Monkey See Monkey Do

The last couple days have been amazing here! On Tuesday afternoon our group headed "into the field" to do a survey of the highly endangered species Proboscis monkeys. We took the bus to Stan's house (a researcher who has been helping us with everything along the way). We hung out in the village there with the children for a couple hours until the tide was high enough to get into the boats. He lives in a village where the houses are built over the water on stilts and their "driveways" is the waterway.

The village people and children were so welcoming and excited. A man invited a few of us to sit on his patio on some couches, fully knowing that we wouldn't be able to communicate, but just happy to let us sit. The children also taught us how to count to ten in Bahasa (Indonesian) but of course, I forgot most of it already.

The amount of garbage in the river leading to the ocean in this village is unbelievable. You cannot see even a cm through the water it is so murky and it is filled with bags, plastic, bottles... anything. This village seems so poor financially, but they are so, so happy. The children wear the biggest smiles and are excited to learn anything from us. It was amazing.

So, out in the field we stayed on this wooden platform in the middle of the rainforest! Of course a mosquito net was necessary as it was a malaria risk zone. Tuesday afternoon we took a boat ride for about two hours up the river and for an hour we found this group of Proboscis monkeys playing in the trees next to the river. We stopped and boat and just listened to them jumping around, snapping leaves and calling for one another. We could also see them at some points and through the binoculars we were able to see their ridiculous noses! My friend Cass and I swear we saw a baby monkey fall about 30 feet out of the tree when it tried to jump across. I hope it's ok...

We hung out at camp that night, slept in the sweltering heat and then got up at 5 the next morning to begin the search for more monkeys. A little luck, we found 3 big males. We also headed to an abandoned shrimp farm that has killed miles of mangrove. Don't eat shrimp!!! I'll try and put pictures up. The mangrove where the farm was looks like the elephant graveyard from the Lion King from only one year of production.

We were back at the hotel last night for a much needed shower and rest. Off to stay at Stan's house tonight in the village.

xo