Saturday, July 15

Today was our last day in the field with "our" monkeys. The trip has been fabulous! We all have been getting along fabulously, and having lots of laughs.
We had an afternoon in the local town of Malindi, had Pizza and saw a woodworking cooperative!!! Really beautiful woodcrafts.
Every day we get a little better at being able to identify and follow our monkey. My partner, Karin and I have been working very well spotting them and keeping an eye on them while we bushwack through thickets - never missing a beep on our watch to record their activity (well, almost never). Every minute we record whether they are eating (leaves, buds, fruits) or moving or just resting. Today, Karin and I seemed to have gotten the magic touch and put them to sleep about 3 times.
On Wednesday, 4 of us went to Tsavo National Park for a day and 1/2. It was spectacular!!! Saw lots of elephants - even almost got charged by one! Giraffes, antelopes, gazelles - and the park is so huge - lush in some places, like desert in others. The lodge where we stayed was incredible - cabin tents - but luxurious, and at lunch we sat eating our pasta while elephants grazed in the water hole perhaps 50 yards away.
Yesterday, on returning to Gede (our study site), we continued following monkeys, but also got to participate in a vegetation study. We identified the trees with a diameter greatere than 5 cm (with the help of a Kenyan tree expert) and measured the tree cover for a 400 square meter plot. It was interesting, and quite fun.
Tonight we're all going out to dinner for a last hurrah - tomorrow morning we'll do some data entry and start the looooong trek back to Boston.

Talk to everyone soon