Early morning of science

June 30, 2013

This morning was amazing. Here is what happened.

Natalie and I woke up at 5:07. It was very dark. No one else was awake yet. We gathered some items and left for the cliff closest to our house. With our headlamps. Because it was dark. To be honest, I was scared. Lol plus my headlamp was rather dim because it needed new batteries. But mainly, I saw and heard something rustling in the grass and I was scared. Anyways- we climbed up there to the top. Still dark, we set up our little station. I laid out the yoga may for us to sit on and Natalie got all of her bird recording equipment together. That's why we were up there! To record the macaws! So then, we sat and waited as the sun began rising.

To my great, great happiness, Natalie unpacked two yummy Cliff bars! Breakfast wasn't ready when we left the house, so I was very thankful for this treat. But... As I was eating my Cliff bar, I dropped it onto the cliff. Some small pieces of cliff stuck to the Cliff bar. I tried dusting off the sand... But it was stuck. So I just ate it. I ate the Cliff bar with cliff on it.

ANWAYS- we were up there and it was beautiful. As we walked and climbed, there were no sounds. No animals were awake! Silence. But slowly..... The animals of the area began waking up. We started hearing birds. Then the rooster was calling. Then the donkey. Then cows from a distance. And then the beautiful macaws!!! Natalie recorded their calls! It was so awesome watching the world wake up from way up there.

Once the sun was all the way out from behind the cliffs on the horizon... We started hearing monkeys vocalizing. THEY WERE SO CLOSE! Lol and it is Sunday, so no one was with them or knew where they were. But they were just chilling on the cliff we were on! I called for them the way the locals do. I don't know if that had anything to do with what happened next, lol but it is fun to think so- a monkey popped up waaaayyyy on top of the tallest part of our cliff. Because he was about 100 yards away, we couldn't tell who it was. But when I saw that monkey up there, my heart felt so incredibly happy. He was coming to say good morning!!!!! Then another monkey came!! I wanted to come down much closer to us so badly.
Eventually, the two macaws we were specifically waiting for showed up. Their names are Jack and Jill. They started squawking and flying next to the monkeys on that cliff. I was DYINGGGG. So happy.

Soon enough, the two monkeys descended from that top area and came to say hello. It was Teninha and Teimoso. Lol they were just hanging out alone and came to check us out. We kept hearing the others vocalizing from way far away on the other side of the cliff. Those others never came to see us, but that's alright. I had a photoshoot with those two monkeys. However, we soon got a call in the walkie talkie that we needed to come help our advisors at the blind. So we left the cliff. It was a great morning.

Did I tell y'all? We are using an iPhone ringtone to call the monkeys to the blind. The monkeys know that the sound means we have bananas for them. And today... They proved they knew! By the time Natalie and I got to the blind... All the monkeys had left. So we called them with the megaphone iPhone ringtone and GUESS WHAT!!!- they ran back! From far far away!! And I threw bananas at them! And they were so happy!! And so was I.

Good day.