Creepy Crawlies!

While I was in Bergendal, I had many encounters with interesting insects, spiders and bugs. They grow them a lot bigger here in the Caribbean! During a hike in the forest, I found a walking stick that was about 10 inches long! I didn't have my camera at the time, but there were a lot of other times when I had it at the right moment and I got some cool pictures of the critters I encountered.

Sergio found this huge grasshopper in his room!

He wasn't so scary once you had a good hold on his legs - but not too hard, we didn't want to harm him!

Here is Dicky, one of our two resident tarantulas. It is said that having a tarantula around brings good luck, and we've got two! Unfortunately, when the house was sprayed for termites, Alois, our third, died from the chemicals. We still have Dicky though, and Woody who lives in a tree around the corner.

Below is the home-in-progress of the leaf cutter ants. This is one of their ant hills. They are so cute, and busy all the time. At all hours of the day one can see them crossing our path, big leafs in tow.

I told you they grow everything bigger here! I have seen a lot of termite nests while we walk through the jungle, but this is the largest one I have encountered. It is right on the path we cut for the Tamrin research, and it is a little eerie to go past.

Me standing next to the epic termite mound to give you an idea of scale

Plants of Bergendal

Hello! Sorry for not updating in a while, but I did not have stable enough internet connections at Bergendal to write anything. I will also be returning there on Wednesday, so I don't know when the next update will be. But here is one now for you to see :) (It's really long, so you might have to click "see more" below to get the full post)

The  rain forest is home to hundreds of thousands of different plant species, resulting in a lush beauty that is hard to describe. Luckily, I took some pictures to help me show you!

This is breadfruit imported from Asia. 

It is really spikey and slimey when you peel it!

                                                   Me on the rain forest trail

We had to wear bandanas or hats whenever we went into the forest to prevent bot flies from choosing our scalps as hosts! Our guides told us all about the plants and trees we saw. The informal name of the flower above is quite inappropriate to write on here, but if you'd like to know, you can ask me when you see me ;)

The people who live in the forest have a vast knowledge of the uses of the local flora. The flower below is called "Hot Lips", and when boiled and sat on, is used to treat hemorrhoids.

 

 Below: This leaf is used to thatch the roofs of huts in the villages of Maroons located in the interior of the country.

I'm not sure what species this tree is, but Sandro chopped us a piece of bark to examine and it smelled really gassy!

 The rain forest is so beautiful! Here is a picture of the sun coming through the trees.

Remember the prickly bread fruit from before? Here is what it looks like peeled! We boiled it and added salt - makes for a delicious snack!

Wet sloths!

We put the sloths outside in the outdoor habitat today, and it rained really hard. Sloths look so much scrawnier when they get wet.

 Rafael was happy to be rescued from the storm.

Danielle, the largest, oldest, and wisest sloth was the only one who didn't get wet from the rain. I found him in the one corner of the habitat covered with a tarp. The little ones have a lot to learn from him! You can see below how he looks happy, fat and dry while the others are all soaking wet.

Leaving for Bergendal

Tomorrow morning at 6am, Sylva, Pryce and I are leaving for Bergendal to spend a week there. This is the forest interior city that I'll be spending time in to fix up a house-converted-to-research-center and prepare for the animals to be transferred there. I will have some internet access, but it will not be fast enough to upload pictures or chat. So, perhaps you will hear from me in the next week, perhaps I'll be more elusive. I really don't know what to expect, so that's about all I can tell you for now. It's all part of the adventure! :)

Passion Fruit

Here is a passion fruit - I tried one for the first time the other day. They are pretty sour, but add a little sugar and stir it up: Mmmmmmmmmm, nothing like it!

top: whole fruit - I carved the top off this one and ate it right out of the shell
left: what the inside looks like when you slide the seeds out
right: half with seeds still in

The ground speed of a sloth

This is Ger again (on a side note, the yellow "sun" spot on his back indicates that he is male). He's quite the escape artist. I filmed him walking away so you can see what a sloth looks like out of the trees, and why they tend to avoid the ground in the wild. It puts them in a very vulnerable state!

Anteaters (Miereneters)

 Maxi started coming toward me as I was taking her picture!

 

Action shot!

We took the anteaters out for a 'walk' around the yard to get some exercise. They are very curious animals! When they found each other, they began wresting and rolling all around! It was hard to pick them up and split them apart after that because all the playing got them riled up and ready to (play) fight. Jade is the one with the spotted tail and Maxi has the black tail.

Walking/Biking

Pryce and I tried to ride our bikes home yesterday, but we had some major problems with that idea. First, we were unsure about the way to go, so we were on the wrong foot from the get-go. Also, biking here is really difficult because the traffic is crazy (not to mention driving on the opposite side of America), and there are not really designated biking areas, so cars are whizzing past you constantly. Well, 20 minutes in to the ride, Pryce was basically run off the road and popped his back tire: completely obliterated! So we walked our bikes back to Monique's (another 40 minute walk), where we found out that we had been going in completely the wrong direction. Oh, and did I mention it was raining? We left the bikes there and promptly walked a block and took a taxi back to the apartment.

This morning we walked to Monique's with no navigational issues, and it took us just over an hour. I have to say, it was much easier and way less frightening than riding a bike!

Feeding the Sloths

This is one of my jobs as an intern - to feed the babies goat's milk. This is Bolletje, her name means "small ball" in dutch because she was such a little ball when they got her.

Another job that Monique showed us how to do was gather cecropia plants for the sloths to eat. We went out to a dairy farm and in the back was the forest. Using a machete and some elbow grease, we gathered enough plants for the week for the sloths to eat. Here I am holding a fruit of the plant, which the sloths love! We had to wear the polos because the juice of the plant will stain clothing brown.

First Dolphin Tour

Pryce and I went on our first Dolphin tour yesterday. The boat leaves the dock at Leonsberg at 7am, so it was a bright and early day. In addition to giving tours, the volunteers record what Monique called "citizen science", taking the temp, salinity, cloud cover, wave height, wind speed, depth, how far you can see into the water, and a few other things I can't remember off the top of my head about the Suriname river. These measurements are taken at the beginning, at a specific site on the river, and where ever the dolphins are found. Three papers about the Suriname dolphin have been written with the help of the data and pictures taken by GHFS.

We also stopped on this beautiful beach and Pryce and I took a really long walk down the shore line. We were right next to the edge of the forest, and it was a really nice walk.

The dolphin tour was really relaxing, and it was cool to see the dolphins out on the river. Hopefully next time we go, we'll be faster at taking the measurements so we will be able to spend more time looking at the dolphins. I'm really glad we had a chance to spend the day with Monique out on the river.

I Love Luiaard

Luiaard is the Dutch word for sloth. And boy are these luiaard cute!

I decided to take a photo op with the sloths, which are being kept in Monique's bathroom until the habitats are created for them in Bergendal.

Ger reached out and surprised me; I think he wanted to be the star of the photo!

 Here is Ger, just chilling out.

This is baby Rafael. He has to be fed twice daily with goat's milk. He has a little issue with his right eye that caused him to go blind and he had surgery for it, but I think it kinda looks like he's winking at you :)

City Tour

Pryce arrived last night, so today Chantal and Ari gave us a tour of Paramaribo. We went all through town on foot. Paramaribo is quite the city! We saw a lot of the shopping district, and the only place in the world where a mosque is next to a temple (they even share parking). That is just an example of the vast diversity that is in Suriname.

We went to the waterfront, and Ari pointed out a shipwrecked German U-boat from world war II, from which all the soldiers were kept prisoner in the interior. After the war, the prisoners were released and wandered off to the tribes in the interior, and that is where Ari (a native Surinamer) got his German ancestry!

 For lunch, we stopped at a Roti shop (the best one in Suriname according to Ari), and got the traditional Suriname Roti dish. Pryce, me and Chantal got the roll, but Ari got the whole shebang and demonstrated how to eat it with the proper three fingers. Next time if I'm feeling adventurous, perhaps I will try the whole shebang, too.

Oh, and Ari and Chantal were telling me that I am taller than every Surinamer, and that everything comes over sized in America ;)

 On the waterfront during our tour of the city.

The temple and the mosque share a parking lot.

Volleyball

Last night, Monique made a delicious meal for me and we spent some time getting to know each other. She really is a remarkable woman. After we had dinner, she introduced me to her niece, Sheryll (not sure on the spelling of her name yet) who playes volleyball for a club here in Suriname. Her dad was boasting that she was voted "best setter in the Caribbean", which I would definitely believe. Anyway, she invited me to a practice with her team, and I was a little worried becuase it was from 7-10, and I was already pretty tired, it had been a long day what with getting lost and all. But when I got there (with none of my volleyball things, just the workout clothes I had packed), and I perked right up, cause how often do you get a chance to play volleyball with a bunch of sweet players from Suriname? So I practiced with them, and they were mostly speaking Dutch, but translating for me, too. I'm sure I looked a bit confused most of the time, but hey, it's volleyball so I could pretty much follow along. They invited me to come practice with them whenever I could, which is great because they are a good group of players and it will be really nice to get to know some friends my age from around here. Also, now I'll be able to get some practicing in before the Briton season starts! The gym there was really sweet because it had like, holes all in the walls that went to the outside, but I am not used to playing in this weather. I do believe it was the most I've ever sweat in a practice, and that is saying something!

Two Days in!

Well, I made it safely to Suriname, and to my Cary Apartment the night before last. It's nice! There is no hot water there, but it's not a big deal since it's so hot here anyway. I'm still getting used to this climate, and as I'm writing this I'm chilling out in the air conditioned room at GHFS headquarters. This is my second day "on the job" and I'm already loving it!

I've met some amazing people so far. Monique, Sylva, Chantal, Ivonne, and Ari are all members of GHFS, and I can't wait to get to know them better. Today, Ivonne made a Suriname dish for us for lunch that is definitely in the top ten best things I've ever eaten. It was white rice with salted fish and a green leafy vegetable called klaroen, all spiced up with something secret and wonderful. If all the food I get while I'm here is like that, I'm going to be a happy girl!

 Yesterday, I took a cab to hq for the first time, and I took a bus back to my end of town. So, today I thought I could just ride my bike since 'it would only be half an hour to get here'. Well, of course I lost my way, a classic move of mine, and it took me over an hour to get here. It's really hard to navigate the streets when you can't pronounce the street names! However, I did eventually find my way here, and Sylva is just going to give me a ride home today :)

I have already started hands on work with the sloths! The ones here are the three toed variety. I fed babies Rafael and Bolletje goats milk form a little syringe feeder. Just like human babies, you have to clean them and yourself up with a cloth when it's done. You know, sloths are a lot stronger than you might imagine. They can grab on really tight, and when you try to pick them up, another one of their legs just grabs right back on! Luckily, I learned the right way to remove them form an object and how to hold them properly. Also, I learned that sloths make a growly noise when they are annoyed (thanks Bolletje). Who knew?

Jade and Maxi are the two anteaters who live here, and I am learning how to care for them as well. They sleep in little kennels at night, and this morning I took them out and put them in their cages. They are strange to handle at first, they are very muscular through their whole body, especially their tails. And they are also pretty smelly, so it is best not to let them wrap the tails around your arm cause their special odor tends to linger. Also today, Ivonne and I took the ant eaters out for a "walk" in the yard. They need to get a little work out. They are so funny, standing straight up sometimes on their hind legs, and then running after you while you're playing with them. Little cuties!

Anyway, I feel like I could go on and on and on, but it's almost time to leave the facility, so I'm off for now. How does one end a blog post? So long for now :D

ps: my laptop doesn't get internet at the apartment, so I can't upload any pictures yet. But, I'm talking pics and I'll get them on here as soon as I get a chance.