Cayo Characters

Sometimes I think it should be called Iguana Island



How can one tell the difference between individual monkeys?
Well at first I was learning them by ear notches and tatoos, but here's
an example of some pretty distinct faces.
Above=17K
Below=99L
They're around the same age, but very different faces,
one rather ugly, one a pretty good looking monkey.



Below: guy w/o a nose.

Below, a female with a very bad wound. It has been
getting bigger by the day, and smells very bad.
Unfortunately, we must let nature take its course.

Bebes

Its birth season!!! There 3 babies so far born in my group, and they are in that half way too cute and half ugly stage. Interestingly and as expected, the three females who have had babies so far are 3 who’s infants died last year. They were able to go into estrus earlier than the other females who were probably still lactating, some Life History Theory for ya.

Besides these two pieces of exciting news, not too much has changed in Punta Santiago. Pandora, my doggy has learned some new tricks. There’s been a kitten living inside the stairs but not inside the patio gate to my house, being whiny as hell and making both the dogs bark at her all day, that’s been annoying.

I do have a place in my heart for this small town that I live in. A few weeks ago when I went on a weekend excursion with Grace, Matt, and J.P. I learned a lot about the countryside of PR, mostly that there are many many small dilapidated towns. One part of “dilapidated” that I can put into words is that there are usually buildings painted many different colors, but all of them fading because of the intense heat and sun. It gives the towns a feeling like they’ve stood still for many, many years, and brings me to understand Garcia Marquez books to an even more extreme degree than I already do.

After driving through many small towns in many a beautiful countryside, it was nice to return home to Punta Santiago, MY dilapidated Puerto Rican town.

The weather report

When the sky is darker than the water, that means its going to rain.

Yes, Puerto Rico has been an interesting place to be during this 2008 Hurricane season’s line-up of hurricanes. Gustav, Hannah, Ike, and Josefine. We got some rain from Gustave, Ike skipped us completely, but Hanna and Josefine caused a ruckus here for sure. Hannah, who hit us last Wednesday, Sept. 3^rd, kept us from going to the island. Guessing the weather is a big deal here, because the boat guys have final decision on if we go, or if we leave the island early.

So Wednesday I got up and went about my daily routine to get ready, but when I got to the office to pick up ice for the poo-packs, the guys said we weren’t going to the island. I was kind of confused because the weather looked alright.

About an hour later, the weather changed quickly. A rapid wind came, causing waves in the ocean and people to look out their windows on our street. I think the schools around us (there are 2 in my very small neighborhood) were having recess, and ran out to the end of my street to watch the ocean, excitedly talking and screaming. Ina, my new housemate who is here from University of Davis for a month put it the right way. She said “it’s nice to see them acting like kids, not like thugs.” Sooooo true.

Then of course, every time it stopped raining I’d try to take my doggy for a walk it would start pouring again, which was about 13 times that day. Ina, Matt, and I played GinRummy for a few hours, it was a nice day.

And Josefine: wheeeew its been hard to sleep during Josefine. She came by yesterday, Saturday evening and then all night. She made pretty much the loudest thunder I’ve ever heard, and put on a brilliant light show. I was watching Saturday Night Live on Saturday Night, and although the host was Tina Fay, I chose to lie in my bed and watch the lightning and listen to the thunder.

After a night of rain (when we do go to Cayo the next morning) we will find group R all huddled around the "monkey rain shelter" which is actually a water catching device. On all other days when I find them, around 7:10 or so, they are dispersed. I believe it is because they do not sleep as well on rainy nights, and so they are still groggy. Its pretty adorable, not to mention wonderful for sample collection.