Nov 7 - Help, the jungle's trying to keep me

Owl Monkeys

Went for a hike this morning. We have a permanent guide assigned to each group, and mine is Orlando. He grew up in village near the lodge and has been working here forever. Orlando and I get along great - he teases me just like my brother, Chris, and he's very goal-oriented. I mentioned I want to see monkeys since I didn't last time I was here, so we went looking for monkeys. And I saw more monkeys than anyone else (5 species), as well as a cute tree rat.

At one point, we heard monkeys, and sat on a moss covered log to wait for them to move toward us.  I noticed a tree by me with lots of ants and brushed a few off of me.  I didn´t think anything about it until one bit me in the butt...they were red fire ants.



Walking in the jungle



The mosquitos are huge - bigger than I´ve ever seen.  Several were at least the size of a quarter, including the legs.  Luckily they all "bugged" Orlando instead of me.  But he got me back - he threw one on me and I didn´t realize he'd already killed it.  Needless to say, he got the reaction he wanted.

At one point in the path my foot sank into the mud up to the tops of the rubber boots they provide.  In trying to get out, I pushed my other foot deep into the mud, too.  I know not to touch trees without looking first, so I find a limb nearby that was safe, grabbed it, and yanked on my one foot.  My foot got free, but not my boot.  So I´m standing on one foot know, stuck in the mud holding a branch, calling for Orlando.  He came over and helped my get free.  A little later we got off the path to get a better look at some monkeys and I step in a hole 12-18 inch hole that was covered by leaves.  After that Orlando made a point of pointing out every hole, no matter how small.



Sloth

Orlando, aka "Little Red Riding Hood"

In the afternoon, we went boating to see a sloth that had been found in a nearby tree.  It started raining, but, with my Cleveland blood, it didn´t bother me.  So I gave my red raincoat to Orlando who was freezing.  By the time we got back to the lodge, the rain had stopped, so we kept going.  We found 3 more sloths - one was even pregnant.  Sloths don't typically move very much, so they are hard to find.  Finding three, was a great treat.  Even better, we saw them moving to keep safe because of the wind.