Peru entre monos / Peru in between monkeys

 

[ENGLISH FOLLOWS]
Tothom que em coneix sap que soc molt fan de Perú perquè vaig estar treballant aquí durant mig any, ara fa sis anys. I després de tot aquest temps tornar-hi em fa molta il·lusió. Acabo de tornar de la selva i vaig cap a migracions de Colombia per segellar la sortida, agafo una barca fins a una illa al riu amazones que està a 5min i ja estic a Perú. Al entrar a migracions veig un gran cartell que posa que denunciïs qualsevol cas de corrupció al Perú, sembla que la cosa aquí va canviant a millor. El senyor que em posa el segell resulta que és de Tumbes, on jo vaig treballar, així que vam estar una bona estona xarrant.

Havia d'estar al barco a les 3 de la nit així que em vaig quedar a un hostal cutre a l'illa. A l'hora de sopar vaig a "donde el gordo" que m'havia recomanat el de migracions. A Perú és molt típic que t'anomenin per com ets, a que et dediques o d'on vens, així doncs si sents que criden algú com "periódico" és que aquesta persona ven diaris, el mateix per negro, chino, gringo, flacucho, gordo, keke (pastís), españa, etc. Efectivament, l'amo del local era gordo i li n'estava fotent a les birres amb uns amics seus. La seva frase va ser "hombre España, que alegria tenerle aquí, tome con nosotros" i em passa una botella gran de cervesa. Ja no recordava com anava, a Perú es beu la cervesa d'una manera especial, només hi ha una botella gran i un vas. Et passen la botella i després el got, t'emplenes el got i passes la botella al següent, et veus el got i en deixes una mica per saccejar-lo al terra o a la paret (no importa que estiguis a casa) i així deixes el got "net" per passar-lo al següent. El procés itera fins que tothom va com les greques o pots fer una bomba de fum en qualsevol moment.

Vaig alucinar amb el vaixell, era un ferri força modern, ben cuidat, que es deia Fjord1 i portava tot escrit en norueg. Resulta que era un vaixell que anava pels fiords de Noruega i ara feia la ruta Leticia-Iquitos pel riu amazones. El riu amazones em va impressionar molt, mai havia vist un riu tant ample, tot envoltat de selva. Vam passar per San Pablo, una població que vaig conéixer a travès de la película diarios de motocicleta del Che Guevara. Té un centre per leprosos, que encara existeix, regentat per monges on els leprosos estàven a un cantó de l'amazones i els treballadors a l'altre.

Tenia al Willy, un home d'Iquitos molt simpàtic a la vora amb el que vaig estar parlant bastant i al arribar a Iquitos, la seva dona i fills l'esperaven, i em van portar tots fins a l'hostal. El Willy em volia treure de festa amb els seus amics així que una hora més tard m'estava esperant a la porta de l'hostal amb la seva moto. Vaig anar amb el Willy, els seus amics i algunes de les novies a un lloc a l'aire lliure on tocaven orquestres. De nou el procediment de les rondes de cervesa, va ser una nit molt divertida.

Com ja he dit d'altres vegades, al viatge em deixo portar per les "senyals". Em vaig quedar amb ganes de fer més voluntariats amb animals i no tenia molt clar que fer a Iquitos, així que vaig conéixer una parella alemana que em van parlar de l'illa dels monos, un centre de rescat de monos. Però ells no hi havien fet voluntariat, així que vaig conéixer una parella holandesa al creuar la frontera que hi havien estat 11 dies de voluntaris i me'n van parlar molt bé. Ja ho tenia coll avall, només havia de descobrir si m'acceptàven i com arribar-hi, així que vaig coneixer a una alemana a la meva habitació de l'hostal d'Iquitos que hi havia estat un mes, ella va contactar-los i em va dir que m'esperàven l'endemà a les 8:30 a l'oficina per anar cap allà.

La "isla de los monos" és una illa a la ribera del riu amazones de 450 hectàrees on hi han passat uns 350 monos. Reben tot tipus de monos amb històries similars, animals de companyia abandonats, recuperats del mercat negre, molts son orfes, els hi han matat els pares per motius varis; menjar-se'ls, comerciar amb la seva cua, etc. Gairebé tots els monos aquí estàn en llibertat, només n'hi han tres que estàn tancats perquè són grans i atacaven a la gent i als monos petits. Hi han molts monos que no s'acosten a la casa però hi ha un grup d'uns 15 que sempre estàn a prop i són la cosa més sociable del món.

Mai m'hagués imaginat que em fliparia tant interactuar amb monos, són super intel·ligents, tenen personalitats molt diferents i marcades, energies diferents, etc. He aprés moltíssim d'ells a diari. El Pepito i la Rusa, un mono choro i una udoladora, uns dels més petits que són orfes, el primer que fan al veure'm és pujar-se'm al cap, s'agafen fort als meus cabells i d'allà no els treus, imagino que és el que passa quan no tens pares. La Emma i la Fabiola, dos mones aranya petites, també fan molta gràcia, semblen bessones encara que en realitat no són familia i van arribar per separat. Però més que això semblen siameses, si una se't tira als braços perquè l'agafis l'altra no tardarà en venir i ajuntar-se com una "garrapata". Recordo al meu pare imitant als monos, de l'època que havia viscut a Guinea Ecuatorial, i jo sempre que he vist a un mono udolar he pensat que el meu pare no els sabia imitar. Fins que se m'ha posat un mono tití al davant i ha fet exactament el mateix soroll que feia el meu pare. Són una passada, a l'illa n'hi han bastants de lliures que els sents udolar i s'animen els uns amb els altres, però n'hi ha un que sempre està pels voltants de la casa i si et poses a imitar-lo, es posa a udolar amb tu. La Blanca, una moneta chora estava malalta, no volia menjar i tenia diarrea. Creien que tenia febre però no tenien termòmetre per mirar-ho, així que vaig utilitzar el que porto per anar-li controlant la temperatura. Li van haver de pujar la medicació perquè no li baixava la febre i al cap del dia ja anava millor i poc a poc va anar menjant.

Un dia que passava amb un parell de monos al cap per vora la gàbia de la Maria, és un dels tres monos grans que estàn tancats, vaig veure que estava amb el cap entre els braços, m'acosto i feia un soroll com si estés plorant, em va impactar molt lo real que semblava. Em vaig moure a una altra part de la gàbia, va venir, va posar l'esquena tocant a la reixa i continuava somicant, així que la vaig acariciar. Acte seguit, els monos que portava al cap van baixar i posar-se a acariciar-la també a través de la reixa, era un acte molt "humà", fins que al cap d'una bona estona va parar de plorar. El dia següent em diuen que la Maria i el Sambo (l'altre mono gran que estava a la mateixa gàbia) han trencat un tros de reixa i s'han escapat, en part em vaig alegrar, encara que no volia que ataquessin als petits. Els vaig veure i estaven tota l'estona als arbres del voltant de la casa. En un moment del dia que estàvem amb els altres voluntaris al porxo envoltats de monos, la Maria va aparèixer i se'm va posar a la vora, l'acaricio i se m'estira a sobre la falda, en un moment tenia 4 monos abraçats a ella tots a sobre la meva falda, imagino que la Maria és el més pròxim a una mare que poden tenir allà. Des de llavors, la Maria cada dia ve a que l'acaricïi en algun moment o altre. Al Sambo, que sembla ser el més perillós ja l'han posat a la gàbia de nou, però els he insistit molt perquè almenys deixin a la Maria fora, ella està més contenta i els altres monos l'abracen sovint.

Sembla que 5 dies tampoc donin per tant però se'm passen un munt d'històries més pel cap que he viscut aquests dies. Trobaré molt a faltar aquest lloc, es que són tant monos!!

[ENGLISH]
Everyone who knows me, know that I'm a big fan of Peru because I was working here for half year, 6 years ago. And after all that time, it really excites me going back to Peru. I've just come back from the jungle and I'm going to colombian migrations to stamp out, I take a boat to an island in the river only 5min away and I'm already in Peru. When I entered into migrations I saw a big sign that says you have to denounce any corruption case in Peru, it seems that the things are improving here. The man that put me the stamp is from Tumbes, where I was working, so we talked for quite a long time.

I had to be in the ferry at 3 in the night so I stayed in a basic hostel in the island. At dinner time, I went "donde el gordo" (where the fat man) which was recommended by the migrations guy. In Peru is really typical that they call you depending on how you are, what's your job or where you come from. Therefore, if you hear calling someone "newspaper" means that this person sells newspapers, the same for black, chinese, gringo, thin, fat, keke (cake), spain, etc. Definately, the owner of the place was fat and was drinking beers with his friends. His sentence was "hombre España, que alegria tenerle aquí, tome con nosotros" (Hi Spain, such a joy having you here, come and drink with us) and he gave me a big bottle of beer. I didn't remember how it works, in Peru the beer is drank in a very special way, there's only one big bottle and one glass. They pass you the bottle and after the glass, you fill the glass and you pass the beer to the next one, you drink the glass and you leave a bit of beer to throw it to the floor or the wall (it doesn't matter if you are at home), this way you leave the glass "clean" for the next one. The process iterates until everyone is completely wasted or you can disappear at any time.

I was so amazed with the ferry, it was so modern, well preserved, was called Fjord1 and everything was written in norwegian. It was a ferry that used to go through the norwegian fiords and now it was doing the way from Leticia to Iquitos through the Amazones river. The river Amazones was so impressive, I had never seen such a wide river, all surounded by jungle. We passed by San Pablo, a town that I knew through the film motorbike diaries from Che Guevara. It has a center for leprosy people, which still exists, managed by nuns, where the ill people was in one side of the amazones and the workers in the other.

Willy was seated next to me, a very kind man from Iquitos who I talked quite a lot. When we arrived in Iquitos, his wife and children were waiting him and all of them took me to the hostel. Willy wanted me to go out with his friends so an hour later he was waiting in front of my hostel with his motorbike. I went with him and his friends to an outdoor place where some orquestras were playing local music. Again the beer drinking procedure, it was such a funny night.

As I said in other ocasions, in the trip I follow the "signs". I wanted to do more volunteerings with animals and I wasn't sure what to do in Iquitos, so I met a german couple that talked me about the monkeys island, a rescue center for monkeys. But they didn't volunteer there, so I met a dutch couple crossing the border that had been 11 days as volunteers there and they recommended it a lot. I already decided I wanted to go, I just needed to figure out if they would accept me and how to reach there, so I met a german girl in the dorm in Iquitos who had been there for a month, she contacted them and they told her that they would be waiting for me the day after at 8:30 in the office to go to the island.

The monkey island is an island in the side of the river Amazones, it has 450 hectars and there has been 350 monkeys. They receive all kind of monkeys with similar stories, abandoned pets, saved from the black market, many of them are orphans, they've killed the parents for several reasons; eat them, deal with them or its tail, etc. Almost all the monkeys here are free, only three of them are in a cage because they are big and were attacking the people and the baby monkeys. There's many monkeys who don't get close to the house but there's a group of 15 that are always close and they are the most social thing in the world.

I never thought I would be so amazed interacting with monkeys, they are super intelligent, they have different personalities, energies, etc. I've learned so much from them everyday. Pepito and Rusa, a baby choro and howler monkey, they are orphans. The first thing they do when they see me is climbing to my head, they take my hair really strong and you can't take them from there. I guess this is what happens when you don't have parents. Emma and Fabiola, two spider monkeys, they are so cute aswell. They seem twins, although they are not family and they came separatedly. If one of them come to your arms, the other one won't take long to come and join like a tick. I remember my father emulating the monkeys from the time he was living in Guinea Ecuatorial, and when I've always seen a monkey howling I thought that my father didn't know how to emulate them. Until a titi monkey has been in front of me and he has done the same noise that my father was doing. They are amazing, in the island there are quite many free ones that you hear them howling, but there's one around the house that if you emulate it, it will start howling with you. Blanca, a woolly monkey was ill, didn't want to eat and had diarrea. They thought she had fever but they couldn't check it, so I used mine to control her temperature. They had to increase the medication because the fever wasn't going down, but one day later she was better and was eating more.

One day, that I was passing, with a couple of monkeys in the head, next to Maria's cage, she is one of the three big monkeys that are in cages, I saw she was with the head between the arms. I went closer and she was doing a noise like she was crying, I was so shocked because the crying was so real. I moved to the other side of the cage, she came, put the back touching the fence and continued crying, so I caressed her. Suddenly, the monkeys I had in the head went down and also caressed her through the fence, it was such a "human" gest, until quite a long time that stopped crying. The following day, they told me Maria and Sambo (the other big monkey that was in the same cage) broke a piece of fence and they scaped. Somehow it made me happy, although I didn't want the babies to get hurt. I saw them and they were all the time in the trees around the house. In the afternoown, we were with the other volunteers in the porch surounded by monkeys when Maria appeared and sat next to me. I carelessed her and she laid down on my knees. In a short time I had 4 monkeys hugging her on my legs, I guess Maria is the closest to a mother that can have there. Since then, Maria everyday comes in order that I careless her. They've put Sambo back in the cage, who seems the most dangerous one, but I've insisted a lot to have Maria outside, she is happier and the other monkeys hug her all the time.

It seems that 5 days are not that much, but many other stories that I've lived these days come to my mind. I'll miss this place a lot because they are so monkeys (in spanish means cute)!!