mungle&jonkeys

Aistė | Travel | July 07, 2010

Those who know me, know that there is a reason for my obsession to save homeless animals, and why I become emotional every time I hear about animal cruelty. Yes! They know that I love and respect animals very much.

That was one of the reasons why we decided to visit the monkey conservatory in the Amazon basin jungle. Monkeys come here because of many reasons. Most often because people don’t want them anymore as their pets. This happens because of many reasons such as the monkey doesn’t became bigger than the average toy and it is no longer interesting; people can’t afford to take care of the monkey; and/or the animal becomes too noisy, messy etc… In an appropriate context all of these reasons could be considered humorous rather than sad. During our visit at the conservatory, the result of human irresponsibility was evident. A variety of monkey species was seen including the spider and wooly monkey. A monkey is a wild animal that requires its natural habitat to flourish. However, if a monkey is removed from its natural habitat to become pet, it is important to know that the monkey can flourish in a controlled environment such as a shelter or conservatory. For example, if a monkey is purchased as a pet and is no longer wanted, it is morally correct that the owner gives the monkey to a shelter like this one in Rio Negro river basin. However, volunteers continue to tell stories about intentional human cruelty. For example, one monkey for the first 3 months of life was kept in a dark box… now the monkey has bone deformities due to lack of vitamin D and is expected to live only until the age of two. The monkey can barely walk…

It is often said that love and respect between ‘higher intellectual’ humans is more important than love and respect towards ‘lower intellectual’ species such as moneys. Well, I don’t agree with that. If man can’t respect the natural rights of a monkey, parrot etc. to live in a wild, it is really doubtful that he/she will be able to respect his/her neighbor. One has to start from small things. It’s easier to take care of a homeless cat than to stop a war. However, this small change in attitude brings us closer to universal wisdom and respect.

But its time to get back to Spotas travels. We rented our car for the jungle trip in Banos; a small mountain village that is in between three volcanos. We took Puyo road that led us straight to Rio Negra river. The mountains quickly turned into a tropical landscape. The surrounding flora and fauna was green, wet, and soft with huge leafs hanging above our heads. The blue butterflies were circling around, and various reddish brown snakes were lying on the ground. We decided to take a short trip to a remote waterfall and explore the jungle a little bit more. This small waterfall (15 metres) was a place for Incas to talk to their ancestors and gather some strength form the falling water.

The sun was beginning to set so we turned back. Tomorrow will be another interesting and long day.