I awoke early this morning dreading the sound of my alarm for I knew this meant that the day would begin and I would have to face another day of blood, sweat and tears. Resident tour duties today and I actually took some comfort in reminiscing that Charly was the person who initially taught me this, my very first tour of duty.

I don’t even think of the food prep mayhem in the Bodega anymore, I just peal, mash, cut and throw the bits in the appropriate buckets.

A bullet Ant – if this pinches you apparently you feel as though you’ve been shot and the pain lasts for 30 mins😱 They were everywhere and just added to my stressful jungle life

The morning passed without any incidents apart from Suzu, the beautiful wee Paraqueet who always lands on my shoulder when I enter the Aviary but today for some strange reason she didn’t appear. I did think this strange and had a look around the enclosure but I couldn’t identify her from all the rest. After cleaning and feeding all the birds I left and locked the cage and that’s when she appeared, she had escaped and came flying down from one of the trees. I quickly opened up the enclosure and returned her to the safety of her perch. Should a monkey have caught her it would have most definitely have killed her. It transpires that there was a hole in the wire mess from where she squeezed her tiny wee body through.

At last, 11am and it was tea break time, it had been a hard long morning from 7:30 and I was ready for a wee sit down.

T-break seamed to take ages to come yet passed in an flash!!

Mug washed and it was time to walk up to the plantation to gather a selection of leaves for the Howler monkeys. Its a steep climb up to the top and then the path opens out on to a plateau where quite a variety of fruit plants are growing. Identifying and picking the right leaves is so important, I didn’t want to poison any of the babes.

Dylan ( the Dutch 19 year old Dutch volunteer) has asked me to look for the floating turtle. A turtle who, for some reason has air trapped under his shell and cannot submerge under the water, instead, he can only float with either the left or right hand side prodruding up through the Lillies. After much poking and proding we didn’t find him. Hopefully he was out lying among the vegetation somewhere.

The afternoon was just a repeat of the morning and I was keen to get it over with, to have a shower and relax before dinner. I was off tomorrow and I couldn’t wait.

I’ve had the most prolific D+ for three days and curry probably wasn’t the best option for dinner but I ate it and will probably regret it during the night.

Off to bed early. I try to read but I can hardly focus and my eyes are so heavy.

Lying here listening to music – bliss!

Nite

😘

12th October

Today I should be excited that it is my day off but due to continuing dysentry I have to be confined to the compound which makes me more than sad as I wanted to go to Curimana to phone home. It’s so good to get away for the day and, although it makes me incredibly homesick and I miss everyone back home, I want to hear their voices. I feel so lonely here, the age gap is way too much.

I tried to do nice things today – use my new camera at the port and also took it to sit in the sunshine in the quiet and tranquility by the beautiful waterfall in the sun but my spirit was very low and I found it extremely difficult to do anything with any amount enthusiasm.

The South erican Coati that was set free but comes back for her dinner every night.

I went back to the Volvo house and went to bed till 5pm.

Holly and I were on dinner duty tonight – the last thing I needed actually – we made potato and leek soup followed by spagetti Bolognese without the meat.

Bella and Mia are leaving tomorrow and a new volunteer is coming – 22yr old Lisa – from Italy 😱

The floating turtle was found dead in the pond this afternoon, I wasn’t surprised but I extremely saddened that he was left there to his suffer his own fate alone – he probably drowned.

In bed for 8:30pm, dysentry ongoing. Not sure how I will cope with baby monkey tour tomorrow, I have no energy and find the animals in these enclosures very stressful!!

Oh god, I don’t want to close my eyes for morning will come too quick!

Nite

😘

13th October

Oh good God, my first day of 4 days on. Today is baby monkey tour. It’s a tough day and I have to endure the mayhem of that bloody Bodega again.

Life here is becoming too complicated, frustrating, stressful and not at all enjoyable. My dysentry still rampages, the mozzies and bugs are still biting me everywhere, and I’m so exhausted through lack of nutrition.

It was fun to watch Darwin ( an older howler monkey) play with the other two baby monkeys – a capachin and a spider monkey

I have to wait for 4 days to speak to Rachel to ask her to organise a flight back to Lima for me. I’m hoping to leave on 21st – not that I’ve told ‘The Establishment’ yet, I’ll wait till it is all organised. I really hope it can be sorted. I’m off again on Sunday and will return to Curimana to phone Rachel again with fingers and toes firmly crossed.

I was contemplating taking the boat to Puccallpa – would it be better than sitting in a pickup – I have no idea

I cried tonight in the privacy of my own bed under my mosquito net, something I was determined not to do – but I did 😢

It’s my birthday tomorrow – my big 60 😱. For some stupid bloody reason I had this idiotic idea that I would like to spend it in the Amazon jungle surrounded by wildlife but in all honesty, I’d rather be home!! Or at least certainly not here!!!

I’ve just returned from the Volvo house where I tried to eat a veggie burger – 🤮. It hit my stomach like a rock and I’m sure I’m going to suffer tonight/tomorrow!!

Last few hours of being 50 something 😱

Night

😘