"The Russians are coming!"

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Since I last wrote a blog very little has happened. I’ve been stuck at camp, again, trying to beat this retched kidney infection. I have managed to finish three more trashy romance novels!

On the topic of romance…a few weeks ago the women of CICRA heard a rumour that at the beginning of February a group of young, Russian students would be coming to watch birds for a week. This set many a heart a flutter (not mine of course as I am very happy with the young man I’ve got already). Then, last Friday, the Russians arrived but to the horror of the female population they were old and rather overweight! I found it all hilarious, especially has they only seemed to wear camouflage and had HUGE camera lenses.

After everyone’s initial disappointment, the Russians were more or less ignored and got on with watching the birds they had come so far to see. That was until the last night when they pulled out their secret (and large) stash of alcohol! As I couldn’t drink because of the antibiotics I was perfectly sober to enjoy the spectacle that occurred right before my eyes that night. The evening started quite sedately as our comrades regaled us with rousing folk songs. There was, alas, no cosak dancing but oh well. As the bottles became emptier, conversations became louder and singing was forgotten in favour of trying to make pisco sours (a famous Peruvian tipple). Karina and Lucy took it upon themselves to get lemons from a near-by tree by Lucy climbing into the tree to shake the branches. In her slightly inebriated state she inadvertently shook a branch with no lemons on it but eventually one fell to the ground and the two of them claimed victory. After even more alcohol, the Russians began to sing their national anthem followed by other communistic songs. We were rather surprised that Adrian (the station manager) joined in with them all. He explained that as a native Cuban, he had sung these songs many times before but it still made a humorous sight. The evening ended rather abruptly when the power ran out at about 10pm as everyone scrambled to find their torches. It was a very bizarre night!

In other news, Mini and Gideon left camp a few days ago for Puerto Maldonado in search of a caller animal. Nearly every single study that has involved catching wild saddleback tamarins has used a young animal to call and lure groups into traps. These animals usually come from the pet trade and often don’t end up in particularly good environments after the study has finished. Mini had hoped she wouldn’t need to use a caller animal to trap but so far has not had any luck in convincing animals from our less well studied groups into the traps. It was with great sadness that she finally admitted defeat and is currently looking for an animal from a rescue centre that she can borrow for a few months.

Despite taking antibiotics for 5 days I haven’t seen any improvement in the pain in my kidneys so have decided to visit a doctor in Puerto. Mini and Gideon are already there so they can help. I’m not quite sure what to expect when I get to the doctors but I do know that I have to get the collectivo boat (one that runs every day and stops at various points along the river) tomorrow at 5am. The return trip, that I will have to take in a few days, will probably take 10 hours! I’m not really looking forward to that. I will be bringing my laptop with me so I can keep you all updated on how it goes. Wish me luck!!!

Love Emma and the monkeys
xxxx

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Comments

[Lizzie]

Oooh good luck, hope you are well soon! Glad you like the comments it is lovely being able to keep up ith what is happening and send good vibes :o) xXx