SubscribeDia 10
This was our last day at Rainsong, and it was a good one. The two new volunteers gave us a ride to the sanctuary, which was really nice as it seemed to be a pretty hot morning. We arrived, and it was kind of a slow start. It was just us, Harry, the two new volunteers, and a new girl named Amanda. There was a lot of talk about the best way to treat the newest two monkeys, as one of their burns was rather infected. There are not wildlife vets in the area so Mary has to take the animals to a regular vet. The two new volunteers drove them out there to get them looked at and decide what to do with them. Before they left they took the new monkeys out to the tree to be with the monkeys that have been there a while, so that they stay familiar with each other. This went as well as it did the day before, with all of the monkeys getting along. After the two new volunteers took the babies to the vet, Zoe and Amanda stayed out in the yard with the other monkeys. The older monkeys are starting to mature, and decided that they should now be allowed more freedom than in the past, so they darted out and ran up one of the bigger trees in the sanctuary. This was rather scary, because it can sometimes take a long time to get a single monkey back and we had 4. After Zoe called for help, Harry and I got the monkeys down fairly quickly and got them into the pen. During this process however, the oldest monkey (Mona) escaped back out of her pen and into another tree. What a mess. We had a bit more difficult of a time getting her back in, but we managed it and we finally had all 4 monkeys back where they belonged. The feeding time for everyone else began. We started with the toucans, moved on to the squirrels, then the baby turtles, guinea pigs, and finally the iguana. Harry and Amanda did the parrots, Harry did the porkies and the big turtles, and Matt cleaned Tarzan's cage. While Zoe was getting the food ready for the toucans, Tarzan came up and sat on her head for a little while. That is unusual for Tarzan, as he is a very feisty creature who likes to get into trouble. It takes a while with only 3 people (Amanda left early), but we got it all done. After that was all set, Mary told us that the howler monkeys needed to be fed milk again (we have never been told to feed them milk twice in one morning shift, but that just meant we got to spend more time with the howlers). They weren't interested in the milk at all, but we are always happy to be urinated on by such cute animals. As annoying as that is, they were all being a lot of fun and playful, and it was a great end to our last day at Rainsong. On our way out we talked with Mary a little bit and gave her some of the pictures of us with the monkeys, and we were on our way.
That night was rather quiet. We spend the night playing card games (Gin rummy, cheat (bs), and ratscrew) with Harry. The power eventually went out, so we played cards by candlelight. We had some good conversations with Harry about the environment, books, movies, music, Rainsong, food, and animals. We also conversed with Johnathan in our broken spanglish, those conversations are always the best. We finally ended up in bed, still without power.
Dia 11
The power came back on sometime in the middle of the night, but it went out while we were getting ready in the morning. That really doesn't matter because we spent most of the day on one of the craziest hikes I have ever been on. We wanted to visit the local nature reserve "Cabo Blanco Nature Reserve" and Mary had given us a note that would gain us free entry. Harry decided to join us, along with the hotel dog "Luna". We set off on our walk around 7:30am and made it to the reserve sometime around 8:30am (sans Luna, she probably found a boyfriend or puppy along the way to visit). Along the road to the reserve, I spotted a turtle lying in a puddle. It turns out that it was red river turtle, the most endangered species of turtle in Costa Rica. We removed him from the road and put him by a stream that is actually part of the reserve. At the reserve, we decided to take the long trail, as it would lead to the beach and we could have a rest before heading back. They say that the trail usually takes around 2 hours, but the rain had done some damage to the trail and they didn't suggest even walking it. The trail is over 4km long, and was very muddy, steep, and slippery. Along the trail we saw plenty of amazing bits of nature. There were some huge trees and interesting plants, but the first animal we came across within the reserve was a group of wild howler monkeys. Zoe had paused for a rest when she heard some movement in a nearby tree. We all stopped to look in the trees, but it took us quite a while before we got a good look at one of the monkeys feeding on some leaves. In total we saw about 4 members of the group. They were close enough for us to get some good pictures, and to realize how tiny Mona (the eldest howler at Rainsong) really is. We pushed on, and along the treacherous trail we saw quite a few butterflies, including the one Zoe has waited very patiently to see. It was a bright blue morpho butterfly. There were actually two of them on the trail, but neither of them stopped for a photo opportunity. We forced ourselves to continue the walk after it seemed that the trail was just getting harder and harder. It kept winding up and down, through beautiful rainforest, past a lot of brightly colored birds, two other Rainsong volunteers, and plenty of interesting fungi. We could hear and see the ocean during a lot of the walk, but the trail was deceptively long. 3 hours or so after starting the trail we arrived at the beach. There was a heavenly breeze and a light mist that cooled us down.
Zoe and I went in the water for a little bit, but it was quite rocky. During this time we all decided that taking the shoreline back to the hotel sounded like an easier, although possibly more dangerous, route. The hills were so slippery and we were already so exhausted that we felt taking the regular trail back was just as dangerous but more tiring. If we were to hurt ourselves on the regular trail it would have taken a long time to get help, at least with the shoreline we had a flatter walk. Luckily it was low tide and we could see flat shores for quite a distance. We took the chance with the shoreline and it turned out to be a good gamble. There were some spots where it was a bit rocky and slick, but definitely way easier than the regular trail. We saw plenty of wildlife including pelicans, herrings, snails, and crabs. There were some beautiful flowers, rocks, and shells as well. Mixed in with all of this was a lot of trash that had washed up on shore, we saw tons of plastic bottles, a baby doll, some legos, and many other random artifacts that dampened our moods. We were all very upset to see so much trash in such a beautiful and amazing place. There were quite a few peninsulas to maneuver around, and after each one we were all very happy to see that there was flat land for us to walk on. If we would have gotten stopped or had to turn around at any point, and high tide came in on us, we would have had problems. From the looks of it high tide would have reached up to the flat wall on our side, we would have had a very hard time to find a place to get away from the ocean had this happened. We were pretty confident in the tide, as I had looked up the schedule the night before (not for this reason, but it came in handy) and it was quite obviously low tide. We made it to the entrance to the park, but there was no way to climb the wall and let them know we took an alternative route home, so we just continued on our way. We eventually came across a trail that led in the direction of the main road, and we followed it. Sure enough it dropped us right off in familiar territory, right on the road between the hotel and Rainsong. We headed in the direction towards the hotel, finding Luna hanging out at one of the restaurants on the way. A couple of doors down, pumpkin (one of Mary's dogs from Rainsong) came out to join our walk back as well. A few more minutes walk and it was a little before 2 o'clock (that's right, we walked around 9 miles of hilly terrain and rocky shoreline for 6 1/2 hours) and we were finally back safe and sound and soaking wet from the rain at our hotel. We spent the rest of our night relaxing, eating, and plating cards with Harry (who leaves tomorrow morning, and we will miss him greatly). Now we are getting ready for bed, I am sure we will sleep well tonight.
Love,
Matt and Zoe
