary and sat down at the work table with Allison. She literally helped me for HOURS. She didn't mind! She said I was learning fast. But I think I was tricking her because I had all the words I was using to construct sentences written down! I wrote out 6 pages today. Two with vocab, two with verbs, one with made-up sentences, and one more. I really had a relaxing day. My muscles are recovering. And I drank a lot of water. I'm gonna be stronger than Leanna after this summer. We also went out to the phonebooth today. I took a short Photoshoot for Chacos. At supper we had some sort of liquor drink... I forget the name. It was made of lemon juice, sugar, and liquor. I only had one glass cuz I'm sleepy. I also wanna give a big shoutout to my main bish Allison for giving me these two purple earplugs. That eliminates 75% of my anxiety about sleeping. No bugs in my ears for SURE tonight. Tchau, y'all.

Day 2, woooo

May 17, 2013 Today we followed Jatoba... As best as we could. I'll go ahead and tell ya- I didn't have coffee this morning, so I wasn't as cheerful as the day before. Or energized. But I was never hungry. And my feet didn't hurt near as bad. Jatoba is alpha, as I've said. He is nice to children usually, and took a reeeeally long break atop a tall tree today, so I guess he is nice to stalkers too. Thanks, bud. He is the boss, so he always has to know what everyone is doing constantly. Which isn't a trait that I admire in a person. But I guess that's his job. Whatevs. Two monkeys fell out of trees today. At the same time, one after the other. There was some sort of disagreement. Those little guys just hopped right up back into the tree. So, I was only freaking out for about 5 seconds. Doree (the monkey who is named after Dr. Fragaszy) fell out of a tree yesterday right in front of my dang face. I don't likeeeee. Today Coco came by to chat with me. He is the only monkey who actively pursues social interaction with humans. He mayyyy be my favorite. But I don't even know. We ended up only following the until 2:30 or so because they went up and over a huge cliff that we couldn't possible scale. It was kind of an irritating data collection day because he also lost Jatoba and half the group at some point after the long rest. The foliage was way thick and the ground was so rocky... It was much worst than yesterday. But, after we lost the monkeys we went straight to the phonebooth since we were already over in that direction. We were sweating so hard way up there. Allison Schmitt coulda swam... Ok nevermind. Anyways, I was freaking hot. And exhausted. I didn't get to practice so much Portuguese today, unfortunately. Just cuz it was hard to walk in the forest and cuz Allison was trying a more difficult system of data collection; I didn't wanna bother her. Tomorrow, guess what! It's the weekend!! So that means no monkey tracking, plus I think I will get to sleep in! I will learn more Portuguese and I will practice juggling. Hopefully play with the boys too. Oh, I almost forgot. Last night I dreamt that a monster was trying to get me. Like, and actual monster. A fictional creature that my mind created while I was asleep was trying to attack me. When was the last time my mind did that!??! Forever ago, I'll tell ya!! I woke up in the night and was like, "wait... Holy crap, what if there were monsters in this forest that we just haven't discovered..." Lol luckily I fell asleep quickly... And woke up as an adult again. So that was good. Tchau! - LA