Relaxing in Puerto...with some Bot Flies!

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Hello everyone,

I am currently sitting on a comfy bed in a room at Peru Amazonica hostel in Puerto Maldonado, watching TV and enjoying the unlimited electricity and internet. I am also blowing my nose every few minutes, as I’ve developed a cold, and have my hair pinned up in an unusual manner so Karina can apply clear nail varnish to the three bot flies that have made their home in my scalp! Nail varnish suffocates the larva so they can then be squeezed out. I first noticed two small lumps on my head whilst on the Collectivo down to Puerto on Saturday. We have taken this short break from CICRA to collect the caller monkey Mini and Gideon found last time they were here. The time here has also given us all a chance to eat ice-cream, buy pretty dresses and go dancing at discotheques! One particular highlight of the past few days was playing a drinking game version of the board game “Settlers of Catan”. It’s a rather complicated game to begin with but its even worse when you have to remember when to drink and after a fair amount of rum and coke!

I’m now racking my brain to remember what exciting things have happened since I last updated my blog. The day after I updated we had several days of intense rain that stopped us from going out. Those days were spent updating data and playing “Settlers of Catan” - we seem to play this an awful lot! During those days we all wished the rain would let up. When it did, it went from one extreme to the other and the temperature soared to over 35 degrees. We were able to go out again but the heat was almost unbearable. Erin, Karina and I did manage to find a new group of 5 adults and 2 very young twins, bringing the total number of tamarins around CICRA to over 90. Now we just have to trap them!

Sorry folks but the bot fly related headache and the draw of American TV with Spanish subtitiles is preventing me from remembering the finer details of the past few weeks. I’ll keep you updated on the progress of removing the bot flies!

Lots of love
Emma and the monkeys
xxxx

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Comments

[Alex Cagan]

Sounds like you're having a great, if bot infested, time. Keep enjoying it all!

[Lizzie]

Ooooh Catan! I'll swap you two sheep for a brick... ;o) Hope your bot flies are out soon! Sounds like more exciting advetures... it is slowly turning to spring here, light when I leave work (well when I do it before 8 it is...) and it has been t-shirt weather for me for about a month (no one has started joining me yet but it hasn't snowed in over a month so it must be warm!) Have Fun! xXx Lizzie