Skulls,catapults and yep Im Ok
Wednesday 20th December
Today we went to ¨town¨I use the term as loosely as possible. Its an hour and a half away and along the main drag has a supermarket, a phone place the hospital and the school and thats about it.
Internet is 20km away so hence why no updates so I can only apologise. I eventually fathomed out international calling. Basically the chap at the desk is the operator and gives you a line. Trying to get the timing right is fun, before midday and I could get someone at the aviary which I eventually did and managed to sort out bill issues that were going on and get word round to people I was Ok. I have to admit being able to talk at a normal rate and to familiar voices was comforting and upsetting, not in a bad way but when you are having to really slow down how fast you talk and explain every other word it starts to get you down after a while and vica versa when you dont understand the conversation flowing around you.
After that we went to 2 fruit farms to look for Toucans. The one lady came out with the head of a Toco that hjad been catapulted and killed. They are classed as a pest here but the beaks are a special gift. It was a young bird Im fairly sure female and I reckon 2/3 years old it was frustrating to see but if you are a fruit farmer and thats your main livelyhood and they keep raiding your produce especially as money is so little out here I guess guidelines have to be made up. There are roughly 6 pesos to the pound its quite mad that for 2 pesos (32p) you can do a 2hour bus ride to the falls or use the internet for an hour.
We then headed to another farm where the lady was saying we had missed them by half hour and she was saying how she had knocked one unconcious and painted one side of its beak. A few days later it was back. I dread to think of the social impact it will have for the bird.