A few pics of the place I live. It's so green!
It’s
currently about 3:30 here at the Costa Rica Animal Rescue Center. I’m making
this blog post earlier in the day than I usually do because, for one thing, I
have some free time right now, and also because this evening some of the
volunteers are planning to go out for pizza instead of having dinner here. The
food here usually isn’t bad, but it sounds really good to get something other
than rice, beans and plantains!
This blog
post will probably be pretty short since there’s not a lot of news to report.
Yesterday and today has consisted of more adjusting of some of the enclosures.
We’ve been paying extra attention to the kinkajous’ enclosure since it
definitely needs some work. Over the past two days we’ve added another layer of
green mesh around two sides of the enclosure to give them better shade, as well
as moved around a few ropes and branches, but the best thing we did was this
morning. Erandi and I decided that they needed a better, sturdier platform both
for them to rest on and to put their water dish on. The platform that was
currently in there was small and just hanging by ropes, so their bowl would
often spill.
Yesterday
afternoon I found a wood pallet that would work as a better platform, but it
was too big and some of the wood pieces around the sides were starting to rot.
So this morning I spent some time sawing off the extra wood from the pallet- it
took quite a bit of sawing and my arm felt like jelly by the time it was ready!
When that was done, Erandi and I found another branch and added it to the
enclosure, forming a triangle of branches that the platform could sit sturdily
on. The two kinkajous were hiding in
their little house for pretty much the entire time we were in there working,
thankfully.
Finally, we
brought the platform in and placed it on the branches, adjusting it until it
was firmly and safely sitting on the branches. We then moved the water bowl and
sat it on the platform. Once we had gotten out of the enclosure, within a few
minutes the male kinkajou poked his head out of the house, climbed over to the
platform, and plopped right down in the middle of it. It was a pretty windy
morning, and the platform must’ve definitely felt better than the house since
he could feel the cool breeze a lot more. I went back to that enclosure this
afternoon and checked again, and he was still spread out on the platform. It
took a lot of work and sweat to build the platform and safely set it up in
there, and it was so gratifying to watch him immediately come out and use it!
A few of the
newer volunteers are talking about going to La Fortuna, the area around the
Arenal Volcano, on Thursday, and I may join them. I have a tour booked there
for February tenth, but the tour doesn’t include zip lining, which is something
that I really want to do. I’m not sure I’ll make a blog post tomorrow, so if I
end up going to La Fortuna on Thursday, which I probably will, it may be a few
days before you hear from me again! This post’s food for thought: “Nature holds
the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual
satisfaction.”- E.O. Wilson
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