My silver leaf monkey experience - by Frankie

One day we went to the proboscis monkey place and we saw hundreds of them.  Then we went to watch a film about proboscis monkeys.  After we got out, we immediately saw some silver-leaf monkeys and then more and more of them. I saw two baby ones and I named the small one 'Jumper' and he was mine. The one with the black face was called 'Nibbler" and he was Louis'. After a while we saw a tiny monkey that was Mummy's, called 'Lucky Man', but he wasn't very lucky because he was so wanted by the other monkeys he got pulled around!  Also there was another one which was Daddy's called Bubble.

Cute little Nibbler!!!!

He looks curious 

"Ow you're hurting me!!!!!!!!!!"

Greedy pants!!!

All of the monkeys kept on jumping on us and one time Nibbler jumped on my face!  When it was almost time to go we put our feet on the steps and then the daddy one jumped right over them!

A moment later the daddy one grabbed the small one and jumped over  our legs!

I was careful not to touch the monkeys but Nibbler came and landed on me!

Facts

1.  The silver leaf monkeys are very small but also very intelligent.
2.  They have a long slender body that is usually grey in colour or orange when they are little. They also have white across the front of them. 
3.  The silver leaf monkeys live in social groups and they are extremely protective of each other.
4.  They have been known to become aggressive when they or their family is going to be threatened.

Diet:: leaves, nuts and fruits. 

The Orangutans! - by Louis

We all went to an orangutan place in a minibus. It was called Sepilok. When we got there the first thing we did was put our bags in a locker so that the orangutans don’t take anything, unscrew the lid and drink what is inside. They don’t know the difference between water, mosquito repellant and suncream lotion! 

Lovely orangey-brown coat

We went to the feeding and saw lots and lots of orangutans bustling around everywhere.  The big guy was so greedy and had so much food he had his leg in the food basket before he knew it!!  We watched them for ten minutes longer then we went to see the orangutan movie. It was really good and my favorite part was when the big guy got out into the forest and was really happy.

The baby one had spotted something being thrown by one of the other orangutans!

Now what shall I eat next?

You can even eat lying down.

We went to the discovery centre while waiting for the next feeding session.  We did the canopy walk and we saw a giant leech, it fell on to the ground from 30 metres up, he deserved it!  Then we went to a flower plantation but it wasn’t very good.  Afterwards we went to see the next feeding.  At the start, we didn’t see anything but then an orangutan came and started eating.  Then Mimi came and the other one fled and we saw a little one peek out of the bush and went on the rope on the other side. They chased each other and we got really close.  Daddy got some great photos and we can put them on the blog.

It doesn't look very comfortable but they seem to like it.

This one was right above our heads

Although with Daddy's wide angle lens, it looks like he is miles away!

Finally, we adopted an orangutan and she was called 'Lumiyud'.  ('Flood').  She was called Flood because she was found in a flood and her mum probably drowned.  We walked to the car park and the bus was full so we had to wait and off we went when it came back.

FACTS

1. A wild orangutan can live up to 45 years or more.  There was an orangutan in Philadelphia zoo who was 58!
2. Orangutan means ‘man of the forest.’  ‘Orang’ means people and ‘hutan’ means forest.
3. When orangutans are annoyed they put their lips together and make a kissing noise called a ‘kiss squeak!’
4. There are two species of orangutans.  One is called pongo abelii and the other is called pongo pygmaeus.

Magellan penguins - by Frankie

Sometimes they try and get a closer look at you

We had rented a car called Bertie in Puerto Madryn. We had just seen the Commerson Dolphins and we jumped in the car, it was a 90 minute journey to Punta Tombo, which is where you see the Magellan penguins.

When we got there, I said “Look, a penguin!” but then we realised we were surrounded by them but we had never noticed it!  

The penguins were black on their backs and white on their tummies and bigger than I thought. They had big fat flippers in the place of their arms, and a small stubby tail.  They have got pink near their eyes, and pinkish black feet.   (select "Read more" below to continue)

Southern Right Whale

We had seen the amazing orcas but then we were heading off to the bigger Southern Right Whales!!!!!!   When we got there we were surprised that the office was a boat!  We put our life jackets on and hopped in the real whale-watching boat and sailed away.  About 2 minutes after we got in the water we saw about 7 bottlenose dolphins, they looked like they were performing a show for us.  About 10 minutes later, we saw our first southern right whale.  We didn’t think we would see one of these huge creatures, because  its the end of the season, so we were stunned. The one we saw was a mother and about 15 metres long. The water was so clear you could see the whole body under the water. At the end it flapped its tail up gradually and we got some brilliant pictures.  

Shiny whale tail

The whales were right beside our boat

Then from out of nowhere we saw another 4 southern right whales including the first baby southern right whale with the first mum.   They were black with little white humpy things on their head. They move by flapping their tail under water very slowly. At the end the two baby whales were lying on their mums backs. They don’t seem to go very fast at all. It made me feel excited, amazed and proud to watch them. 

Baby whales on their Mums' backs!

Facts

1. The tail weighs a tonne.  
2. They are born with the grey humpy calluses on their head. The lice are white and hop on their back and make the calluses look white.
3. In Argentina, there are a lot of seagulls.  They peck the southern right whales' backs because they like the skin.  The whales lose a lot of energy trying to escape from the seagulls, and some of them die.
4. The mother is bigger than the father whale because she has to feed the babies. The babies drink 150 litres of milk a day from their mum.   The dad gets to about 14m long but the mum can get to about 16m long.
5. They can live up to about 70 or 80 years old.

BY FRANKIE

Bottlenose dolphin

Probably a bottlenose dolphin

We all went to see whales at Peninsula Valdes in Argentina. So we got our life jackets on and headed off to the boat, Daddy gesturing to us to move ahead in the line. When we had got some way out to get to the whales, we spotted some fins in the distance, they were obviously (there is a clue in the title) bottlenose dolphins. They were doing so many amazing things Daddy tried to get all of the moves on film, but as soon as he pressed the record button the dolphins had moved into a different part of the places the eye can see.

facts

Where's my nose?

1. The bottlenose dolphins have curved mouths that makes them look like they’re smiling. They are good at mastering tricky tricks and are brilliant for circuses, not that I want them to be in circuses. 
2. In the wild bottle-nosed dolphins can reach up to and over 18mph (and 30kph).They normally travel in groups, all of them have their own complex whistles.
3. Bottlenose dolphins track their prey down through brilliant use of echolocation.They make up to 1,000 squeaking noises a second. These funny sounds travel until they hit something and then race back to the dolphin revealing the size, shape and location of the animal (unless it is a branch!!)
4. Bottlenose dolphins can live up to 45 to 50 years old. They are 10 to 14ft (3 to 4.2m) long.
5. Bottlenose dolphins are known to jump out of the water 16ft (4.9m) and land back down on their side or back. We weren’t lucky enough to see that amazing sight but even if we did Daddy would probably not have got it on camera!!!!    

    By Louis

Paragliding over Lima

Last week we were in Lima, on a brief one day stopover en route to another brief one day stopover in Sao Paolo, before re-establishing our journey south through South America that we were on before the Galapagos.

Enjoying the sunset

We’d got to the hostal last night at about 11pm, after a full day on planes and in airports, so in the morning, given we had some time, we had some downtime together watching Spiderman 3.  The last time we watched a movie together, about 5 weeks ago in Ubatuba, Frankie had been on the lookout for any teary moments - whch duly came towards the end of “Fried Green Tomatoes" and he took delight in pointing this out (to be fair, it reminded me of doing the same with my parents when I was little though.) Funnily enough this time around with Spiderman 3, during a slushy scene about being best friends, it was Frankies turn, and he smiled through his tears as I looked at him.  He said “I was just trying to get some water into my eyes, Daddy!”

......I see, so you basically just walk off the cliff, right?

In the afternoon, we headed down to the park at Miraflores that runs along the coast, and instantly noticed the colourful paragliders in the air, sometimes slowly making a winding turn, sometimes seemingly rushing past at speed. You could see that some were tandem riders so I went to enquire as to the minimum age for a ride. Apparently it was 5, although I didn’t see any children there. It was 150 soles, about £35 each, not within our daily budget, however this was one of those things you say to yourself, "how often will we get the chance to just turn up and do this?" - and what a great backdrop, being able to enjoy the coastline of Lima at the same time. I asked Louis if he fancied doing this as an early birthday present, he said he’d do it if I would.  Deal.

Are we supposed to go that close?

After briefly returning to our room to exchange flipflops for trainers, and getting a fleece, we headed back to the seafront, and I went over to meet Rafael, our pilot.  There wasn’t much in the way of a briefing, you just put the harness on, he gets on with a bit of faffing to line up the parachute, you follow his instruction to stand “here...... no here,” you then take a few steps, and suddenly the air fills the parachute and you’re up.  Looking down I could see the busy road below that borders the sea dotted by surfers. 

I didn't bother with the video, hopefully if Louis agreed to go then we could get one done for him. Speaking to Rafael, he explained that we were going about 45 miles an hour as we whooshed back on ourselves towards the somewhat iconic lighthouse. We descended below the level of the clifftop park where Jules and the boys were, and nearer the grey, very hard and not even slightly bouncy road below, and our conversation moved on to the mechanics of the flight. Even though it was in Spanish, I understood enough to learn that we'd been powered by the cold winds coming in off the sea, hitting the cliffs and being pushed upwards, therefore my "clever Daddy" speech earlier with the boys about circling eagles and thermals was in hindsight somewhat wide of the mark, even if the principle holds true.  I was really enjoying the ride and looked forward to get down and see the boys faces, and find out how they felt about it. I waved at someone on about the tenth floor of a building that we were flying surprisingly close to, who waved back. I shouted that I'll swoop past for a drink on the way back, which might have been funnier if I'd at least said it in Spanish instead of English...

I was wondering when we'd start some sort of discussion about landing, but as we approached I realised there wouldn't be one, "just keep your legs up in the air", he requested, before executing a very smooth and straightforward landing and promptly receiving my profuse thanks. Louis was still filming me when I landed, and I wondered whether he'd filmed the entire flight, in which case 9 minutes of this will be a dot in the sky. Asking Louis what he thought, he confirmed that it looked like really great fun and that he definitely wanted to do it........meanwhile Jules was getting ready too, and Frankie was left as the guardian of our bags as I followed Louis out towards Rafael and his big blue parachute. 

Here we go then.....

As I began to film Louis preparing, the camera bleeped.  Card full. I quickly went back and deleted some of the previous footage of the tiny dot in the sky to make room for Louis as Rafael calmly helped Louis get his gear on. There was an extra person with a yellow jacket who helps you take off, as the giant parachute and the winds can introduce a little unpredictability. It looked like they were trying to get on board a reluctant camel, as they lifted off the ground slightly and then came down again rather clumsily without actually getting anywhere.  Rafael had explained that with the lighter load of children, you don't go as fast, so that explained why he wasn't just running off the side of the cliff as he did with me. That said, moments later they were airborne, and Louis waved with a little whoop of delight. They turned and as the wind got behind them, picked up speed and flew off toward the picturesque black and white striped lighthouse.

I'm loving this

Hello down there!

Shortly afterwards, Jules was up with another pilot and able to enjoy a view of Louis flying from her own flight. It's left little Frankie on his own, and I went over to him and asked him how he was feeling. "I really want to do this too Daddy, can I do it?"  I was delight he'd changed from his earlier "50% status" and quickly sorted out the "it was all my stupid fault, not yours" sworn statement paperwork, a prerequisite for such activity.

No going back now then.....

Thank you thank you thank you!

Frankie said he was a little bit nervous but not too scared and if Louis could do it then so could he. Rafael landed with a very smiley Louis, and we congratulated Louis on how well he'd done.  After transferring all the gear onto a willing and enthusiastic Frankie, and being joined now by a vary happy Jules who had just had a safe landing of her own, we watched Frankie take off and enjoy the experience, making a very picturesque silhouette against the setting sun and also as he rounded the lighthouse. 

Frankie gets a closer view of the lighthouse

This is brilliant!

Thanks Rafael, you're a great pilot!

The boys have written up their separate blog entries about their experiences.  All in all this transformed a quick city stopover into a highlight of its own!

Galapagos Sealion

Can you spot the second sealion?

I think the sealion is one of the best animals I have seen so far on my trip.  I have had so many amazing experiences with sealions in the Galapagos, but unfortunately it has now come to an end and we have moved on. 

Some of the sealions are very cute, like this one

And this one

The baby sealions stay with their mums for up to two years. 

When the sealions grow up, some of them are very big and scary, and they don't want to play.  There is normally one male bull sealion in charge of 20-30 sealions.  We were told that he is so busy protecting the other sealions that he doesn't have time to eat properly and after a few months can get weak.  This is when other males might fight with him for his position.  

We watched a male patrol the beach for the three days that we were at La Loberia, in San Cristobal, swimming just by the shore from side to side, barking very loudly to show he is the boss. He would sometimes swim very near to us if he thought we were getting too close to the other sealions in the water.  One time he bumped into Daddy's leg in the water.  Daddy didn't go near him again!

facts
The Galapagos sealion is related to the Californian sealion.  The Californian sealions are bigger.  The Galapagos male bull sealions can reach up to about 500lbs by the time they are seven years old. 

The Galapagos sealions don’t live as long as the Californian sealions because they have to put there bodies under more stress to get their food.  They go up to 6 miles out, and dive down to 300 metres deep, because the fish they like go much deeper here.   The Galapagos sealions live to around 15 to 20, whereas the Californian sealions can live up to 35.
They like to eat sardines and can eat up to 15kg of fish per day.  

There are two main differences between sealions and seals.  They are:
1) Sealions have little ears that stick out and seals don’t, and 2) Sealions use their front flippers and their back flippers and bottoms to move along, whereas seals move along only with their front flippers.

By Louis

Frigate Bird

We were on a boat to Islas Plazas, and we saw these 3 Frigate birds hovering above us.  It felt like we could reach out and tickle their bellies!  We decided to lie down and get a better look at them while they were flying.  They weren't even trying to flap their wings but were going as fast as the boat. 



The males have a red throat that sometimes puffs up like a balloon to show off to the girls and the females have a white throat.   

Their wingspan is 2 metres. they are the lightest bird in the Galapagos for their size.  If they dive in the water, they don't have enough oil on their wings to make the wings dry quickly, so if they get their wings wet, they would get very heavy and sink. So they have to be very mean to the blue-footed boobies and the tropic birds.  The tropic birds and boobies catch the fish, then the frigate birds fly down to bite their tail feathers. They get them in real pain so that they are forced to drop the fish that are in their mouths, and even if swallowed they will regurgitate the fish. The fish may still be alive and the frigate bird has to catch it before it hits the water. 

By Frankie

Galapagos Brown Pelican

One of the most amazing things to see here in the Galapagos is a pelican while its flying.  It reminds me a bit of what a pterodactyl might have looked like.

When this one came by it poohed on Frankie!  Mummy said that was good luck. Splat ha ha good luck Frankie!

"It's mine, you can't have it!

We sometimes go down to the place in Pelican Bay, where the fishermen come in from fishing trips, and we see them cutting up the fish and macheteing the lobster’s bottoms off. The bits of fish and lobsters they can’t sell, they just give to the pelicans and sealions to eat for themselves. Normally they fight for every piece aggressively and noisily.

Pelicans are really greedy and even try to eat whole fish all at once!  This one had a big chunk of fish head in its mouth.

On another day, we all saw a big pelican on the side of the road and it had something in his mouth, but we could not really get a look inside. It looked like a dinosaur’s claw and it seemed as if it was going to break through his jaw pouch* because it was so wide and pointy. He was trying to swallow it at first but when he realised he couldn’t he tried to get it out by shaking his mouth around furiously and then also tried to scrape it along the ground to dislodge this claw from its jaw. Then a kind fisherman came along and held the pelican firmly on the ground and while it was flapping around he carefully pulled out what was stuck and revealed the answer. It was a gigantic crab claw!

Here is a short video of a pelican flying.

facts

Many young find it difficult to master the feeding technique and end up dying of starvation.

Brown Pelicans measure around 41 inches in length and have a wingspan of 90 inches. The Galapagos population of the Brown Pelican is said to be endemic.

*   The saggy sack under the beak is called the gular sac 

By Louis

The Lava Heron

We were walking one night on San Cristobal in the Galapagos and we had seen so many sealions already and first of all we saw this egret-looking bird but that wasn't the striated heron...then we saw our destiny!  It was a dark coloured bird about 20 cm in height and with a long shiny beak.  

Don't photograph me with my mouth full PLEASE!

We decided to watch it's hunting skills for a while and just then he picked up a spider from nowhere...but then dropped it and the spider must have thought "yes, I'm free!"  Sadly he then said "ouch" and got grabbed again by the long, pointy beak.  On that day we saw him catch four insects in about 10 minutes.  Every evening he is in the same rich picking place and seems to have a very successful technique.

The one we saw was probably a female because the female is less colourful than the male.  It is also called the Little Heron.

The striated heron is very clever because he has a very interesting way of getting prey sometimes. He puts some food out on the water, like little insects, and then fish come to it and he strikes at the fish and catches it. 

By Frankie

Daddy writes:  Since Frankie wrote this, our friend Lee Dingain, a very keen birder, has explained that this is in fact a lava heron, endemic to the Galapagos, and it is part of the striated heron family.  Ironically we saw one the very next day eating this fish, so we thought we'd update the entry with the latest photograph and a short video of it swallowing the fish whole!)

"Some animals I have seen" - a presentation by Frankie

This is my definite first presentation and I hope you like the animals I have seen.  We have seen all of these birds and animals just in the Pantanal and REGUA.

By Frankie

"My Favourite Pantanal Birds" - a presentation by Louis

This is my first presentation in Keynote and I liked making it.

We used Daddy's photos and information that I got from Alyson, our guide at Southwild in the Pantanal who was really good.  He looked pretty sad though when we didn't see the jaguar on our trail walk the other day!

By Louis

Our time in the Pantanal.....

Reproduced below are some entries in the boys’ journals this week about our time in the Pantanal, first Louis then Frankie.  This was one of the opening tasks of “Holiday School”!

We have also put together a collection of photos depicting our time in this exciting place where we had much closer encounters with animals than we imagined we would. (Which is just as well since whilst our new camera is tiny, very handy and very portable, the zoom is not that great!).

If you click on the arrow below and cross your fingers, you’ll hopefully get a sense of the Pantanal. (with music for those that don't like animals much)

Our trip to the Pantanal - By Louis

The Pantanal - By Frankie

The Caiman

We were on our way from the airport to Southwilds in the Pantanal, but I fell asleep in the car, meanwhile Mummy was still awake and she saw a caiman on the way!  I was really jealous the next day but when we went on a boat ride I wasn't so jealous because we saw thousands more!!

Alyson, our guide, told us that caimans are from the Alligator family.  They swallow stones to stay at the bottom of the river for longer as it makes them heavier and then they regurgitate the stones.  Crocodiles also do this to help crush the bones of the prey they have eaten.  Caimen eat fish which is a good way to control the piranha population in the rivers.  Otherwise if there is not much water and therefore less fish, the piranhas will eat baby caimans! 

We saw this caiman with a catfish in its mouth.  Alyson said it was waiting until we go before it will eat it.

By Frankie

Tics

  

Mummy saw this tic on my ear, and I had to pull it really hard to get it off, it must have been having a good drink of my blood.  Yuk!  

The tic looks like a little beetle but is in fact not an insect, but in the arachnid family, so is more like a spider.
  

by Louis