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How about an update on present-day corey, since i've been writing old entries for so long:
I'm in cochabamba, bolivia. I've just applied for a tourist visa, i'll get it on monday and then i'll be able to leave cochabamba and leave the country if i want.
soon i'll go to buenos aires, and from there fly to sydney.
After that, not sure -- melbourne or thailand seem the obvious choices... but i'll be in the australian country for at least 6 moons...
See this photo:
http://corencito.nfshost.com/img1/bolivi
Now see a bunch of photos:
http://corencito.nfshost.com/img1/view.p
also, bolivian food is still pretty crap!
interesting adventures this time in cochabamba:
* made friends with a couple of guys who only speak spanish :-) i think that technically means i speak spanish now...
* went walking in the hills, and absolutely filled the bottom of my shoe with cactus spines. time for some new treads! maybe this time i'll get 2 pairs so that i'm not wearing businessy shoes when i go hiking through arbitrary terrain...
Also, introduced my cochabombino amigo to the delightful pisco sour, and then baileys and milk.
It's great being a rich guy while i'm in bolivia. i took us to what turned out to be a flash restaurant, and we sat at the bar and sipped cocktails -- the pisco sour came with a tiny plastic sword and imitation cherry. Shit, in hindsight i should have swiped the sword.
And then i took the bill, 86 bolivianos, divide by five and it's all very affordable!
There are times when bolivia just pleases the delighted fuck out of me.
I'm on the road... villa tunari to cochabamba, by minibus. 30 bols, ie AUD $6. Worth it.
Not actually a minibus, just some kind of tarago-like vehicle. I got the passenger seat. Pleased. Passenger seat is the ideal viewing seat in a car. In fact, was awstruck by the mountains and the views. Was going to catch up on blogging on the journey, but instead spent my jurney beholding the grand spectacles -- a feast for the eyes awith a nice beverage for the soul. Neglected my blogging entirely, so stricken with awe was i.
If i had to estimate, i'd say i saw a good clean 1 squillion mountains on the ascent to cachabamba. These mountains, like everything else in the lower altutides in bolivia, are covered with so many trees that they'reon the verge of collapse.
Thus, as we meandered up the slopes, out of the jungle, we passed a good 2.2 quadsquillion trees, no less. If you brought a tree into bolivia you'd have trouble finding a place to put it.
It's like being in the glasshouse mountains in Queensland, only those are really just little glasshouse lumps. These, these here are some fucking MOUNTAINS.
As we rose to higher and higher elevations, it became hideously, deliciously cold -- a sensual experience i'd forgotten in my month in the tropical jungle. We drove through villages set high in the mountains; the only strange thing to see in these villages is the clouds are way too close. Like, if you scale that hill over there, you'll pierce the cover, escape the dream, and exist alone among the clouds and mountaintops.
Being driven is exciting! Overtake on a bridge? Sure! On blind corners? Why not? Overtake fuel tankers with DANGER: EXPLOSIVE written on the back? Well, with these ones he's far more cautious. Once we waiting almost a full 0 seconds behind one, before overtaking it.
On a bridge around a blind corner.
This is completely normal here.
At least we slow down when cows are crossing the road...
Overtake at the traffic lights, by leaving the road? Hell yeah! The traffic cop was none too impressed with this trick. I'm sure this driver thinks he's on a motorbike or something...
Albifronds, then mirador, then albis and home basically.
Mark is cool. He trained me in albifronds generally by saying "it's up to you how you do this, i like to do it this way and here's why. The guy before me did it like this, he was pretty lazy. But in the end you're out here on your own and you're gonna do it however you want to."
It's brilliant. The guy should be a schoolteacher. Ponder on that a bit.
I would love if more labourers and less academics were teaching. Not a majority of course cause i want more skills than a brickie. But with this guy i didn't need to do things to make him happy or to get it right for his approval; i did it to get the job done.
He's worked as a labourer and also as a commercial fisherman. In those jobs, progress is simple to measure and if you don't catch fish then you dont make money.
Also!: if you do catch fish you DO make money.
These 2 traits make it so different from computer game development!
Also the guy is a relaxed chilled out aussie bloke. So much that at first glance you might judge him lazy. But no, he does complete and impeccable work with no fuss and no stress or worrying; a real perfect blend.
Does he come with creativity? I dont know.
I'm thinking about our university degree. 23 students started in our year and 8 completed it; that's a two thirds dropout rate.
Is this because of the quality of the course? Or, is it because it doesn't cater to the students' dopamine addiction in the way they wish it to?
(note: the dopamine comment refers to a whole nother post about dopamine habits of videogamers; as soon as i find it i'll put it up to elaborate this point)
I go with aaron to find some food in town. It's tough because food in bolivia is mostly shit.
We go to a place, looks good (ie, there's about 15 locals eating there). So we head down and someone at the table asks, can i help you? (in spanish)
Turns out this isn't a restaurant, it's a family having dinner. Lol oops. Then they tell us to sit down and hand us a bowl of pasta each.
So we're having dinner with this family, and chatting a little. It seems of the 2 of us i have better spanish, because it was mostly me doing the talking (which is unusual).
They're going to visit Machia tomorrow -- that's the park we volunteer at -- so i'm telling them about the monkeys, what we feed them, etc. They tell us, come back tomorrow night. I think this is completely normal, lovely, spanish hospitality. Sweet, no?
This is fun. Stumbling blindly is what travelling is REALLY about.
today i start my REAL job. Albifronds.
Nearish to monkey mirador is a big cage that used to be a jaguar cage. Now it's converted to house 8 monkeys. An albifrond is like a capuchino but whiter and a little bigger.
The keyboards in these internet cafes are so tiring to type on by the way... laptop keyboards are nice, they need only a feather's touch...
So, here's my day with the albinos:
Leave the Cafe, with Mark -- that's the guy i'm replacing. Walk the tourist trail to monkey park. Spider monkey jumps aboard. Walk across monkey park and down the special trail to the river, saying hi to Speedy and the other capuchinos in monkey park. Ditch the spider monkey at about this point.
Down this trail we come out to the river bank. From here, we walk upstream along the dry riverbed, over small rocks and grass shoots, to a little trail up to the mirador. We skip that one and take another trail up a creek to the albifronds cage.
Simply: i feed the albis in the morning and clean their cage. Feed them in the evening. The rest of the time i'm at monkey mirador.
Albi is a solo job, so the cage has ropes and pulleys and trapdoors that allow a person to seal the cage into 4 separate sections; i can therefore move them all to one part of the cage, and then clean another part of the cage with no monkeys in the cage with me. In theory.
There's no office but a nice big sturdy monkeyproof crate there stores all stuff i want to put there.
Because they have such a huge cage they aren't actually released from it, they stay in always. They have limited human contact because they're a group of monkeys that's ready for release and the park wants to keep it that way.
As we approach, Mark tells me, they should never be allowed out. And, one of them -- Miel -- will certainly escape a lot, no matter what i do.
When we arrive at the cage, first thing i need to learn is to differentiate between the monkeys. Mark's trying to figure out which part of the cage Miel is in.... but can't see her. All the monkeys are looking up, so he looks up. "There she is, on top of the cage."
As it turns out, simians are a lot smaller than jaguars, so part of my job is to fix up the loose parts of the cage with wire and chicken wire as me and Miel find them. Oddly, none of the other monkeys escape through her holes.
I have a bit of freedom and independence in this job; when to feed them and so on. No time limits. The vets may check the cage sometimes, but otherwise it's up to me to make sure i do a good job.
There's a little waterfall near the cage which is nice; unfortunately not near enough for the monkeys to access it. But near enough that i have a pretty view, a nice background noise, and infinite cleaning water.
Final day with lishou.
Randy's day off, so Val came with me for lishou.
Val worked with lishou last year for 4 months. Also, a former cat coordinator (the volunteer who's in charge of all cat volunteers.) I really respect the guy's experience.
Lishou was way happy to see Val again. When we went walking lishou ran really fast for the first segment -- as val said, just like he used to.
Then lishou remembered, oh shit that's right, i'm really sick. And so he was buggered most of the day after that.
Val knows this cat so well, he was pulling on the leash saying "come on lishou, i dont like it either but we've gotta get you back to your cage." Lishou was growling like ive never heard a puma growl before... i was staying way out of range.
But eventually lishou's respect for val won over and he did as val told him.
The park is not just for animals; originally it started as an orphanage. There's still some children living there but i dont know how many.
2 little girls made friends with me that night; we spent half an hour running around a parked car while the younger one chased us around with a bottle full of dirt. Awesome game...
No hay nadie como tu
"there ain't nobody like you" (note: this is proper spanish grammar. Celebrate double negatives!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_bDFix6x
Saw this filmclip this morning, thought it is way cool and i should translate into english!
Below is my attempted spanish transcription, and then my attempted translation without dictionary...
Note: As it turns out the lyrics are really boring so it's probably not worth reading this post,
unless you're really interested in grading my spanish listening & translating abilities -- in which case, look up the lyrics online and see how close i was (pretty close! but it took a long time)
en el mundo hay gente bruta y astuta
hay virgenes y prostitutas
ricos pobres clases medias
cosas bonitas y onparde trajedia
hay personas gordos medianas y flacas
caballos callinas sobejas y vacas
hay muchos animales con mucha gente
personas fuerdad y locos demente
en el mundo hay medias y pansedables
hechos perdades y casualidades
hay mentalidad de sori chontales
verdidares y diabonales
erotas y fracasos accidentales
merayas profeos y copas de mondiales
en el mundo hay vitaminas y proteinas
marijuana ecstacy si cocaina
hay arboles ramas hojas y flores
hay muchas montañas de colores
en el mundo hay decisiones de di vidas
centradas salidas de budes perdidas
hay no sientes
hay no misidas
hay muchas locas y poca comida
hay governantes sin presidentes
hay agua fria y agua caliente
en el mundo hay migropo no si alto parlantes
hay se fil mi yo no es habitantes
hay gen jordian
hay gente le gante
pero pero pero
no hay nadie como tu
no hay nadie como tu, mi amor
no hay nadie como tu
no hay nadie como tu
no hay nadie como tu, mi amor
no hay nadie como tu
en el mundo siempres en muerve la tierra
hay tankes de oxygen o tankes de guerras
el sol y la luna nos dañenel hijas
de guerme de noche es se vive de vida
hay gente que eré difícil a codiza
hay mucha gente que se contradise
hay algos rovas y algas marinas
hay vegetarianos sin carnes se rias
hay tragos amargos y golocinas
hay enfermedades y medicinas
hay bolsi eugenos calderas mas frias
hay mas ladrones que policias
hay religiones
hay a perdismo
hay capitalismo, y comunismo
que nos parecemos
nos somos los mismos
por que! por que!
no hay nadie como tu
no hay nadie como tu, mi amor
no hay nadie como tu
no hay nadie como tu
no hay nadie como tu, mi amor
no hay nadie como tu
en el mundo existen muy buenas sideas
hay don crijo te si dulciné
hay sexo en el baño
sexo en el cama
sexo sin ropa
sexo en pijamas
hay cosas reales y melodramas
hay lar veintos y crucigramas
existen llamadas que nadie contesta
y muchas preguntas y bocas respuesta
hay gente maliente
gente con mielo
gente que el mundo no le por ton blelo
gente baraja
gente sentada
gente son llando en puedes perdan
hay gente que nase
gente que muerde
hay gente que llovia y gente que quiere
en esta mundo hay mucha gente
pero pero pero
no hay nadie como tu
no hay nadie como tu, mi amor
no hay nadie como tu
no hay nadie como tu
no hay nadie como tu, mi amor
no hay nadie como tu
--------------
In the world there are people who are brutes and astute
There are virgins and prostitutes
Rich ones, poor ones, middle class people
Beautiful things and tragic events
There's people who're fat and medium and skinny
Horses chickens dogs and cows
There's lots of animals and lots of people
Strong people and demented crazy people
In the world there are halves and passables (or: in the world there are ropes and barrels)
Facts and losses and casualties
There's the mentality of, baked beans (?)
Honest people and liars
Eroticism and accidental heartbreak
Kings, teachers and mundane workers
In the world there are vitamins and proteins
Marijuana ecstacy and cocaine
There are trees, twigs, leaves and flowers
There are lots of mountains, of colour
In the world there are decisions about lives
The central exit of lost lives
There's no sense
There's no squirrels (?)
There's lots of crazy people and not a lot of food
There's governments without presidents
There's cold water and hot water!
In the world there's migration with not a high chance
There's refugees with no place to live
There are Jordanians
There's people from Gana
But, but, but,
There ain't nobody like you
There ain't nobody like you, my love
There ain't nobody like you
There ain't nobody like you
There ain't nobody like you, my love
There ain't nobody like you
In the world always we're killing the world
There are tanks of oxygen or tanks of war
The sun and the moon we give to our daughters
In the middle of the night, they live life
There's people that are difficult to understand
There's lots of people that contradict themselves
There's some things that rove the land and some things in the sea
There's vegetarians that don't take meat
There's tramps and lovers and girls who laugh
There's diseases and medicines
There's bags of genes (?) and calderas that are really cold
There's more criminals than police
There's religions
There's loss
There's capitalism, and communism
We are a pair
We're not the same
Because! Because!
There ain't nobody like you
There ain't nobody like you, my love
There ain't nobody like you
There ain't nobody like you
There ain't nobody like you, my love
There ain't nobody like you
In the world exists very good dreams
There's rewards if you are sweet
There's sex in the bathroom
Sex in the bed
Sex without clothes
Sex in pyjamas
There's real things and melodramas
There's superted and spotty (really i have no idea what this line wants to say)
There's calls that nobody contests
And lots of questions and mouths to answer them
There's malicious people
There's people with honey
There's people that the world doesn't give its blelo to
Aggressive people
Sensitive people
People too stuck in abilities they've lost
There's people that don't exist
People that die
There's people that cry and people that want
In the world there's lots of people
But... but... but...
There ain't nobody like you
There ain't nobody like you, my love
There ain't nobody like you
There ain't nobody like you
There ain't nobody like you, my love
There ain't nobody like you
Today pea says, "you're coming up with us to monkey mirador."
Sweet day.
The walk to monkey mirador is pretty. We go along the riverbed -- unless there's a lot of rain -- and it's clear by the riverside, like a beach but with heaps of jungle over there and blue hills way over yonder. Pictures will come when i have the guts to try taking my phone camera into monkey mirador, where thieves prowl and eat bananas.
Monkey mirador. All capuchinos here. When a monkey arrives at the park, it's kept in the clinic and assessed for a while. Then it moves to monkey quarantine where they keep monitoring it. And then it moves to monkey mirador, away from most people, spending all day with monkeys, so it can forget about being a domesticated monkey and learn to be a wild monkey; ie, spending its time in trees.
When the monkeys are acting suitably then they are either released at the mirador, or at monkey park where the tourists go.
There's about 20ish monkeys in cages -- these are the ones still learning to monkey. Or the ones who are just too aggressive or too un-monkey like and who will be here forever.
And there's about 30ish free monkeys who stay around monkey mirador (many more have been released and left the mirador, into the jungle.) In the whole park there's about 400 monkeys.
Each morning we bring all the cagemonkeys out of their cages and they are tied to a runner all day; then when we leave we put them all back in their cages for the night with a blanket and a meal. On the runner, we disentangle them if they get too tied up, but they're used to it and can disentangle themselves most of the time.
If 2 monkeys get their ropes tangled they usually brawl until we disentangle them.
If a cagemonkey is getting bullied too much by a freemonkey it's our job to get the free monkey away, because the monkey on a runner can't run away.
I've heard that, if you leave the key nearby, a monkey will open a padlocked door.
They can certainly open my juice bottles.
The "office" is one of the cages at the mirador. No monkeys allowed. I only saw monkeys get in about 6 times today. The door shuts with a small bolt, and then we wrap a bit of wire around the bolt. It usually works unless we do a dodgy job with the wire and they unwind it and open the bolt.
The monkeys go mad when they see pea, the screech and jump all over her. And of course she screams back and yells their name and snuggles them.
We feed them in the morning, a white milky liquid called api, it's some kind of porridge with cinnamon and nutritional supplements from the vets. When i spilled some in the cage, a monkey mopped it up with a rag.
As we sat on the hammocks up there, i heard some clanging. The other guys in Team Mirador tell me that's Pete, a freemonkey, washing the dishes that we leave down in the creek. He does a lousy job at it unfortunately.
When i wash the dishes we find a system that works -- i put my hand on the brush and pete pushes my hand in a scrubbing motion.
Cleaning the cage in the morning, Pete helped me with that too, pushing the broom head and scrubbing it on the floor.
Team Mirador tell me, the way to recognise Pete is he's the dirtiest monkey ever and they always point out to him that he's filthy and covered in some kind of mucky water he's been playing in. ODP -- Old Dirty Pete -- that's his rap name.
It's a very entertaining society here. When something goes missing, Pete usually gets blamed, and they talk about how Pete must have a great hardware business with all the pliers and tools that he's nicked.
The current team at the mirador is Pea (she's the volunteer coordinator), Stacey (he and pea are kiwi), and Mark (he's australiano).
The technology up here is delightfully appropriately primitive. My favourite is the tap: It's a piece of bamboo that creates a small waterfall in a downhill part of the creek. We use it to fill our buckets.
Very interesting in the jungle having infinite water. We splash it about when cleaning; who cares? There are creeks everywhere here.
We toss organic waste in the river, Rio Espiritu Santo (i think, "River of the Holy Spirit".) The river is great. Big, wet, powerful. If you fall in that river you're going where the river wants you to go.
There's a specific procedure for if the alpha male attacks or gets too aggressive. We all need to gang up and make monkey aggressive noises and jump up and down, until he backs down. He hasn't interfered with me yet but the alphas at monkey park and monkey mirador are always watching me. It must be a very stressful job, and you need to be an asshole to everyone it seems.
Still, we respect the pecking order, and we do everything in pecking order -- letting them out of cages, feeding, etc.
Congo is interesting. He's frigging huge -- almost spider monkey size. I suspect he's half dog or something.
All monkeys defer to him as the alpha (ie, they scream respectfully when they approach him).
But as Pea tells me, "he doesn't give a shit about monkey politics". Congo, or Martin as he was once named, was raised in a gas station on a strict diet of coca cola, has no teeth, and spends all of his time digging for worms in the ground. He doesn't spend any time in trees and he would die fast in the wild, plus he's very agressive, so he's not going to be released.
So he's alpha of a tribe but doesn't realise it and doesn't care anyway.
Monkeys live to 20-25 in the wild; to 40 in captivity. That's a huge difference.
What else? Today was busy compared to most jobs in the park, cleaning lots of cages and taking monkeys for a walk, but still enough hammock and chilling out time. I need to learn the monkeys by name, because one of our jobs is to watch the monkeys interact with the other monkeys and judge which ones are behaving like proper monkeys.
Also, i have no headlice. I've been checked by half the monkeys in the mirador by now.
When you get sick of monkeys on your head, standard procedure is to grab it by the tail, pull it off, and put him on a nearby tree, easy.
Here at the mirador, i've found normal procedure is to pull the monkey off, dangle him near a tree or the ground, and then a monkey or 2 always takes advantage of this moment of weakness and tackles him to the ground, where they roll in a ball biting and playing.
Also. Today i got kneed in the face. A monkey leapt out of a tree straight into my face, whammo, and from there straight into another tree. Pleased to be of service, monkey! Face swelled a bit, but it's ok now.
Without checking any documents, Luis says "Luna: yes, Lishou: no, Gato: no..."
He either knew this info off the top of his head, or he made it up on the spot. That's impressive and it indicates how well they know each of the animals here.
I wouldn't be surprised if they knew the individual monkeys' diets too, even though there's about 60 monkeys to consider.
Variety! Cool.
Lots of birds out there, about 30-40. Carolina is super awesome, sit by her cage and she blabs on and on and on, in spanish or gibberish, i'm not sure. That bird loves to talk, and laughs and giggles and cackles so much she sounds like an evil genius.
Part of the day involved going out with one of the permanent volunteers here -- he's someone's son or little brother, i guess, cause he's about 13ish. And we went into the jungle, him with big machete, to gather branches to put in the bird cages for encrichment for the birds.
Around the cages, Abuelo hangs out. He's a red green blue macaw, as far as i know he's wild but hangs out near this aviary. And he eats the buttons off everyone's clothes when they're hung on the washing line.
At first i was mistrustful but he kept walking on me when i was on the hammock today, so eventually i let him up on my shoulder. I'm nervous when he nibbles my ear -- macaws can crack nuts with their beak, i'm told -- but all it did was tickle a lot. So he rode on my shoulder and we carried buckets around today.
Variety is great but i dont want to do birds much more.
Today Pea says, "you're going to replace sandra today at monkey park. Then tomorrow you'll have a monkey job of your own."
yay i love pea
Today i did this: go to monkey park, clean up the food area (lots of tropical fruit craps -- LOTS) and then, hang out iwth monkeys. Take buckets down to the kitchen with a couple of people from spider monkey park, chop up fruit, bring it back and feed them. Hang out. Clean monkey shit from a cage. Speak with some bolivian tourists (in a choice of either Quechya or Spanish). Go to lunch! come back, hang with monkeys, sleep, clean up, feed monkeys, put some in cages. finish.
Good day. With MONKEYS!
Spider monkeys are slow and graceful and slick. Capuchins (in spanish, capuchinos) are smaller and really smart, cheeky, destructive foragers. Highly social. Squirrel monkeys are tiny, live in groups of about 500, and don't seem to have individual personalities that we can relate to. Squirrel monkeys avoid us.
So, cleaning a monkey cage, or walking anywhere in monkey park, involves either a capuchino or a spider monkey riding on your head. A couple of times, i'd have a capuchin on my head, then a spider would climb aboard. Spiders are much bigger than capuchins, so the capuchin gets squashed. Capuchin is not impressed and escapes at the first opportunity.
If you're bored at monkey park, grab a capuchin by the tail, pick it up and grab at its hands and play with it, they love it.
I love spider monkey politeness. Basically it works like this: "If he doesn't like what i'm doing then he will push me out of the way." So spiders will use you as a kind of mobile tree. Often i'm walking along and a spider walks along beside me, taking me by the hand and walking along with me.
And then, they'll wrap their tail around your arm, put a foot on your leg and climb aboard. Or use you as a springboard to launch into a tree.
If you sit on the tourist bench, they'll sit up next to you and wait to be patted or groomed. Or, they'll sprawl so you can rub their tummy. If you're not responsive to this they'll take your hand and show you, see, you should rub my tummy like this.
When you see how spider monkeys drift through trees you'll be gushing about it just like me.
Still, having 2 spiders ride on your head can be pretty heavy and tiring.
Yesterday Val started working with lishou, which means today that he and randy will be taking lishou. So i said i want to work with monkeys.
Arrived this morning, unsure of my next assignment. Pea says, natasha needs to do other stuff today so i'll replace her for today. Kewl.
Natasha gives me brief training then leaves me to it.
First, feed the birds. 9 cages, 16 birds. Mostly macaws. 2 near the office talk, so i'm constantly responding to "hola" and "fuerte" and some spanish i can't comprehend. Great, the birds have better spanish than i do.
The turkey hates me. Apparently, hates all boys.
I love rainy days in the jungle. Slipping between birdcages in the morning, filling their plates with tropical fruits and cornseed, then skilfully outmaneuvering the spider monkey who's hanging on the cage and watching all with interest. Making sure she doesn't get into the cage where i've prepared all the food, juggling a keyring with about 13 keys, and doing it all under the warning croak of a turkey and the horrible, horrible screeching of macaws -- a lot like horrible cockatoo screeching.
Then it's time to hang out with Quirqui, the retired puma. He doesn't seem to like me either. He's half blind and has arthritis, moves at turtle pace. Snaps at me if i go too close; i'm not sure if he's a biter or not. Didn't test.
I mostly sit across the room from him (he has his own room in a 2-room brick house; his neighbour is a serpent) -- or i spend time in the hammock outside and write.
It's fun to have the variety but i don't want to work with birds or quirqui anymore. Want monkeys!
Also, i fed the raptors today. Try not to interact with them much because they're going to be released soon. Enter the cage, under their nervous watchful gaze, throw them a scrap of meat each, and get myself out of there.
(The raptors are birds of prey -- falcons, not velociraptors. They're not going to release velociraptors into the wild... yay!)
Now he's pissed. He's growling and grumbling.
I'm giving him extra space on the trail :-)
Randy says, "Why don't you go on up ahead where he can't see you, and shake some leaves to try and get him moving."
Clearly randy has a solid respect for my bravery... he's told me, "hide over there and get an irate puma excited so that he'll come racing around the corner and see you."
I do it -- fortunately lishou doesn't race around the corner, he plods along and scowls at me and scowls at Randy.
We get to a rest spot at the top of the hill. This is the one randy said we should stop for, so lishou drops down and takes a break, drinks some water, licks my hand and purrs. He's happy now.
Randy says, "that's what i hate about being the one holding the leash -- i get to be the asshole."
:-) life's unfair. Right, lishou?
Lishou licking your hand feels like, ow ow! It feels like sandpaper and sounds like velcro.
When he purrs, you feel it in your chest, when you're standing 3 metres away. It's great.
So i'm at the cafe, reading Roy's file. Hi, people say, am i new?
"Yeah", i tell them, "I'm gonna work with Roy."
Ah, they say, they've heard about him.
Ah, they say, The Angel Of Death.
Oh wow, they say, they heard that six new people have tried Roy and failed in the last 2 weeks.
Ah, they say, good luck, and i'm gonna die.
Or, as the graffiti on the wall proudly proclaims, ROY EL REY (roy the king).
I head up to the cage with Ed, who will be holding the leash today, and meet Val, the second man. And i meet Roy, the puma. From a distance.
They get him on leash and we start walking. Roy goes up onto a log that crosses the trail. Oh, they say, that's weird. He's never done that before.... They tell me that i should go back down the trail a bit so he can't jump me.
Grrreat!
After that, we trot along without incident. There's plenty of secondhand clothes here, and gumboots, so i'm all suited up in the right outfit to smoosh through any kind of terrain -- up steep slopes, down muddy slopes, and along rocky creeks.
My challenge is to keep up today. If i can stay with these guys, then i'll be working with Roy for my time here.
Fortunately, i've done stacks of forestwalking, so i have a pretty good sense of where to put my feet on the path and not fall over.
But, the creeks are the hard part. I need to skip along the stones, smooth creek stones with my smooth gumboots and keep up the pace. Fortunately, my boots are lubricated with jungle mud, for extra slip.
Still, i was really excited when i discovered the benefit of gumboots. I could slide in mud, even walk the creek itself and my socks inside stayed in pristine condition!
PLONK, PLONK. Until i stepped in a creek that was too deep.
"Haha, awesome," i tell the others; "now my boots are full of water they're twice as heavy."
Going down hills: now that's the hard part. Going down steep slopes at brisk pace means you need to use your hands, and there's a really helpful kind of tree that grows in perfect handhold positions along the downhill parts of a trail. It's also covered in detachable thorns!
So now both my palms have a band of spots across them; they look kind of like the Milky Way.
Going up hills. That's the hard part. I'm basically running up each hill, because Roy doesn't slow down for them at all, and i'm navigating the mud with the fine control of a ninja.... a ninja with sore hands and lubricated gumboots.
But really -- creeks are the hard part. Jumping from stone to stone, keeping up, figuring out how the hell did those guys cross here? Ah i'll just go through the creek here.
PLONK, PLONK.
"Hey guys, it turns out my boots weren't full of water after all."
Of course, the hard part is running up hills, really long ones, with my boots now full of water, and puffing hard. This is tough!
At 3 hours from the start i trip and i stay down in the leaves, breathing. The others go on without me (it's pirates code i think). (also, we agreed this is what would happen if i stopped.)
Water tastes so good right now it should be illegal.
Failing the Roy Challenge. That's the hardest part!
Lishou, pronounced "lee shoo".
This morning on the way to lishou's cage i looked down and said, oh. There's an unexplained tortoise. In the same place we had to wait yesterday, for an unexplained bear on a leash blocking our path.
Lishou's got lots of energy this morning, probably because he's been sleeping so much on our walks.
Finally he's started jumping me & playing with me.
Most cats take the lead, but lishou prefers the second man to walk up front. So i'm up ahead, always looking back to check my distance -- i don't want to go too far out of sight or he'll stalk me; and don't want to go too close or he'll jump me :-) Jumped me yesterday, it was a surprise! but trivial. Just clawed the back of my trousers and then came off.
I can't really hear lishou walking but i hear randy walking (randy's the guy holding the leash=) -- so it's really handy that randy makes noise!
So, we're walking the trail today and i go over a hill, and just as i start down the steps i see up ahead: 2 spider monkeys on the trail. Crap.
Then lishou crosses the hill. Top speed! He zooms straight past me, dragging an unwilling Randy (who's taking 3 stairs at a time down the hill). I briefly consider attaching my second leash to lishou now but, could 2 of us really hold him back right now? And would we want to...?
Anyway the monkeys know the protocol for this situation. Sprint down the trail, leap into some flimsy trees (ones that couldn't possibly support the weight of a mountain puma), and stay the hell away from that cat.
In safety, both monkeys took a long, slow, relaxing piss. Phew.
After that, they were pretty cocky about the whole situation (as monkeys tend to be), following us along the path a bit, staying way up in the treetops.
Later at the playground.
We're waving and shaking branches for him -- actually they're smallish trees -- doing the matador thing so he can play. His momentum is incredible.
And then we put down the branches,
and i look up and see,
he's coming at me. He's been waiting all day for a chance to jump me - we could tell he so wanted to.
He's moving really fast.
Randy says, "Relax!"
Instinct: dodge a miniscule distance to the left. He changes direction to meet me; too easy.
I lean slightly right. No problem, he's got me targeted.
I look down at the tree in front of me. Pitifully small. He'll have no trouble getting around it. He really has all bases covered.
Jump!
He grabs my shoulder.
Relax? Sure, I'm almost relaxed.
He chews a couple of times on my shoulder, then climbs down. That was fun!, he thinks.
No harm done. I'm nearly relaxed!!
I don't understand how lishou decelerated so fast. If he hit me full speed i'd be flat on my back, probably after a full somersault.
I think, after all these energy bursts today, he's gonna stay at the playground way later than he's supposed to. He's meant to be back at the cage at 4pm for dinner but Lishou's respiratory problem, his coreyrodriguezitis, means he's resting a lot and we usually get back at twilight or dark.
Little yellow butterflies are nice.
I really like the butterfly that looks like dead leaves. It even has rough wings so they look like broken crumpled leaves.
This reminds me of my favourite favourite camouflage animal, the ant spider.
Obviously i've never seen one; if i didt then it would cease to be my favourite camouflage creature.
The ant spider holds its front 2 legs up so they look like antennae, and lives with ants. Then it lures individual ants away from the nest and devours them.
What a brilliant, fiendish asshole!!
This i think is cool enough to demote the chameleon to 2nd place (for the colour changing thing, and also their long sticky tongue.)
Remember:
* if you turn your back, you'll probably be jumped.
* if you don't know where your cat is he may jump you.
* if he's anxious, if you're blocking his path or pulling on the leash, he'll jump you.
* If you're acting scared or if you fall in front of him you're jumped for sure.
* If you're lower than him he'll want to jump down on you.
* And if he's got lots of energy, he's frisky playful or hungry, he'll probably do it anyway.
And:
* If he runs at you and you run away, he'll jump you bad, so don't do that!!
Heres another jungle creature. 2 easy ways to identify the bullet ant:
-- it you're bitten, it REALLY HURTS for about 24 hours -- i'm told. Officially classified as the most painful bite or sting of insects and arachnids.
-- if you put it up against a ruler and measure it, you will find that its length is approximately, fucking huge.
Imagine my elation when a bullet ant came into the bathroom tonight, while i was on the toilet! But...
This was, a bullet ant... with wings.
THIS IS CHEATING.
Now obviously i'm not going to kill it because, i love animals and i'm very peaceful, and also, have you seen what happens when you try and kill a flying insect and miss?
So i remain seated, watching those mandibles -- each the size of a large sugar ant -- and i wonder, hey maybe the ant will come next door to visit me tonight?
Ok, so now i'm standing with my left shoe in hand, prayying that it doesn't grab my shoe and try to grapple for control of it, and i'm waiting for the ant to move into a clear position away from the walls -- i'm hoping that the first hit will stun it enough so that the next few hits can wound it enough to slow it down.
BUT THEN! a different Jungle Thingie takes flight! From my vantage point below it, as it buzzed around the ceiling light, all i could see is that it had the body of.... well it had a body. And the wingspan of a big butterfly. Ok so the body looked like 2 green sticks side by side; probably it's just something harmless like, a venomous electrified praying mantis with wings.
Anyway. The point: it was flying around my head, i didn't want it on me, then it landed on me, i spazzed out and it came off, i left the room and SLAM the door.
Thought: I can only swat once; then the other creature will take to the air.
Thought: There's a 50% change the bullet ant goes to visit the chick who lives in the room next to mine instead of heading for my room.
Ok, so i go back to my room.
Good thing for them i love animals.
Maybe they are spending all their nation's cash on a foreign resource, like petroleum or iPods -- foreign resources that cost a lot because of currency differences?
how come they make no money with these skills?
Maybe in india they have the creativity trained out of them. by being overworked in school by teachers with the threat of poverty looming over them.
Or maybe they don't have time to develop their creativity cause they are living poor & don't have so much leisure time.
Maybe they're trained in basic work skills but there's little training or development in entrepreneurialism?
Maybe it's because they don't have direct experience with the kinds of products and issues we face in the first world. Like, amazon.com would be more obvious to someone who walks down the street and sees a lot of bookstores every day, or lots of people reading in the office in their leisure time.
Here's something: in india they probably mostly only learn programming from other indians, thus their learning is not so strong?
Because they don't have the coderbase built up already. And the language prevents them from really blabbing with americanos (where all the super programmers are at). And also because they dont have the playtime to love their computer and their code, like we do ours.
