
We saw our first wild monkeys yesterday! Mom and Dad ditched us in the morning and went to the grocery store. When they got back Dad took Kylie and me to a restaurant for lunch. It was really cool because it was a large open-air sports bar. It is high up on the mountain, has great views, and is where the American tourists and expats hang out.
After lunch we went to the Alturas Wildlife Sanctuary. I was expecting a large, fenced in piece of jungle with different species living in it. Surprisingly, there were many separate cages of different sizes. In each cage there were either hurt or disabled animals. Some of them were being rehabilitated and some have to live there permanently. We saw three different types of monkeys, several types of parrots and parakeets, baby sloths, a coati, raccoons, squirrels, a nocturnal squirrel-like animal called a Kinkajou and an anteater.
In the middle of the tour, when our tour guide was showing us the baby sloths, four wild white-headed monkeys swung into the trees overhead and started harassing the monkeys in the cages. Our tour guide said, "The only reason they are here is because I am giving a tour. Usually they wouldn't dare get so close because I throw rocks at them." They went so far as to jump onto the other monkeys' cage which really stirred them up. By then our tour guide had had enough and threw several decent sized stones at them. The wild monkeys were immediately scared off and we continued with our tour. It turns out white-headed monkeys are extremely evil, mean and are very cannibalistic. The cage of monkeys they were harassing were there own kind too!
The next morning we woke up early so we could get to our Spanish class by eight thirty. Mom, Dad and I are in a class together with our own teacher and Kylie gets to share a teacher with another little girl almost her age. The class is about four and a half hours long but has two, fifteen minute breaks. Each classroom is a small, screened in gazebo that has only a table, four seats and a whiteboard. The hardest part for me is that our instructor teaches Spanish completely in Spanish! Wish me luck!
After lunch we went to the Alturas Wildlife Sanctuary. I was expecting a large, fenced in piece of jungle with different species living in it. Surprisingly, there were many separate cages of different sizes. In each cage there were either hurt or disabled animals. Some of them were being rehabilitated and some have to live there permanently. We saw three different types of monkeys, several types of parrots and parakeets, baby sloths, a coati, raccoons, squirrels, a nocturnal squirrel-like animal called a Kinkajou and an anteater.
In the middle of the tour, when our tour guide was showing us the baby sloths, four wild white-headed monkeys swung into the trees overhead and started harassing the monkeys in the cages. Our tour guide said, "The only reason they are here is because I am giving a tour. Usually they wouldn't dare get so close because I throw rocks at them." They went so far as to jump onto the other monkeys' cage which really stirred them up. By then our tour guide had had enough and threw several decent sized stones at them. The wild monkeys were immediately scared off and we continued with our tour. It turns out white-headed monkeys are extremely evil, mean and are very cannibalistic. The cage of monkeys they were harassing were there own kind too!
The next morning we woke up early so we could get to our Spanish class by eight thirty. Mom, Dad and I are in a class together with our own teacher and Kylie gets to share a teacher with another little girl almost her age. The class is about four and a half hours long but has two, fifteen minute breaks. Each classroom is a small, screened in gazebo that has only a table, four seats and a whiteboard. The hardest part for me is that our instructor teaches Spanish completely in Spanish! Wish me luck!