Still Kicking

I have realized that it has been quite a while since I updated. But don't worry! I'm still alive and kicking!

The weather here has been getting a lot nicer this past week and a bit. I would say temperatures up until about 27 with lots of sun. Tracy and I are bot starting to get tanned at last and I finally feel like I'm in a different part of the world! haha

*UPDATE* As I started to blog we noticed it was a little bit windy and some clouds were rolling in. Tracy started to have a nap and then within 20 minutes those few clouds turned into a huge rain storm complete with wind, thunder, and lightning! It was so loud and sudden that it even woke Tracy up! I've been planning to go to Lagoinha do Sul with a Anas for the last few weeks but every weekend it gets cancelled because the day before the weather will be terrible. So today we made some more plans to go there tomorrow and another storm comes! Bad luck for that trip I suppose.

Lately work was getting a little mundane doing the usual feeding and observation and so there wasn't much to update about about. I was still waiting for the food items to come in as well as the vitamin A so there wasn't anything different going on. I weighed them all last week and it was nice to see that some had gained weight! Others were getting skinier though; I hope this turns around quickly! Today Cris and I got to give the turtles the vitamin A. We decided that we could treat all of the turtles since it seemed that they were collectively getting the symptoms of a deficiency. It was really good to have Cris there helping because she got a first hand look at just how bad some of the turtles are. The injections are supposed to be intramuscular but some of the turtles are so thin that it was almost impossible to ensure that it was being properly injected. I don't know why they don't believe me when I say that the turtles are unhealthy or skinny until they happen to see it for themselves. Cris said that for the next while she's going to get the police men to feed them on the days I'm not there as well because it is so bad. The next weighing will happen again next week so hopefully we'll see some changes by then!

Other than work I haven't been doing too much. I went bowling with a friend one night - I broke 100 twice! I wonder if bowling is easier here or if I magically got some skill. They also don't have bowling shoes! I was a little sad; that's one of the best parts of bowling! Vanessa Anas and I went to see Eat, Pray, Love at the theatre. It was very expensive but a nice treat. When you buy your tickets for a movie here you choose where you sit like when you go to a live show or buy plane tickets! Very strange. I went out with Nivaldo and Hilda to Lagoa last weekend and we went on a boat tour around the lake. It was very peaceful and I got to hear lot of their stories as we hung out for the afternoon. After the boat trip they took me to Joaquina which is their most famous beach for surfing. There weren't many people out because the waves were crashing really early and close together. It was still very beautiful and I plan on going back there soon (I think they rent horses to ride on the beach, SO NICE!) Up the hill from the beach is a bunch of sand dunes that people go sand boarding down. They have stands to rent sand boards and everything! It's pretty much like snowboarding only you aren't strapped onto the board, there are just two velcro straps for each foot. There also aren't any roap-tows or chair lifts (because they're just small dunes) so after you have about 20 seconds of fun going down you have to hike up the sand. Looks like it is pretty tiring but I definitely want to give it a shot!

Next monday we leave for the Amazon! I am unbelievably excited for the trip and though it may sound weird I feel like I need a vacation. We've also started to make plans for a trip to Rio! There's so much more I still want to see but with everyones schedules it's hard to get to everything.

And now the storm has stopped! I'll go and get ready and meet some friends for a friday night out :) Hopefully I don't take so long to update again this time :P

Here are some pictures from R3! They're off my phone so they aren't the best quality.

This is a shot of Joaquina from the dunes.

Some of the parrots that are in the rehabilitation project hat I help with from time to time.

Lunch for the tortoises!

This tucan has no tail feathers and it is really funny watching him jump around everywhere.

When I first got to work I saw three cages of hampsters. I think that they are live food for the birds of prey that we have at the facility.