Born to be a biologist

I like most of what I see when I travel around but, every once in a while, I am blown away by something and today was one of those days. Proyecto  Asis started 23 years ago, with a goal of rescuing animals in peril and rehabilitating and releasing the ones they can.  They operate a small facility about 45 minutes from La Fortuna.  We signed up for a tour and a keeper’s visit and we were led around by Carlos, who has an unbelievable passion for his mission.  He’s perfect for a person like me because there’s nothing fancy or super-scientific about his focus – he just wants people to stop making house pets out of wild animals.  The bulk of what Proyecto Asis takes in are people’s discarded house pets…monkeys, peccadilloes and lots of birds. If they’re rehabilitatable, they’ll work on it.  If not, they’ve got a forever home.  Here’s a picture of Carlos and his favorite monkey.  Look at how his tail is wrapped around Carlos in a hug.

First, of course, we had to get to Proyecto Asis and so we had Morpho Vans pick us up again.  We had a new driver – I’m learning that Morpho Vans is one giant conglomerate with a ton of subcontractors and so van quality – and driver quality – is going to vary.  Today we had Marlon. His van was not nearly as nice as Bill’s and I would not have felt too terrible if I had regurgitated a meal into it but I did not have to worry as the roads were pretty straight. Marlon was not my favorite driver as he had a habit of using his cell phone liberally while driving, a behavior I last experienced in a Shanghai cab, and which reduced me to tears and a panic attack. I’m hoping we fare better next time.  Marlon did drive us to a roadside stand en route and I was able to ogle these beautiful watermelons:

 

In addition, he cut us pieces of this disgusting vegetable that I spied in a vat of some sort of liquid. I didin’t want to try it – I merely asked what it was – but Ron says I have GOT to stop asking what things are as my curiousity always leads to awkward situations like this:

I did bravely try this thing, which tasted like a blend of potato and pumpkin, after Marlon whipped out a knife and cut one up for us.  The young shopkeeper stood idly by, unbothered.  I ate maybe half of it and shoved the rest in my purse.  It was all really fortuitous because, having stored it in my purse, I went into my bag to toss it in the garbage as we waited for our tour to start at Proyecto Asis and discovered that my purse (oops….sorry, Melisa’s purse!!….but hey you people are used to ant infestations aren’t you???) had been taken over by a colony of what Ron keeps calling pressure ants.  I don’t know what kind of ants they are but they are in: the shower, my bed, my IPad, my purse, and my towel.  I beg you to explain to me why they are not in Ron’s belongings.

At Proyecto Asis, we got to learn the backstory for each animal on site and then we got to help Carlos cut up the food for the evening feeding.  Here’s Ron making up a bowl of food for one of the monkeys.

Then, once the food prep is done, you head out into the facility with a few dozen varied bowls and Carlos sends unsuspecting innocent people into bird cages with fruit and veggies and happily watches the varied levels of panic.  There were 8 of us and many cool customers, who trotted right into the cages, artfully arrayed the toucan or parrot or macaw food and then trotted right out.  And then there was me, who announced at first that I wasn’t going in.  Ron pointed out, rightly, that we had paid extra money for this opportunity and, if I was going to chicken out, why oh why had I made us pony up the money in the first place?  And Carlos looked like I was the first person ever to be intimidated when assigned the feeding to a large cage of 20 parrots and so I succumbed to the pressure and went in (I actually made Carlos go in with me!) threw my large bowl of fruit onto the tray and fled.  I remember very little of the experience but I feel certain that a bird flew by my head and so I let out an enormous scream as I escaped, baffling my entire group of colleagues, who swore that nothing whatsoever had been near me but I am sure they are all lying.

 

Here’s some bird feeing shots.  I hate to compliment Ron unless I have to but he was born to be a Birdman.

I fared much better with the monkeys, who we fed from an arm’s length.  Here you go:

I want to return, now, to a subject we last discussed in 2013, when I was in Turkey. I had a lot of trouble with the toilets in Turkey.  It left me with a bit of PTSD about toilet functionality because there is an implicit trust required between a toilet and a toilet user. I got a new toilet in my house in September and it took me a good month before I agreed to use it for anything of substance, if you know what I mean. I’m slow to cultivate these relationships.  So the Arenal Country Inn is stressing me out a bit.  The toilet looks just fine but every time you flush it, it rises up mightily and an overflow seems imminent and I stand there, horrified, waiting and crossing my fingers.

All of which brings me to my last subject, which is these cookies that I have fallen in love with.  My first container was mint chocolate.

They are unbelievably good.  I made us trek in the dark back to the store tonight to acquire some strawberry ones after I ate my THIRD Italian meal in a row.   In my continuing ineptitude, I bought the wrong brand of cookie but I’ve decided not to care.  Perhaps if I leave them out for the ants tonight they will give up their stake in my other belongings and I can start over tomorrow, renewed and refreshed and capable of picking out the correct snack food.