Would you rather be in Peru or Idaho?

Normally I say IDAHO, because I will always be a northern temperate region girl, but Ugh!!! It's snowing ALOT again today! It IS pretty in a way, but I am really not looking forward to pulling a uhaul trailer in the snow for 1800 miles. And isn't it supposed to be spring? Well in a few days anyway.

Well, as promised, here are some Peru pictures to take you away from the snow and to that steamy insect infested jungle. These pictures are of a troup of monkeys we saw while hiking down the trail around the research area. I think these are squirrel monkeys, but of course, my memory fades... These guys and us were traveling the same direction (they in the trees and us on the ground). We were able to see them several times because sometimes we'd pass them (and they'd stop to watch us), and then sometimes they'd pass by us when we'd stop to look at something.

But see, even the monkeys are itchy from the insect bites.

Physics and coatis

So, I finally got to talk to my physics professor and he said I can take both semesters concurrently, and he thinks I can complete them by May 31st. Which means I am going to vet school this fall!!!!! Now, I just have to buckle down and start churning out my assignments. I need to get 3 done this weekend (read 3 chapters and do the assigned problems). I want to try to get 4 done though...I need to buffer for the week when I'll be cleaning my apartment and on the road to Wisconsin.

It's so nice to finally have an actual plan. For the last 2 weeks, everything has been so up in the air about my future. It was really making me stressed out. In just 3.5 weeks, I will be home with my horses! (and my family... :)

I still have to deal with all the emotions surrounding leaving here...a place I have grown to really love in the 4.5 years I've lived here...and all the friends I've made. So, this is a difficult time for me. Part of me wants to be really happy, but there is a part of me that is really sad. I'm not able to fully embrace either emotion because the other is still there under the surface.

Now, I wasn't actually tagged to do the 6th folder 6th picture thing, but I had to go look to see what mine would be, so I'm going to post it!

My 6th folder - 6th folder - 6th picture is a coati crossing the river in Peru. The story is that I was on a small boat (canoe with a motor, really) travelling 60 miles up river into the wilds of the jungle (near where there was actually a community of uncontacted indigenous people living) to visit a claylick alongside the river to collect shed feathers from parrots. Parrots visit these claylicks, which are scattered throughout this region, to ingest clay for sodium supplementation or toxin neutralization (toxins in their diet of rainforest seeds). My masters research was describing the genetic structure of parrots across Peru, and shed feathers collected at these claylicks were my DNA source. So, this coati, decided to cross the river, but then saw our boat coming, so tried to turn around. We were almost alongside him, then he clambered out onto a wood pile to "safety".

If you click to enlarge these photos, you can see better detail of Mr. Coati's face.







And this is a picture of the claylick we went to visit. There are red-and-green macaws and scarlet macaws both eating clay at this lick.



I have some really amazing Peru pictures. Maybe on the next really snowy day, I'll post some of them and they can carry us all to that hot steamy jungle (with lots of biting insects). That said, I hope there are no more really snowy days this winter! I want spring!!!