Well not quite the Japanese loose socks style, but omg this lady has taken dressing dogs up to a new level. And I have not seen this until arriving in Brazil. Parnell mums take note!!!
Also of interest, Brazil is second only to America when it comes to pet ownership. I just hope not all of them are C R A Z Y like this lady!
Showing posts with label Animal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Animal. Show all posts
Friday, 4 January 2008
Tuesday, 18 December 2007
Trekking up Roraima Tepui
I just spent 6 days trekking in National Park Canaima. My trek took me up to the top of Mount Roraima. A big fat and flat table top mountain otherwise known as Tepuis. Mount Roraima is the highest of the Tepuis in Venezuela, at 2810 metres.
This is my favorite trek in South America so far. The first 2 days took us through grassy plains, towards Roraima's base camp.
On the left you have Mount Kukenan, and on the right is Mount Roraima.
Mount Kukenan, as taken at sunrise on the right, is known as the evil twin. It has been told that back in the days, the native people here, known as Pemon, would rather climb up Kukenan and throw themselves off rather then falling to enemy hands. Nowadays there are no tours that heads up there as no native people would ever lead tourist up. I suspect the real reason is that it is much harder to climb then Mount Roraima!
And on day 3 we climb up the mountain. It was a slippery afair, but less scary then I thought. We cross the famous Tears Crossing, basically a series of waterfall which falls over us. And then, we reach the top after 4 hours of effort.
Up on top of Roraima it is all about rocks. Re-incarnated in various formations. All in very interesting shapes and sizes. There are also amazing crystal to be found at many areas on Roraima. These rocks you see are vary old, older then the Himalayas, the Alps and the Andes combined! The top is also pretty wet, therefore there are more plant life then I thought. Plus some insect and small animals.
The Roraima frogs are the most interesting. They are very tiny, about the size of my finger nail. They have a black body and a yellow belly underneath. These frogs do not hop like their cousins, instead they walk on all fours! Very trippy!
We did not have the best weather during the trek over the 6 days trek. At times our tents were flooded and we saw plenty of rain and fog.
So at times there was no view on top of the mountain at all! But I didn't mind, as running around and examining the rocks themselves was interesting enough.
We finally made our decent on day 5, and spent the next 2 days walking back out to civilization!
I had a pretty cool group too. From the left they are: Penny (Aus), Richard (Aus), Sarah (Eng), Barna (Hun), Fran (Eng), Camilla (Swe), Ryo (Jap) and yours truely!
We made our tour with Mystic tour, run by Roberto. And paid 770 Bolivars for the fantastic trek.
This is my favorite trek in South America so far. The first 2 days took us through grassy plains, towards Roraima's base camp.
On the left you have Mount Kukenan, and on the right is Mount Roraima.
Mount Kukenan, as taken at sunrise on the right, is known as the evil twin. It has been told that back in the days, the native people here, known as Pemon, would rather climb up Kukenan and throw themselves off rather then falling to enemy hands. Nowadays there are no tours that heads up there as no native people would ever lead tourist up. I suspect the real reason is that it is much harder to climb then Mount Roraima!
And on day 3 we climb up the mountain. It was a slippery afair, but less scary then I thought. We cross the famous Tears Crossing, basically a series of waterfall which falls over us. And then, we reach the top after 4 hours of effort.
Up on top of Roraima it is all about rocks. Re-incarnated in various formations. All in very interesting shapes and sizes. There are also amazing crystal to be found at many areas on Roraima. These rocks you see are vary old, older then the Himalayas, the Alps and the Andes combined! The top is also pretty wet, therefore there are more plant life then I thought. Plus some insect and small animals.
The Roraima frogs are the most interesting. They are very tiny, about the size of my finger nail. They have a black body and a yellow belly underneath. These frogs do not hop like their cousins, instead they walk on all fours! Very trippy!
We did not have the best weather during the trek over the 6 days trek. At times our tents were flooded and we saw plenty of rain and fog.
So at times there was no view on top of the mountain at all! But I didn't mind, as running around and examining the rocks themselves was interesting enough.
We finally made our decent on day 5, and spent the next 2 days walking back out to civilization!
I had a pretty cool group too. From the left they are: Penny (Aus), Richard (Aus), Sarah (Eng), Barna (Hun), Fran (Eng), Camilla (Swe), Ryo (Jap) and yours truely!
We made our tour with Mystic tour, run by Roberto. And paid 770 Bolivars for the fantastic trek.
Friday, 7 December 2007
Los Llanos Caiman
This is a Los Llanos Caiman all! Don't the baby look cute? :)
There live in plentiful numbers in the Los Llanos region. They look like crocodiles from a distance. But up close you can tell the difference in it's pertrube snout (nose) and it's wider and shorter jaw. Caimans are very shy creatures, and would dive into the nearest waterway when approach by human. They feed on fish primarily, but would not hessitate to take a chunk off your leg if it feels threatened. ;)
Tony and his assistant Michael caught this big Caiman for us to have a close up look. This baby was pretty tranquil, and we were allowed to touch and grab hold of it for our Kodak moment.
If you look closely though you will notice that Tony has wrapped it's mouth shut tight with another piece of rope just in case! A rope has also been lasso around it's neck, and was used by Michael to subdue the animal at the beginning.
Los Llanos and my wildlife safari tour!
I had a brilliant 4 days out in Los Llanos, on a wildlife safari tour.
Los Llanos is located in the South Western part of Venezuela. It is a vast tropical grassland, and many parts of it stay flooded during the rainy season. Therefore it supports a rich collection of wildlife. There are giant rats call Capybaras, big snakes like the Annaconda, river dolphins, pirahnas, and a whole lot of different bird spieces.
Our tour took us through different mode of transport. We did tours on horseback, van, boat and we also went out for a night safari by foot. We also did different activities on the tour like pirahna fishing and tubbing down a river. My favorite activity was pirahna fishing. I mean, they were SO easy to catch! I caught like 5 pirahnas within 45 minutes.
The pirahnas are fierce creatures allright! They spot very sharp teeth, and over on the right you can see the result of their frenzy attack. Kerrin caught this fish 5 minutes ago, chucked it back into the water as bait and within 5 seconds, half it's flesh has been bitten off. Crazy shit!
We gutted our fish and got it ready for dinner. It was deep fried with salf and it was delicious!
And here is Tony Martin, my guide with his catch of the day. A mighty Anaconda. It was amazing to see him work as he was amazingly fast with his hands. You need it to catch this creature by the neck, and to hold it still to stop it from biting.
I was happy to see the giant snake caught, and to hold onto one as I haven't played with them since my snake keeping duty in Bolivia. The Anaconda skin is smooth and beautiful to touch. It has scary eyes from up close though as it is all hazy with no pupils showing.
And here you have another spectacular sunset at Los Llanos.
We did a lot of the overland tour on top of the roof of our van. The view from above over the plain are superb, with lots of birdlife seen.
Our guide Tony was pretty good. He definately knows what he is doing and is very knowledgable about the animals. But he is also impatient and a little ego-tistic. But the last day bought him back down to earth, as he cut himself bad on our little white-water adventure. After falling out of his tube and smacking head first into a rock down the rapids. That requires 10 stiches and you can see the big bandage over his left eye on the top photo!
Tuesday, 16 October 2007
Monday, 15 October 2007
The Galápagos Islands
I spent an incredible 6 days out in the Galapagos last week and I want to rave about it!
I spent most of it on board this sail boat name "Merak". It is a smallish, carrying 4 crews and 8 passengers. Wel actualy it is pretty tiny, as upon arrival at the dock the Merak was the smallest ship of the lot by far! The crew included one naturalist guide name Cesar, the captain Teto, first mate Lenin and the cook Jamie.
We had a good group of people on board which was nice as the boat was too small for any sort of difficulties. However we did not have an auspicious start as the American Pete (on the left of the photo) left his backpack on board the bus and we were all delayed from starting out on the cruise. He apparently saw the basking sea lions at the dock and got so excited with taking photos that he forgot all about his backpack - what a dumb arse! But we soon forgave him and forgot about the incident. :)
Cesar our guide is the best guide I have had so far in this trip. This old man who turns 70 next year, is one exceptional guide. Seriously! Cesar is a joker and can take as much himself as he dishes out. He tells us his favorite position is '69 LOL! This was after we saw this big male bull sea lion gave it to his lover (in the only style they can master - guess). Cesar must have a pretty long love life as he has 5 ex-wives along with 12 kids from past marriages. But he told us when the tax man came they told him he had 6 ex-wives so he is still looking for the last one! hahaha
Cesar is also strong for his age, always being the first on our inflatable, standing up to help with the navigation. As for his guiding style he would just walk off when he wants to, so if you do not want to hear his explanation you don't have to. He has been guiding for 30 years (including 2 as a cook!) so he can tell us anything and everything we wanted to know without a book. I love this old man and will rave about him to other travelers. So it is only a pity that Cesar plans to retire at the end of the year. Salud!
The Galapagos archipelago is actually a group consisting of 13 main Islands. And in our tour we only visited 5 Islands. They are:
Baltra - which everybody visits upon arrival as that is where the airport lives. We visited a beautiful beach near by on our first day, and saw ruins of a pier left by the American GIs station here during WWII.
Santa Cruz - the mainland hub which has the largest human population (20,000 and counting) and home of the famous Charles Darwin Research Station where massive land turtles can be observed.
Santa Fe - A small-ish Island full of cactus trees along with a whole host of lizards including the Land Iguana and Lava Lizard.
Espanola - My favorite Island for it's terrain and animals! It is full of bird species such as the wave Albatross, Hood Mockingbirds, Blue footed Boobies, Swallow-Tailed Gulls and Finches. There are also spectacular blow holes and loads and loads of Marine Iguanas (and we observe them swimming in the ocean!).
Floreana - Another beautiful Island with beautiful beaches where you can observe (and feel!) stingrays swimming at your feet on the beach, see pink flamingos in the lake and leave mail for someone to post at "Post Office Bay". The "Post Office Bay" is name after barrels of mail left by whalers back in the 18th century as a means for ships destined for the USA and Europe to deliver their mail home. Floreana had the best snorkeling around it's offshore Island called the "Devils Crown". It is actually a submerged volcanic cone full of coral and fishes.
On the left this is a Land Iguana, chewing on it's favorite food from the cactus tree. This big lizard was lazing around beforehand but move fast when Cesar cut and drop this cactus at it's feet. I am guessing it hasn't eaten in a while! The photo was taken at Santa Fae Island.
Sea lions abound in every Island we visited.
From the moment we arrived at the dock in Baltra we found these lazy creatures on land. However in water they are a different story. Garret, Dave, Bos and I had the most exhilarating experience underwater at Espanol Island, because the teenagers came underwater to play with us! They would swim right up to us, blow bubble in our face and swim off, one swam so close to me I got to touch it´s rubbery skin! They were so playful that they disturbed a white tip shark whom was basking beneath the rocks!
The Galapagos visit was an incredible experience for me because these animals weren't afraid of human presence. I guess they have no fear for us because they were never hunted by human beings like elsewhere. So we could get very close to these wild creatures. And some of them like the finches and baby sea lions would hop up to investigate or to play with us.
The landscape was also very beautiful, from big cliffs with blow holes, dried out windswept terrain, humid and wet forest, perfect sandy beaches to rising volcanic cones all devoid of human habitation. 97% of the Galapagos is protected and this is the largest marine reserve in the world.
I only hope that with the increasing human presence (both locals and tourist) that the Galapagos can maintain it's uniqueness, and that one day my kids will be able to see this landscape and animals in the same way that I saw it.
I spent most of it on board this sail boat name "Merak". It is a smallish, carrying 4 crews and 8 passengers. Wel actualy it is pretty tiny, as upon arrival at the dock the Merak was the smallest ship of the lot by far! The crew included one naturalist guide name Cesar, the captain Teto, first mate Lenin and the cook Jamie.
We had a good group of people on board which was nice as the boat was too small for any sort of difficulties. However we did not have an auspicious start as the American Pete (on the left of the photo) left his backpack on board the bus and we were all delayed from starting out on the cruise. He apparently saw the basking sea lions at the dock and got so excited with taking photos that he forgot all about his backpack - what a dumb arse! But we soon forgave him and forgot about the incident. :)
Cesar our guide is the best guide I have had so far in this trip. This old man who turns 70 next year, is one exceptional guide. Seriously! Cesar is a joker and can take as much himself as he dishes out. He tells us his favorite position is '69 LOL! This was after we saw this big male bull sea lion gave it to his lover (in the only style they can master - guess). Cesar must have a pretty long love life as he has 5 ex-wives along with 12 kids from past marriages. But he told us when the tax man came they told him he had 6 ex-wives so he is still looking for the last one! hahaha
Cesar is also strong for his age, always being the first on our inflatable, standing up to help with the navigation. As for his guiding style he would just walk off when he wants to, so if you do not want to hear his explanation you don't have to. He has been guiding for 30 years (including 2 as a cook!) so he can tell us anything and everything we wanted to know without a book. I love this old man and will rave about him to other travelers. So it is only a pity that Cesar plans to retire at the end of the year. Salud!
The Galapagos archipelago is actually a group consisting of 13 main Islands. And in our tour we only visited 5 Islands. They are:
Baltra - which everybody visits upon arrival as that is where the airport lives. We visited a beautiful beach near by on our first day, and saw ruins of a pier left by the American GIs station here during WWII.
Santa Cruz - the mainland hub which has the largest human population (20,000 and counting) and home of the famous Charles Darwin Research Station where massive land turtles can be observed.
Santa Fe - A small-ish Island full of cactus trees along with a whole host of lizards including the Land Iguana and Lava Lizard.
Espanola - My favorite Island for it's terrain and animals! It is full of bird species such as the wave Albatross, Hood Mockingbirds, Blue footed Boobies, Swallow-Tailed Gulls and Finches. There are also spectacular blow holes and loads and loads of Marine Iguanas (and we observe them swimming in the ocean!).
Floreana - Another beautiful Island with beautiful beaches where you can observe (and feel!) stingrays swimming at your feet on the beach, see pink flamingos in the lake and leave mail for someone to post at "Post Office Bay". The "Post Office Bay" is name after barrels of mail left by whalers back in the 18th century as a means for ships destined for the USA and Europe to deliver their mail home. Floreana had the best snorkeling around it's offshore Island called the "Devils Crown". It is actually a submerged volcanic cone full of coral and fishes.
On the left this is a Land Iguana, chewing on it's favorite food from the cactus tree. This big lizard was lazing around beforehand but move fast when Cesar cut and drop this cactus at it's feet. I am guessing it hasn't eaten in a while! The photo was taken at Santa Fae Island.
Sea lions abound in every Island we visited.
From the moment we arrived at the dock in Baltra we found these lazy creatures on land. However in water they are a different story. Garret, Dave, Bos and I had the most exhilarating experience underwater at Espanol Island, because the teenagers came underwater to play with us! They would swim right up to us, blow bubble in our face and swim off, one swam so close to me I got to touch it´s rubbery skin! They were so playful that they disturbed a white tip shark whom was basking beneath the rocks!
The Galapagos visit was an incredible experience for me because these animals weren't afraid of human presence. I guess they have no fear for us because they were never hunted by human beings like elsewhere. So we could get very close to these wild creatures. And some of them like the finches and baby sea lions would hop up to investigate or to play with us.
The landscape was also very beautiful, from big cliffs with blow holes, dried out windswept terrain, humid and wet forest, perfect sandy beaches to rising volcanic cones all devoid of human habitation. 97% of the Galapagos is protected and this is the largest marine reserve in the world.
I only hope that with the increasing human presence (both locals and tourist) that the Galapagos can maintain it's uniqueness, and that one day my kids will be able to see this landscape and animals in the same way that I saw it.
Thursday, 4 October 2007
I love California!
This is where I have been for the past 11 days. I spent it with my mate Derek and his girlfriend Cynthia in LA. I went there as it has been a long 4 years since we last partied together, and it was also his 40th birthday so we wanted to celebrate it in style. Don´t he look good for an old man? :)
Derek and Cynthia lives in Brentwood, a suburb in Santa Monica in West LA. LA by the way is one massive city, home to 13 million (encompassing Long Beach and Santa Ana). It is also a massive car-friendly and people-unfriendly city, as getting anywhere requires wheels.
Anyway, Derek and Cynthia´s neighbourhood can be considered as the Parnel/Remurea of Auckland. Big mansions, beautiful apartments, palm tree lined boulevards and lots of nice cars on the streets. Seeing SUV´s, Porsche, Mercs and BMWs driving past are like seeing Fords and Nissans back home.
They also own a cute little Beagle name Holly. She is only 6 months old. She spots these big fluffy ears (which I would very much like to pin back) and a beautiful fur coat. I love watching her run around the apartments as the marble floor makes her slip and slide everywhere.
This photo I took of her will probably be her last time sitting in the back seat! Coz she threw up both on Cynthia and me afterwards. They blame it on her eating prior to coming out and of sitting out back. Poor little Holly!
Wednesday, 19 September 2007
Cuy
Looks good innit? This is a "Cuy" slow roasting under charcoal fire. It´s skin popping and crackling with a layer of hot oil brushed upon.
I tell you what, the "cuy", or guinea pig is one dish I have been looking forward to tasting, as I have seen it all over Peru, and have heard about it from other traveller´s experience.
Though most of my fellow travellers whom have tried it found it disgusting. But I was willing to give it a go to find out for myself what it taste like.
To be fair, most travellers found it disgusting because of the way the cuy was served. Everything is intact, including the head, it´s little feet with bits of hair stuck to it (as you can see on this photo - how cute!!!!), and all it´s intestine.
It was fascinating to watch the cooking process. I could smell the suckling crackling aroma (which reminded me very much of Chinese style roast pork), and choke on the smoke which fires out when the cook applied more oil.
The cuy was served after 30 minutes of slow roasting. The cook cut mine into half as I could only afford to eat half a cuy. Plus, the whole thing looks too big to consume for lunch! It was served on a plate of roast potatoes and half an egg. The sides were salsa sauce and boiled corn.
And what about the taste? Well the skin was beautiful! It tasted almost like roast pork, but less fatty, thinner and crispier. The meat was interesting. I can´t say I have tasted anything quite like it. It is white meat, taste sort of sweet and doesn´t taste fatty at all. A lady in Huaraz once boast to me that cuy has zero cholesterol so maybe that´s the reason. I must say though there were less meat in my cuy then I expected. I wanted to try it´s little feet but there was hair on it. Yuck! I also tried a little bit of the black stuff inside - either the kidney or the heart, I wasn´t sure, but that was very GROSS! Did manage to mouth it down with a bit of Fanta though!
Now that I have tried cuy I don´t know if I want to experience it again. I mean, it wasn´t disgusting, but the meat really is an aquired taste. I also think seeing those cute guinee pig throughout my trip so far has effected my taste bud. And today, having seen it prepared and served with everything intake has made it slightly harder to eat, like I had to turn the head over before starting to eat.
Maybe they should start looking at packaging cuy fillet? ;)
I tell you what, the "cuy", or guinea pig is one dish I have been looking forward to tasting, as I have seen it all over Peru, and have heard about it from other traveller´s experience.
Though most of my fellow travellers whom have tried it found it disgusting. But I was willing to give it a go to find out for myself what it taste like.
To be fair, most travellers found it disgusting because of the way the cuy was served. Everything is intact, including the head, it´s little feet with bits of hair stuck to it (as you can see on this photo - how cute!!!!), and all it´s intestine.
It was fascinating to watch the cooking process. I could smell the suckling crackling aroma (which reminded me very much of Chinese style roast pork), and choke on the smoke which fires out when the cook applied more oil.
The cuy was served after 30 minutes of slow roasting. The cook cut mine into half as I could only afford to eat half a cuy. Plus, the whole thing looks too big to consume for lunch! It was served on a plate of roast potatoes and half an egg. The sides were salsa sauce and boiled corn.
And what about the taste? Well the skin was beautiful! It tasted almost like roast pork, but less fatty, thinner and crispier. The meat was interesting. I can´t say I have tasted anything quite like it. It is white meat, taste sort of sweet and doesn´t taste fatty at all. A lady in Huaraz once boast to me that cuy has zero cholesterol so maybe that´s the reason. I must say though there were less meat in my cuy then I expected. I wanted to try it´s little feet but there was hair on it. Yuck! I also tried a little bit of the black stuff inside - either the kidney or the heart, I wasn´t sure, but that was very GROSS! Did manage to mouth it down with a bit of Fanta though!
Now that I have tried cuy I don´t know if I want to experience it again. I mean, it wasn´t disgusting, but the meat really is an aquired taste. I also think seeing those cute guinee pig throughout my trip so far has effected my taste bud. And today, having seen it prepared and served with everything intake has made it slightly harder to eat, like I had to turn the head over before starting to eat.
Maybe they should start looking at packaging cuy fillet? ;)
Tuesday, 18 September 2007
Butt ugly Peruvian dog
This, everybody is the hairless Peruvian dog. Butt ugly at first sight, butt ugly always.... Especially this one, found in Trujillo, northern Peru. I don´t know why it´s got some hair on it´s head, other then to speculate that it is an old bastard.
I´ve been told that because these dogs are hairless, they absorb heat well. And that Peruvians use them as a hugging toy, believing that it would help with relieving stomach pain and in keeping warm!
But I just wiki this and apparently it is a myth.
Wednesday, 5 September 2007
Who has the world´s deepest canyon?
I´ve seen many claims in my travels, it usually goes something like we got the biggest cave, the tallest tower, the biggest city, the longest river, the highest lake, and the deepest canyon. I am in Arequipa now, a beautiful town surrounded by 5000-6000 metres mountains and volcanoes, some of them snow capped. Anyway on Sunday I went to visit the Colca Canyon, 160km northwest of Arequipa and touted as the deepest canyon in the world.
I was a little sceptical by that claim as I have visited other canyons which claim to be the deepest (Kali Gandaki Gorge in Nepal and the Tiger Leaping Gorge in China springs to mind). So before visiting it I did a quick Wiki for answers. And guess what? The deepest canyon in the world is located in Tibet, known as the Yarlung Tsangpo Canyon, followed by the Kali Gandaki Gorge in second place!
Still, I was pretty impress by Colca Canyon, as it has snow cap peaks above, and pre-inca steeped terraces down below. All in all the height from top to bottom is at 3,269 metres. And you can see all of it standing on the edge!
The other amazing thing to watch at the Colca Canyon are the Andean Condors, which soars up during the morning following the rising warm air. These amazingly birds with their massive wingspan flew so close to us as they follow the thermals that I reckon they are checking the visitors out as much as us looking on in awe.
Tuesday, 4 September 2007
A monkey stole my camera...
This is a true story. I bump into Lucas Young from the animal sanctuary (Bolivia) here in Arequipa. And he told me that after I left, he was walking to work in the sanctuary as usual when all of a sudden a capuchin monkey leap on him, tore into his daypack, pulled his digital camera out and took off. Lucas was stunned but took chase, however the monkey was gone. He manage to find the camera case in the bush, and just as he was about to give up, another monkey park staff approach to hand him his camera after encountering and frightening the monkey to drop the camera.
Now the most amazing thing is this, he showed me the scratch digital camera and the 9 photos which taken by the monkey!!!!!!!! No shit! I saw it, the photos were a tad blurred, but you can make out pictures of tree branches, leaves, furry fingers, and the sky.
OMG!!! So after nicking the camera the monkey figured out how to turn the damn thing on, and to press firmly on the trigger button to capture those photos. They are so bloody intelligent! They obviously observe the thongs of tourist who visit the sanctuary with their camera and figure how to operate them.
I have had other capuchin monkey experience at the sanctuary too! Such as on my very first day when a monkey manage to enter our locked cage (which doubles as our office) and stole a machete. I had to chase after her and manage to frighten her to drop the machete (whilst she was climbing up the tree). I have also been told that one of the staff have given the monkey a key and a lock to see if they could figure out how to use it. It didn´t take them long. Incredible!
Amended
Here is a reply from Lucas about his stolen camera after reading my blog...
Hey matey, the blog on the stolen camera was pretty spot on, expect it was 11 photos taken by Budi, the monkey.
Now the most amazing thing is this, he showed me the scratch digital camera and the 9 photos which taken by the monkey!!!!!!!! No shit! I saw it, the photos were a tad blurred, but you can make out pictures of tree branches, leaves, furry fingers, and the sky.
OMG!!! So after nicking the camera the monkey figured out how to turn the damn thing on, and to press firmly on the trigger button to capture those photos. They are so bloody intelligent! They obviously observe the thongs of tourist who visit the sanctuary with their camera and figure how to operate them.
I have had other capuchin monkey experience at the sanctuary too! Such as on my very first day when a monkey manage to enter our locked cage (which doubles as our office) and stole a machete. I had to chase after her and manage to frighten her to drop the machete (whilst she was climbing up the tree). I have also been told that one of the staff have given the monkey a key and a lock to see if they could figure out how to use it. It didn´t take them long. Incredible!
Amended
Here is a reply from Lucas about his stolen camera after reading my blog...
Hey matey, the blog on the stolen camera was pretty spot on, expect it was 11 photos taken by Budi, the monkey.
Monday, 13 August 2007
Out of there!
I left my job as the bird and snake keeper 3 days early. I did so as I needed to extend my Bolivian visa. It was actually a bit of a relief to have left the aviary as to be honest, I was sick of the birds. Especially the when the macaws crow in unison. That is when you hear Carolyn and or me start swearing at them to shut the f**k up!!! It's hilarious as our friends at the puma site a few meters down could hear us but I tell you what, people that we speak to do feel sorry for us. As the decibel of the crows are LOUD! Especially when you are dealing with 11 macaws.
BUT, we do have our favorite. Both Carolyn and I love Pedro, a blue macaw whom would stick out his tongue at us to let us stroke, and I think he particularly likes Carolyn as he would even lower his head for Carolyn to pet! Unfortunately he is also very possessive, being the only macaw living in a cage alone. He would protect his feeding tray whenever we come to collect it, or would climb onto the door when we attempt to enter to clean his cage. I had to smack him lightly one time with a stick to make him move!
And one thing I must say about the macaws are they are quite intelligent creatures. For example when the monkeys arrive (usually around feeding time) they would yell "al fuera!" which means "go away!", probably coz their previous keepers use to yell it out all the time. A few of them, particularly Watson and Rosa would steal the locks from us when we leave it hanging on their cage. We take 4 of the macaws out for "walks" daily, we would place them on a custom made tree branches to let them walk about. And when they are done they would actually climb down the tree branch and walk their way back to their cages!
As for my snakes, the anaconda has been shedding it's skin for the past 5 days, and I have collected a piece of it for memory. But they are so lovely, I could almost say cute as I really like watching them. For example when I took Maria Lapaz, the boar constructor out for her "walk" the other day, she would slide along until she smells another animal. Such as a big bear call Baloo. It would freeze, stick it's head up in the classic cobra pose, reading to strike. And on Friday I had to teach Gareth, my replacement from the UK, on how to handle the snake, Maria Lapaz would not let him pick her up, due to the presence of Baloo, she coil herself so tightly that we couldn't move her. I tell you it took a lot of coxing and squeezing from my part to make her move so that I could pick her up!
As for the rest of the sanctuary, I must say I did enjoy the company. It's just a pity that most of the people I got on with came later. There were of course Carolyn my aviary partner and her bf Andrew (who is a mirror image of Dave from The Office) from UK, Doctor Phil (whom had a puma originally but twisted his ankle and was made to work at the quarantine instead) from the UK, Lucas from Aussie who works at the monkey Mirador, Sam the nutter Aussie and Fransesa from Chile who works with spider monkeys, Maran the German who works with Gato the puma, Allie from UK who works with the small animals, Daniele who works with Quirky the disabled puma and finally Ximena the local Bolvian whom worked closely with Carolyn and me at the aviary.
Overall working at Inti Wasi has been an interesting experience and one which I will not forget. My advice for potential volunteers are this aren't a democracy so you may not get to work with the animal of your choice, and do check out the rest of the community to see if you would get on with them, watch out for the alpha males (in our case... ISRAELIS!!!!!!!) and ALWAYS wear long sleeves to protect yourself from the savage sand flies!
BUT, we do have our favorite. Both Carolyn and I love Pedro, a blue macaw whom would stick out his tongue at us to let us stroke, and I think he particularly likes Carolyn as he would even lower his head for Carolyn to pet! Unfortunately he is also very possessive, being the only macaw living in a cage alone. He would protect his feeding tray whenever we come to collect it, or would climb onto the door when we attempt to enter to clean his cage. I had to smack him lightly one time with a stick to make him move!
And one thing I must say about the macaws are they are quite intelligent creatures. For example when the monkeys arrive (usually around feeding time) they would yell "al fuera!" which means "go away!", probably coz their previous keepers use to yell it out all the time. A few of them, particularly Watson and Rosa would steal the locks from us when we leave it hanging on their cage. We take 4 of the macaws out for "walks" daily, we would place them on a custom made tree branches to let them walk about. And when they are done they would actually climb down the tree branch and walk their way back to their cages!
As for my snakes, the anaconda has been shedding it's skin for the past 5 days, and I have collected a piece of it for memory. But they are so lovely, I could almost say cute as I really like watching them. For example when I took Maria Lapaz, the boar constructor out for her "walk" the other day, she would slide along until she smells another animal. Such as a big bear call Baloo. It would freeze, stick it's head up in the classic cobra pose, reading to strike. And on Friday I had to teach Gareth, my replacement from the UK, on how to handle the snake, Maria Lapaz would not let him pick her up, due to the presence of Baloo, she coil herself so tightly that we couldn't move her. I tell you it took a lot of coxing and squeezing from my part to make her move so that I could pick her up!
As for the rest of the sanctuary, I must say I did enjoy the company. It's just a pity that most of the people I got on with came later. There were of course Carolyn my aviary partner and her bf Andrew (who is a mirror image of Dave from The Office) from UK, Doctor Phil (whom had a puma originally but twisted his ankle and was made to work at the quarantine instead) from the UK, Lucas from Aussie who works at the monkey Mirador, Sam the nutter Aussie and Fransesa from Chile who works with spider monkeys, Maran the German who works with Gato the puma, Allie from UK who works with the small animals, Daniele who works with Quirky the disabled puma and finally Ximena the local Bolvian whom worked closely with Carolyn and me at the aviary.
Overall working at Inti Wasi has been an interesting experience and one which I will not forget. My advice for potential volunteers are this aren't a democracy so you may not get to work with the animal of your choice, and do check out the rest of the community to see if you would get on with them, watch out for the alpha males (in our case... ISRAELIS!!!!!!!) and ALWAYS wear long sleeves to protect yourself from the savage sand flies!
Thursday, 9 August 2007
Me and Maria!
Had to walk my snake today and thought I should get a picture of it. Here is my beautiful boar constructor, it´s name is Marie and it is about 2 meters long. It is one gentle creature and is my favorite animal under my care.
We had to force feed it on Monday as it hasn´t eaten in 2 weeks. But then I found out from a book that boar constructors can go without food for up to a month!
My anaconda however ate like a pig, we fed it 10 pieces of chicken. It is now shedding it´s beautiful skin.
Tuesday, 7 August 2007
Spider monkey!
This is a spider monkey. It is about the size of a young child, has very lanky arms, legs and tail and has a thick black hairy coat. Of all the monkeys in this animal sanctuary I like them the best. They are extremely friendly, comes up to you, coos like a baby and cradles up in your arm.
They are so love-able it is impossible to resist! This one is a mum, and she is usually seen with her little kid, whom comes up to her and suck on her nipple whilst she is lying in my arms. I see her almost daily and she always sits with me. These two self portraits are taken this afternoon at the aviary. Isn't the monkey cute??? :)
Update: The mum is Michaela by the way, and her daughter is Micky, they turn up at the aviary almost daily and I LOVE THEM TO BITS!!!!
They are so love-able it is impossible to resist! This one is a mum, and she is usually seen with her little kid, whom comes up to her and suck on her nipple whilst she is lying in my arms. I see her almost daily and she always sits with me. These two self portraits are taken this afternoon at the aviary. Isn't the monkey cute??? :)
Update: The mum is Michaela by the way, and her daughter is Micky, they turn up at the aviary almost daily and I LOVE THEM TO BITS!!!!
Thursday, 2 August 2007
Inti Wara Yassi - First Impression
So, after lots of talk about this animal sanctuary to friends and family, I am finally here. Working at the Inti Wara Yassi Wildlife Sanctuary.
I arrive here on Sunday, after a 15 hours bus ride from Sucre (via Cochabamba). However I have been feeling ill. And that night had a hard time trying to keep warm, I was shivering even after wearing a thermal, sweater, beanie, socks and sleeping in a down sleeping bag! In the end dropping the panadol helped. But the next day I had diarrhea.
So not a great start.
But that is not all. I was told at the sanctuary that I cannot work with monkeys, instead I got the aviary as they were desperate for volunteers. Of course my first reaction was, I came here FOR the MOOONKEEEEEYS! However I thought to myself, why not, since my reason for coming was to help. So I signed up for 2 weeks.
Starting at 8am on Monday I was shown along with another new girl the stuff to do out at the aviary. There was feeding, cleaning, sweeping the grounds, walking the birds, gathering new tree branches and toys for the birds and explanation to the tourist about it all. I was also shown the snake cage, where I was to handle 2 snakes, an anaconda and a boar constructor. I thought "Now we´re bloody talking!" I had to walk the snake and clean their cages. But the bonus for me is that throughout the day the monkeys comes to visit. The ones which visit are the Spider monkeys and the Capuchin monkeys. I love the spider monkeys the most as they are so friendly! They would sit on my shoulders or cuddle in my lap and make soft chirping sounds. Sometimes they would wrap their long tail around my arm and "walk" me where-ever! And on more then one occasion the mum would sit on my lap whilst milking the baby.
However we are not allowed camera into the compound for the first week. Or I would have got lots of cool photo to post. That will have to wait till next week!
So the first impression has been ok, not as great as I would have liked i.e solely working with monkeys, but at least I got to play with them whilst doing the "bird" thing!
The community at Inti Wassi are huge though, there are around 55 foreigners volunteering currently. The minimum time of volunteering is 15 days and some stay for as long as 6 months! There is a real hippie commune feel to this place as everyone gets put in the guesthouse owned by the sanctuary and everyone eat at the same place. For me I am still feeling my way around the place and the people.
Currently I find there are too many young people around, or that I am feeling my age. LOL! For example, a girl was telling me how she scratch at her scar as she wanted the scar to remain coz she think it is cool. Her mate did the same thing, can you believe it! To me that is just naff! And I told her so, that she will most probably regret it when she turns... 25! LOL!
But speaking about scars, everybody here are walking wounded. One has stitches in her head after being bitten by a monkey, another´s finger was chomped by her monkey, another was maul by her puma, another twisted his ankle after landing wrong whilst running with his puma, and finally everyone else are covered with sand fly bites. It´s hilarious to see! As for me, I haven´t gotten anything yet as my birds and snakes are better behaved, and I wear long sleeve 2nd hand clothing to avoid the sand flies. :)
I arrive here on Sunday, after a 15 hours bus ride from Sucre (via Cochabamba). However I have been feeling ill. And that night had a hard time trying to keep warm, I was shivering even after wearing a thermal, sweater, beanie, socks and sleeping in a down sleeping bag! In the end dropping the panadol helped. But the next day I had diarrhea.
So not a great start.
But that is not all. I was told at the sanctuary that I cannot work with monkeys, instead I got the aviary as they were desperate for volunteers. Of course my first reaction was, I came here FOR the MOOONKEEEEEYS! However I thought to myself, why not, since my reason for coming was to help. So I signed up for 2 weeks.
Starting at 8am on Monday I was shown along with another new girl the stuff to do out at the aviary. There was feeding, cleaning, sweeping the grounds, walking the birds, gathering new tree branches and toys for the birds and explanation to the tourist about it all. I was also shown the snake cage, where I was to handle 2 snakes, an anaconda and a boar constructor. I thought "Now we´re bloody talking!" I had to walk the snake and clean their cages. But the bonus for me is that throughout the day the monkeys comes to visit. The ones which visit are the Spider monkeys and the Capuchin monkeys. I love the spider monkeys the most as they are so friendly! They would sit on my shoulders or cuddle in my lap and make soft chirping sounds. Sometimes they would wrap their long tail around my arm and "walk" me where-ever! And on more then one occasion the mum would sit on my lap whilst milking the baby.
However we are not allowed camera into the compound for the first week. Or I would have got lots of cool photo to post. That will have to wait till next week!
So the first impression has been ok, not as great as I would have liked i.e solely working with monkeys, but at least I got to play with them whilst doing the "bird" thing!
The community at Inti Wassi are huge though, there are around 55 foreigners volunteering currently. The minimum time of volunteering is 15 days and some stay for as long as 6 months! There is a real hippie commune feel to this place as everyone gets put in the guesthouse owned by the sanctuary and everyone eat at the same place. For me I am still feeling my way around the place and the people.
Currently I find there are too many young people around, or that I am feeling my age. LOL! For example, a girl was telling me how she scratch at her scar as she wanted the scar to remain coz she think it is cool. Her mate did the same thing, can you believe it! To me that is just naff! And I told her so, that she will most probably regret it when she turns... 25! LOL!
But speaking about scars, everybody here are walking wounded. One has stitches in her head after being bitten by a monkey, another´s finger was chomped by her monkey, another was maul by her puma, another twisted his ankle after landing wrong whilst running with his puma, and finally everyone else are covered with sand fly bites. It´s hilarious to see! As for me, I haven´t gotten anything yet as my birds and snakes are better behaved, and I wear long sleeve 2nd hand clothing to avoid the sand flies. :)
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