The Latest Addition

Been a long time, been a long time… a Led Zep song spring to mind! Well, we had a pretty busy two weeks with Dad and I think he went home a stone lighter after the heat due to the activities and the manual labour that he did whilst he was here! Since then we have moved house to a temporary stop for 5 weeks or so whilst the home owners of our house sit have returned. It’s in the same town, a bit nearer to work so it's only a 15 minute cycle home in 80 degrees Fahrenheit after a day’s labour as opposed to 30! It makes all the difference! Dangerously though, it's nearer to all the restaurants in town, too tempting!

So we are enjoying spending time with the animals still and I know that a lot of you are interested in the animal rescue so here’s the latest. This little monkey was found on the beach, about 8, maybe 9 weeks old alone, crying for it’s mother and was bought into the rescue centre. It’s mother was nowhere to be found sadly. It was very weak for a few days and we weren’t sure if it was going to make it but the owners of the centre nursed it back to health and when it was strong enough, they confidently named him Afro. Afro grew in strength considerably and soon started to show the older monkeys who was the boss! Shortly after the vet arrived and announced that she was in-fact a girl, henceforth came the prompt name change to Cocoa.

Cocoa, whilst very confident amongst the troop in general, made a beeline for the Cuka one of the oldest females in the group and fortunately Cuka showed maternal instincts towards her. They are pretty inseparable now which is wonderful. This is not common as the howlers are not necessarily maternal. There are two other young ones that are only a little older but neither of them have bonded with any particular older female in the troop. I guess Cocoa is just lucky. She likes to ride on Cuka’s back and when they go to the jungle for their daily outing, she scales the heights of the highest trees on her new Mum’s back. Hopefully she will be climbing up them on her own one day.

Baz Jones in Puerto Viejo

Well, it's been a while again. I don't know where the time goes, but generally we have been busy working and sight seeing on our days off. Dad arrived here on Thursday and is staying with us for two weeks in the place that we are house sitting still. We were very excited to see him, and I was mostly excited about the Baked Beans, Branston Pickle and Marmite that he had in his case for me. Oh and some very hot curry powder for Rene the Chef!

So on his first day we took him to lunch in a nice beach cafe, then out in the evening to sample some of the Caribbean flavour of the town. First to our favourite restaurant called Flip Flop where they serve amazing Caribbean curries then on to some bars with live reggae music. We told him that there were some character's here, and most of them were out that night on the dance floor! Poor Dad was shattered from his trip but he lasted the night out in true Jones style!

The next day he wanted to go fishing, so I suggested a short cycle ride to a bay where the water is usually calmer, which turned out to be 10 miles or so away! It's so hot, he sweat a few pounds off on the way and since he hasn't cycled for about 10 years, he was cursing me and wishing that he was having an easy day at work! He loved it really. Well the fishing turned out to be a joke, we caught some leaves, some seaweed and a shell - nothing barely edible and stopped off at the fishmongers on the way home to buy our supper!

The next day we took him to work with us at the animal rescue centre. He did some serious manual labour for a few hours, raking and cleaning, then got to spend some time with the monkeys and sloths which he loved! He got lots of kisses from one of the female monkey's that took a shine to him.

Last night we had a bit of a party, with 4 guitars we sang a whole load of random songs with our neighbours Jana and Tom and their friends over from the States. Tom got a new guitar bought over from the States which was the envy of all of us. An Epiphone Jumbo sunburst, sounded lovely! It put our £50 Eko acoustic travelling guitars to shame!

So, more adventures ahead during Dad's stay which include waterfall walks tomorrow and a three day trip to Panama on Monday! He'll be glad for the rest when he goes home!

Too Long

Well, it's been a while since I blogged because we have had Julia here for three weeks and have been busier than usual.

She is on the plane home right now and has had a great holiday here with us in CR, just what she needed. The weather was glorious the whole time too as rainy season has pretty much ended now, hoorah! Here are some pictures of her at the animal rescue centre - with baby monkey Manila on her head and her favourite smiley sloth - Arrojito. She loved working with the animals as you can imagine! She came to work with us for 6 days out of the three weeks, the rest of the time we enjoyed some sight seeing, beaches, yoga and pilates (!) and some fun social nights out with friends.

My Dad will be joining us next on 23rd February for two weeks. We will be busy showing him around and also taking a three day trip to Panama with him as we need to do another Visa run during his stay. It's almost six months since we have been here, wow how time flies!

Primates Are Our Mates

Another week has gone by and we have worked mostly at the Rescue Centre. We had a heavy week of rain but a beautiful day on the beach yesterday. When the sun is out here it's pretty hot so a couple of hours on the beach is enough to fry even us sun worshippers. Here is a video of one day last week when we were in the monkey cages so you can see what they are really like. (Having trouble with video upload but working on it!) For those of you on facebook you can see it there.

Today Rene has taken a bus to San Jose, the capital city to pick up Julia from the airport tonight. It's technically not that far away but the bus takes 4 - 5 hours because the roads are not exactly great here. Hopefully she will land safe this evening and Rene will bring her down here tomorrow for her three week holiday. We think she will love it here especially when she gets to meet all the animals!

So today I went to work on my own and was in charge of the afternoon in the jungle shift. This entails watching the monkeys play in the tree's until they are tired then they insist on a sleep on the blanket. The ones pictured here are all aged between 3 months and 2 years old, are all orphans and gradually being rehabilitated back into the wild with our daily jungle trips!

Room at the Inn

They just keep on coming, orphaned wild animals that is. A couple of baby sloths have just been bought into the centre due to their mothers being killed by dogs. The one with a stripey face is a three toed sloth and the ligher coloured one is a two toed sloth.

Our job yesterday was to run the creche at the rescue centre. This entailed looking after/feeding these two sloths, four baby possums, two infant monkeys and a 6 week old squirrel. We got a rug out on the grass and sat round them and made sure that they got a bit of sunshine but kept them protected from the hungry hawks that lurked overhead as we fed them.

Our next job was to take the monkeys to the jungle for their 2 hour play on their favourite tree. However, once out of their cages, the wild monkeys caused such a stir again that our rescue monkeys all dispersed in different directions. Have you ever tried chasing a monkey?? Likelyhood is that unless you are Seb Coe, they will win. It was about 80f and after about an hour of trooping back and forth through harsh jungle flora and fauna and having lost half a stone (didn't mind that bit!), we managed to get them all back together by bribing them with bananas, not by speed that's for sure! It's absolutely exhausting work but most enjoyable. The cycle ride home from the centre usually takes us about half an hour but we always stop for a drink on the beach to reflect on our day, and how lucky we really are. Also because we are too exhausted to ride all the way home in one go!!

Rene with one of the older sloths, having a dance!

A Monkey In The Hand Is Worth Two In The Bush

This beauty on my lap is Coonga. She was a rescue monkey at the Centre but now is wild, well wildish! She is still keen on human cuddles and hand cut fresh fruit and comes down the tree from her now natural habitat to spend time with the humans and rescue monkeys on their daily outing to the jungle. Today she sat on my lap for half an hour. She is very cuddly and we think she is pregnant too!

Every day the 9 rescue monkeys get taken to the Jungle just outside the Centre for their two hour play come rain or shine. There are a couple of older females in the group that are almost ready to go wild, and they are around two and half years old. There is a male howler monkey that sits and waits for them and he is we think the father to be of Coonga's baby as we have seen them being intimate. Anyway this fellow is pictured on the right, with the white balls! He is definately a male. He comes close enough to check us out and all the rescue monkeys playing, but never close enough to humans to touch. We just admire him from afar, whilst he admires all the teenage female monkeys in our troop! The younger monkeys are really scared of him and they all go a bit crazy when he appears, so we have to hold them tight by their tales until they calm down!

Also today, I was looking after a baby squirrel, who's mother got killed by the electricity wires, and he - Leno is now care of the centre until he is old enough to fend for himself. The picture is not that great but he is really tiny.

Oh and today I got bitten by one of the naughty monkeys, on the arm. It's okay though, no permanent damage done, we just have to be a bit careful when they reach that funny age. Same as teenagers really, you never know what to expect!

Days Like These

We are not entirely sure if we are lucky, jammie or blessed, but our house sitting job just got extended today by another 3 - 4 weeks until March! To top that, the sun was out and glorious for the first time in a while. Bikini's on, bikes ready and off we went to explore a bit and see the sea. A beautiful gecko decided to snooze on one of our bike wheels whilst on the beach, and then of course we ended up having lunch and a beer in a lovely cafe opposite the beach.

We are meeting with someone who's in real estate this week who knows somebody who's

looking for housesitters in the spring, and to run their hotel whilst they are away for a few months. That could be interesting. That's the beauty of a trip like this..if you have no plans, anything can happen and it pretty much is. I had a guilty moment whilst sitting at the cafe today, looking at the sea, and I asked Rene if it was bad, that we weren't working and sitting there on a Tuesday afternoon...and he replied 'no' and ordered two more beers!

Lots of people have been asking me what the town is like so I have added a new page to the blog and spent the rest of the day taking pictures of town for you to see. See the Around the town link.