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 |   A Journal to impart knowledge and facts |
We are haying. The lawn mowing is behind which isn’t a good scene, so instead of writing I helped with mowing until the mower broke a belt. Besides that, I also took a day off to do our once-a-month shopping. It seems there are all kinds of things that need done to keep me busy every day. Then, I didn’t need to read two books besides the daily busy work. I have been copying prompts so I can get back and catch up. I realize I can’t keep up with writing deadlines but, will write the stories anyway. Just to see if I can do it? Braley Pond, Virginia This popular fishing spot in George Washington National Forest, 60 miles from Charlottesville, is the site of Virginia’s most haunted campground. One night, you are Andre are exchanging stories around the campfire. What happens? On a camp out with the Chimps Alive group we gathered around a campfire rather late one night. Andre and I were telling stories to entertain the group. This was Andre's story. When we were traveling down the Amazon, I became quite bored with just sitting in the boat watching the forest, animals, and birds flow by as the boat motored along. I’m familiar with tropical places. since I came from the tropical forests and savannas of equatorial Africa. After all. Chimpanzees are 3 to 5.5 feet tall and weigh 70 to 130 pounds. I figured at my height and weight I could hold my own in an Amazon rainforest. Of course, I knew the boat captain and Apondia were not going to agree to let me explore on my own. I waited until a very heavy long branch was hanging out over the river. Then I leaped up grabbed it with my arms and swung up into the tree. It was easy to run along the length of the tree and travel into the forest swinging with my feet and arms. I’m made for that kind of travel. Plus, it was so wonderful to finally be in the trees again. I don’t like to swim if I don’t have to preferring to wade in water or just stay dry. In the tree I could hear Apondia arguing with the captain about stopping the boat to wait for me to come back. I have to say I was only slightly distressed to hear him positively refuse. I was now on my own in the Amazon rain forest. I decided to get down onto the ground and travel by Knuckle walking. It felt good but, I soon realized I was slower than the moving boat and would not be able to keep up with it unless I returned to the upper parts of the forest canopy. So, I swung up into the trees and began to swing swiftly along the bank. I soon lost track of the boat even then, so I stopped and rested in one of the trees. Unfamiliar birds flew around me. Some seemed startled when they saw my form others just ignored me as a part of their jungle day. I picked a fruit off a tree and ate some leaves. Then, I realized I was not alone. I was being stealthily surrounded by a troop of Monkeys. The troop had quietly surrounded me. They were watching my every move and I was certain the leaders were now discussing me. Eventually, I was approached by an alpha male and alpha female. Their names were Ohno and mourning. They were present leaders of the Capuchin troop. Because of my size, as compared to their size they had decided to negotiate. We discussed why and how I had come into the forest. They were willing to show me where the boat would dock if I would give them a reward. As I always wore a couple flasks of Banana daiquiri, I decided to hand my flasks over to the troop as a reward for helping me find my way. I also told Ohno if he agreed to the exchange, I would give him my recipe for the golden liquid in the flasks. After sampling the flasks, they agreed. We headed out. The Capuchin running along and leaping from branch to branch. While I swung from branch to vine to branch. Once in a while the troop stopped to sample some tasty bugs or leaves. Ohno thought I should know about what everyone else was eating. He would hand me some of the tastier treats. It was only a few minutes when we came into the mission complex. The monkey troop set up a riotous howling in the trees. The sound brought a missionary out of one of the buildings. The Capuchin stayed in the trees. I dropped down to the ground to converse with the man. I was fortunate, he not only knew sign language he could converse in mental words. The result was we understood each other. He let me use his satellite phone. I called the bar at home to have Lilly send some some of our special banana daiquiri mix. The missionary said he didn’t want a bunch of drunk Capuchin flying around the jungle near the mission but, he could supply the bananas and some coconuts for his own mix. He was animal friendly I guess cause he said he would like to have the troop as friends to the Mission, so he would see to it they had some of this new mix made up for them regular, so they were happy. I had the bar send the mission some bulk bags of sugar which seemed to make everyone happy. Then the boat docked and Apondia appeared on the scene. My adventure was over, because they made me promise to stay on the boat for the rest of the journey. This was the story I related to the group: “While I was canoeing on the Amazon River with Andre one time. We had separate adventures. Even though we traveled together and really were together the whole time. Some parts of the river we used the canoe. Following the bigger boat which traveled at a slower pace so we would not get lost. Once, a river porpoise playfully dumped our canoe. We pulled it onto the river boat for safety then. The Amazon River flows through Peru, Columbia, and Brazil. It does not have any bridges on it. The river flows through Amazon tropical forests. The name Amazon is from a Greek Myth about female warriors, who rode horses and were amazingly accurate with Bows and Arrows. The head stream of the Amazon starts from melting ice off the Nevado Migmi Mountain range. Scientist have ascertained that at one time the river flowed from East to West into the Pacific Ocean. When the Andes Mountains formed, they forced the river into a West to East direction, so it now flows into the Atlantic Ocean. Depending on the dry season or wet season the river can be as wide as one mile to six miles or even 30 miles wide in some spots. A very biodiverse system of plants and animals live on the provisions the river supplies. Even though the Amazon soil is not particularly fertile, as many as 100 different species of trees can be found in one acre of land lining the river. The soaring tree canopy can be 2 or 3 levels high. Made up of trees that are shade tolerant. Within the river are crabs, turtles, algae microbes, dolphins-which are called Bolo, monster giant otters, and green anaconda. The forests along the banks house numerous species of monkeys, parrots: like macaws, other species of birds, as well as; many species of monkeys, sloths, Equana, armadillos, jaguars, ocelots, pumas, and many species of snakes some which are poisonous. We had to have special vaccinations before attempting to vacation on the waters of the Amazon. There are at least 8000 species of insects there. Mosquitos are extreme and hazardous because they carry diseases, which can be transmitted to humans. Since the river is so wide, we kept our canoe on one side or the other during the whole trip down river toward the Atlantic. Have you ever seen an Equana in a pet shop? On the Amazon they are extremely large. They can grow 5 to 7 feet long depending on whether they are males or females and weigh 20 pounds. They like to sleep on the low hanging branches of a tree. It the tree is hanging out over the water it can be scary to motor under a branch, with an Equana on it, because they can jump off at any time. Many times, we saw them jump off into the water, swim up onto a bare place where the jungle meets the water. One day Andre’ stretched up and grabbed a tree branch and swung up out of the boat. We were traveling on a boat managed by a man who guides people down the Amazon. He is used to scientists and explorers who are taking lots of pictures and writing in notebooks as they travel down the river. As Andre’ was not exactly what he was used to as a passenger, He would not even consider stopping to see if Andre’, who had disappeared into the jungle would be reappearing soon. Needless to say, I was quite worried. After traveling another 45 minutes, we approached a dock. Our guide told me we would tie up here and visit the mission. As we disembarked a man came from the clearing near the dock. He was a missionary and he had Andre’ by the hand, who now toddled in Chimp walk along beside the man. They seemed to be talking. I’m sometimes amazed about some people, who can just meet Andre’ and then immediately understand his language. The missionary was Paul Forester. He said Andre’ dropped out of tree near the mission school. He offered to help Andre’ since there was a Capuchin monkey troop with him who needed to have a reward for showing the way to the mission. We struck up a conversation about the different Monkeys Andre’ talked to that live near the mission. Paul warned us about the Basilisk that lived on the river. They are a combination of Iguana and dinosaur. They can walk on water without sinking because of the formation of their feet. I was thankful that Paul told Andre ’To stay in the boat. The black Caiman was also living near and were always in the water. It is a reptile from the alligator family. It is extremely feared as it spends most of its time in the water and eats deer and capybara which can be, as large as a small human. We spent some time eating lunch and learning about the mission. Then we traveled on to our destination, which was near the delta of the Amazon River. THE END Word count on WDC = 1820 enough to meet two prompts?  Today I am tedding hay for the hay crew. It's a tractor job so not difficult just time consuming. Yesterday, I spent more time mowing lawn. I combined two prompts into one story. It is the only way I could figure out to answer both prompts. If I keep writing stories about Andre'. I will have to build it into a book called the Adventures of Andre'. What do you think? It's kind of interesting to travel the world with a Chimp. While researching for this story I learned how to make sugar syrup and rum daiquiris. I also discovered that Capuchin monkeys are extremely intelligent and because of this are unfortunately, often used in scientific experiments (just a small sight into my everyday life) |
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