“No puedemos…change his agua!!”

..I said hysterically, showing the vet, Patricia, my bleeding hands.  Ariana and I were cleaning the animals in the clinic as part of our Bear Food duties when Patricia asked us to change one of the monkeys´ waterbowls.  I began by untying the wire that seals the cage door and started to take out the devil monkey´s water when it started to crawl onto my hand.  Having monkey´s crawl all over me has become pretty normal as we´ve had two squirrel monkeys at the centre for about 2 weeks now..but this new monkey didnt crawl up on my arm and onto my shoulder like the others, this one went straight for the open door.  After cursing loudly and over the monkeys awful highpitched scream, I heard Ariana yell, “Sophia, shut the door!” Luckily I was able to get the door closed, but I had to let go of the tiny monkey because it had just bit through my thumb. Fortunately there is a sizeable gap between the clinic door and the floor, which the monkey immediately began crawling under.  Somehow, Ariana and I managed to grab the monkey and drag it away from the door and after a lot more cursing, screaming, monkey shrieks and a few heart attacks, we were able to get the monkey back into the cage.  Because of all the noise we were making I was sure that the other volunteers and Patricia would have heard, but no one did.  The vet looked shocked at the sight of our bleeding hands and terrified faces.  As she was cleaning our cuts, our roommate Corin came over and made fun of us for not being able to control a tiny monkey between the two of us, but we assured him that this monkey is insane and ferocious.  After we were cleaned up and finally calmed down, the rest of our day carried on as usual–we fed the bears their two buckets full of fruit, gave water to the 6 lions, 3 ocelots, the jaguar and the 3 pumas.  The last hour of our day was spent washing all the clothes that are used as animal bedding, which was pretty gross, but necessary and reminded us that we still have to do our own laundry.  We were lucky however, to have most of the afternoon off because Johnny, the owner, had to take us to Quito to withdraw the rest of the money that we owe the centre.  The three of us were also thankful for this because we had a pretty tiring weekend in Baños–a small town about 3 hours outside Quito, known for its hot springs.  We went there with 6 other volunteers and enjoyed great food, much improved night life from our last weekend (which involved a small karaoke bar and bizarre company) and incredible canyoning–which is basically climbing down waterfalls.  Unfortunately we dont have many photos from the weekend, but we will go back to Baños to visit the hot springs and do bridge jumping (we promised our canyoning instructor).  Also, whenever we get the chance we will upload some photos of Santa Martha, however, we dont get to the internet very often or for long amounts of time..but we are eager to show everyone what our home for the next 2 1/2 months looks like!

We will write more soon, we are missing you all very very much and would love to hear about what you are all doing as well!

Mucho amor