Simeon’s Forest

Sunday 13 August 2006

Simeon led me to some monkeys higher up on the volcano than where I had been looking. We encountered a huge group. At least 20 monkeys, including 4 or 5 males and 4 or 5 juveniles. It was perfect. Simeon left to go home (after making very certain that I would not get lost), and I stayed with the monkeys for several hours. Was just about to leave when I decided to find another group that I had heard howling all day. I got to them no problem. As soon as I got there, I saw a male and female mating, and then I saw a female with an infant so new it still had its umbilical cord attached. There was another male in the group who appeared curious about me. He climbed over to a tree right above me and came down very low to look at me. He began to break some tree branches with his hands and throw them at me!! I couldn’t believe it. He did not have very good aim, but still, I had no idea that howler monkeys would do such a thing. Obviously, this group is not habituated to humans very well.

I thought my day had been exciting, but Rob’s day trumped all. He had ridden his bike to Altagracia in 62 minutes—the same amount of time it takes to go there by car. On the way back he had 2 flats, and he had to rely on the help of passers-by to fix them. Once, he had to back track about 600 meters to some guy’s house who supposedly fixes bikes. The guy wasn’t at home, so Rob went swimming until he returned.

By the time Rob got back to Mérida, he was in bad shape. He could not eat lunch and was really dehydrated. I found someone to go get him a coconut so that he could drink the coco water (good for rehydration). He asked for ice, so I got some for him in the kitchen. He slept until dinner, then did not eat very much, and went back to bed.

I wasn’t thinking that it was that serious. He’s always riding his bike too far and getting dehydrated. He drinks a lot, sleeps a lot, and then is fine. I was sure this time would be the same