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!!