Now have internet back - we reached the download limit it seems, though I didn't use much personally. Life continues peacefully here, lots of birdwatching, apart from the macaws. There are always lots of different and often very beautiful species, from red headed cardinals, to bright yellow tanagers, or blue ones. There are turtles plopping around in the lakes, and gigantic water snails, which mostly we see the empty shells after the egrets have had their fill. The ever present jacanas with their elegant long legs, black and rufous feathers, then bright yellow on the wings when they fly are lovely to watch around the edges of the lakes.
There is one lake which we can swim in - usually in our afternoon break when it is often too hot to work much. I now take a dip regularly, it gives me some exercise too. Yesterday I spotted a blue tailed iguana in the grass from my viewpoint in the pool, and watched him for some time. There are even more frogs and toads than in Galan with baby ones even in the toilet bowl, which leap clear when you flush (usually!) And an adult pale green one, totally unafraid, that climbs our shower curtain and apparently has a diet of bats - another regular visitor to our dorm!
So far no snakes near our cabins. I heard something in the forest nearby squealing that might have been peccaries recently, but as it was dusk couldn't see anything apart from movements in the grass. The 4 calves belonging to the land owner graze around the cabins every day, joining their mothers in the coral at night. They often leave a fertile offering on or near our terrace to avoid treading in! Our neighbour's puppy sometimes comes over and wants to play but her sharp teeth are not so welcome. She also pulls our freshly washed sheets off the washing line, little pest!
Rafa, the acting manager while Jose is on holiday ( I haven't met Jose yet) was helping me dig a new veg/herb patch, and managed to cut through through the water pipe to the cabins a couple of days ago. He did a temporary fix but it was still leaking so flooded the area and caused loss of pressure I had very dirty water for the start of one shower but fortunately it cleared after a minute or so. It has now been fixed - just needs good protection to prevent recurrence if the veg patch remains at its current site as it is less than 1 spade depth down.
I enjoy the bike trips out to collect food for the macaws - usually motacu nuts from a type of palm here, their main natural food in the wild as it is in season all year round. We also give them banana slices and Brazil's, they particularly love the latter. Other wild fruits can be uses in season too, like totai. We have to search for trees with ripe nuts, then knock them on to a groundsheet so they are clean. Often we talk to locals to ask permission to collect them, giving opportunities to talk about the work we are doing and why the birds are endangered
Yesterday the new volunteer, Nick, from Canada arrived. He is acclimatising having come from their winter, fortunately it has been cooler and cloudier the last few days. He is doing a 5 year environmental studies degree, with 3 or 4 months secondment into the field every year - what an opportunity for getting experience in conservation! He seems very nice and certainly keen to become involved.
Tomorrow is weekly shopping for food so I think I'm going to learn the ropes so I can take over that job since I speak enough Spanish to cope with the markets in Trinidad. Their fresh produce comes on Wednesdays, so I guess it will be a busy day there.
Rafa managed to remember my request for a bottle of red wine yesterday, so it was a treat to have a glass, and share it of course. Some left for tonight too... The local village sells beer, bread and eggs, plus free some meat and home made delicious ice cream, but everything else is only from Trinidad.
Time to go and crush some motacus for the macaws - they can't crush the stone it is so hard, we have trouble with the mallet! But they have useful trace elements so it's worth doing a few each day.
Thursday is my first day off, so no doubt will go to
Trinidad and explore a bit more there, plus have a good meal that I haven't cooked. Rafa has cooked for me twice, and often makes fruit smoothies too but my cooking skills, and desire to eat well means I'm happy to do much of the cooking.
Look forward to hearing news from my friends too.. All for now, but back soon.
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