Traveling Applejax

Mike and I have been very busy hiking in the Andes, but I’m not going to tell you about that until a later date. For now, it’s just my excuse for the time between posts. I still have a lot to catch you up on from our Amazon jungle visit, so we’ll just have to take things one step at a time.

Lucky for you, this post is going to be very photo heavy. To start off with, however, I’ll give you the answer to the last trivia question: we were not bombarded with monkey poo, thank God. Unfortunately, this means that Mike lost a few whiskers, and that I celebrated Spring Break properly by flashing a few people. A monkey decided to climb right up me, and when he grabbed hold of my top he damn near pulled it off. I have no photo evidence of this (good!), but Mike did snap a bunch of photos of the monkeys riding the dog.

The monkeys and the dog were among the many animals we saw at a small animal sanctuary outside of Iquitos. As you can see, the monkeys were free to run about as they pleased.

He looks so comfortable.

Maria, the three-toed sloth was another boarder at the sanctuary, but she had a cage…

…not that her cage kept us from visiting her. Her fur was very coarse, but she was completely chill (as I suppose one would imagine a sloth to be). The whole time I held her she kept her feet and arms sticking out to the sides; she felt so stiff she could have been a plastic doll.

Next we met Anna, a 4 year-old anaconda. She was only about 9 feet long, but a full-grown anaconda can be 45 feet long and as thick as a tree trunk.

What a pretty snake!

I held it too, but it was kind of creepy. Ana was quite heavy and squirmy (unlike Maria), but her scaley skin felt really cool.

This is a pretty weird turtle, huh? So pre-historic looking…

Here’s a gorgeous butterfly shot.

This bird was wandering around the sanctuary. Although I don’t know what it’s called, I thought it made a nice photo.

This bird was in a cage, but I don’t remember what it was called either. It’s fierce though. Our guide pissed it off and it hissed very loudly. Also, all the feathers on its neck stood up so that it looked like it had a mane.

This is one big jungle rodent (a capabara)!

We took a boat out to the animal sanctuary and passed a boat repair yard on the way.

We had so much fun at the animal sanctuary that the next day we took a boat to another sanctuary and butterfly farm. This is the gorgeous Blue Morpho butterfly. They are about as big as my hands and look absolutely stunning when flying through the jungle.

Here’s a different butterfly species, close-up.

The caterpillars were kind of cool, too.

All of the monkeys at the Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm and Animal Sanctuary were free to roam about.

Unfortunately this Uakari monkey is an endangered species found only in the Amazon. It’s pretty ugly though, so maybe that’s why it’s endangered. Who would want to mate with such an ugly beast?

Tony, the white-faced capuchin monkey was a mischeivious little bastard. Our guide told us to watch our things closely because he robs people.

He liked to ride on my shoulders. We caught him trying to get a drink from my water bottle that was attached to the backpack at one point. He ended up biting a hole in the top and now it leaks a little. Also, it’s quite obvious how strong a monkey’s tail is when it is wrapped around your neck and he’s hanging by it.

Tony must have been thirsty that day because he later went digging through a garbage can to come up with this straw. He brought it over to a puddle and tried his best to get it to work right.

Tony wasn’t the only thirsty monkey. His friend found a bottled water in the garbage, unscrewed the cap, and drank some of the water that was left.

We weren’t allowed in the jaguar cage, but that was probably a good thing because he looked hungry!

The tapir was interesting, though not as fun as the monkeys. Tapirs are rather large animals (kind of like really big pigs).

The giant anteater was cool, although we were told that they get much larger than this.

She was enjoying her breakfast when we saw her. Apparently anteater tongues are up to 180 centimeters long!

The farm had beautiful Macaws too.

The howler monkeys were fun to see (and hear) up close.

Mike said this photo reminds him of the Michelangelo painting of God and Adam.

Such harmony! This picture features three different kinds of monkey (howler, capuchin, and spider).

Here’s that cute little spider monkey on his own.

Okay, that’s it for now, but the next blog will feature photos from our 3-day Amazon jungle expedition. Eventually I may even get caught up to present time, but don’t count on that happening anytime soon. Our only big news lately is that Mike’s parents are going to be joining us for the second half of April. We’re looking forward to their visit!

Alright, I’m done. Don’t miss the new trivia question!