The Return of Green Parakeets and Sally

The first time I was on Ometepe was three Januarys ago, as a TA for Pablo’s field course on primate behavior. At the time, I was testing the waters to see if this kind of fieldwork was really what I wanted to do with my life. On one of our last days here, he gave me some free time to go out to the forest and explore by myself, to figure out what I needed to figure out. So I walked to the Machete Forest and set an ultimatum. I said to myself: " Self, if you find the monkeys here, on your own, you are going to do this thing." If I didn’t find the monkeys, I’d either measure baboon brains for my thesis project, or quit and work at the running store, or start over and try to get into physical therapy school.

As you may have guessed, I found the monkeys.

I remember looking up at the monkeys that day; they were in a big tree that was almost barren of leaves but had plenty of pale pink flowers. The tree was a mystery to me at the time, but now I know it well as Madero negro (Gliricidia sepium)—a tree they eat from constantly. I also recall that they weren’t alone in the tree. What seemed like hundreds of squawking green parakeets noisily fluttered around in the uppermost branches, gorging on the delectable flowers. From down on the ground, the birds just seemed like blurs, but when I looked at them through my binoculars, I saw what a beautiful bright green they were.

With the return of the season of flowers, the bright parakeets have returned as well. Today they were making such a racket that my ears were actually ringing when I finally made my way out of the forest and to the comparative silence of the road. I hadn’t thought of those green parakeets that I saw 3 years ago while out in the forest by myself—not until today when I noticed that they had returned. I remembered my ultimatum, and I was glad that I had found the monkeys that day.

As if the green parakeets were not enough, my little dog Sally has returned as well. Maybe I haven’t written about her: she is a little stray dog who used to show up at the Hacienda around dinnertime. There are a lot of strays around here, and we’re not supposed to feed them because that encourages them to stay. Rob has warned me not to get attached to the stray dogs—more often than not, they are hungry and tired and do not meet a happy ending. This happened with Anita, the first stray dog I fell in love with after I got here. For the first couple of weeks, she followed me everywhere. She was dirty and probably disease-ridden, but she was so cute that I couldn’t help petting her. Then one day she disappeared and I never saw her again. Every night I eyed up the strays, searching for one I could love. I finally found another cute little dog and started calling her Sally. Every once and a while I snuck her bits of food and petted her soft little head. When I called “Sally!” she would come to me, as if she knew her name. But ever since we’ve been back after Christmas, I haven’t seen Sally. Just when I’d resigned myself to her sad fate, she showed up at dinner last night. At first I don’t think she remembered me, but I called her and she came running.

I don’t have any good photos of her, because she only comes around at night. Here’s one I took before we left in December; its all blurry because she wouldn’t stop moving: