This morning we met up with Gudrun again and took a taxi ride (tuk tuk thing) to the markets where we bought some fruit & vegetables for lunch. At the market we also bought 2 turtles which were bound up and being sold to be eaten. Of course we didn´t want to eat them for lunch. The poor things were dehydrated and scared. Gudrun said the one which was tied up with sticks and string had obviously been like that for days. It was sad. We took the turtles with us on the boat across to her rescue centre and splashed some water on their head to give them a drink. They both came out of their shell and started roaming around the boat which was pretty cool. Although I tend to think they were just trying to escape being eaten. Now they are safe and sound and well fed at the rescue centre. Gudrun will release them into the wild once they are hydrated and nourished.
The actual rescue centre was pretty amazing. It was fantastic to have monkeys jump all over me. They are so strong and nimble and flexible and naughty!!! Of course they played with our hair and dug into our pockets and undid zippers, buttons, knots and crawled inside shirts without too much hassle. Good little pick-pockets that they are!! Gudrun is incredibly passionate and seems to get a lot of joy out of the monkeys and her life here in the Amazon.
Other animals we saw at the centre were snakes, birds, camens, sloths, dogs, an anteater, a cat, a jaguar and the butterflies! The butterflies were pretty cool. I didn´t realize you could actually touch them without hurting them. It was pretty interesting seeing the caterpillars hatching. Their cocoons are all so different.
There was a downpour of rain when we were at the rescue centre. Cleansing beautiful Amazon rain. It made me feel so good. It was almost too noisy to talk so I just watched and sat underneath a dry thatch roof. A couple of monkeys watched the rain with me. It was really cool. I felt more at home with the animals than I did with the humans. Funny that.