PREPARING LUNCH FOR AN OCELOT

Mmmmmm. Lunchtime. Liz and Cinde cut up beef hearts for the many animals of the Monkey Park.

When was the last time you made an all-meat lunch for an ocelot? How about slicing up a fruit snack for a group of cute marmosets (see photo below)?

If the answer is "never," get yourself immediately to the Monkey Park Foundation, a wildlife rescue center just outside of Costa Rica's popular coastal town of Tamarindo.

The Monkey Park is home to numerous animals, some formerly in captivity, and some rescued to be rehabilitated and released back into the wild. For more on what's happening with the exotic animal population in Costa Rica, read Kip's article for National Geographic.

This adorable marmoset is glad that he's not part of lunch for the Ocelot.

But, back to the ocelot lunch. 

Vanessa, the head of the park, directed us to the large pick-up truck that just arrived full of fresh fruit and meats. We loaded them into the tiny kitchen and got to work.

Liz and our new friend Cinde, who runs the Hotel Villa Amarilla, were put on beef duty, which involved carving up over 100 lbs. of beef hearts for the various birds of prey, the coyote, and of course, the ocelot. It was a bloody, messy job, but the two animal lovers were up to it. (Click here for a reminder about how much Liz loves animals.) 

Kip had the even less glamorous job of helping to cleaning out cages. But sometimes, volunteering can be a dirty job. 

Once the carnivores were cared for, we passed out fruits and veggies to the herbivores. This pig was so grateful, he gave Cinde a kiss.

Cinde gets an appreciative kiss from a happy collared peccary.

The Monkey park is not only a great place to volunteer, but it's a great place to visit as well. The park gets no government funding, and relies on donations, and the funds they earn from admission fees to feed and care for the animals.  

For directions to the park, click here. 

And, if you're interested in becoming a volunteer (after all, you will get to prepare lunch for an ocelot....we may have mentioned that twelve times already), check out their volunteer page. 

The happy volunteers and employees of the Monkey Park--Johnny, Cinde, Liz, Kip and Vanessa. 

A happy scarlet macaw eats fresh sunflower seeds out of his food puzzle Kip filled up for him.

PHOTO FRIDAY: COW HORN ENVY IN UGANDA

Someone's feeling a bit inadequate today. 

Flanked by two of Uganda's famous Ankole-Watusi longhorns, whose pointy headgear can reach up to eight feet from tip to tip, this regular old short-horned cow in the middle of the photo above didn't have on her happy face as her 10-yr-old herdsman guided her and her cattle friends to grazing ground just down the road. 

Or maybe she just wasn't used to having a camera pointed at her face, what with the bad lighting and all. 

Good news for her though...no one's going to cut off her horns to make a bracelet or a necklace or a keychain anytime soon.

LUNCHTIME FOR A LEOPARD

What's on the menu today? For this mother leopard in the Serengeti, it's one unlucky warthog.

The leopard, who has to feed herself and two recently-born cubs, skillfully chased down the adolescent warthog before carrying it up a tree only a few feet from where our guide Yosef had parked. 

Smiling proudly, Yosef told us we were lucky to be in the right spot to see such a rare occurrence so close to our vehicle. We couldn't have agreed more. 

But then, there sure were a lot of other fortunate folks that day who got lucky, too. Such is life on safari in the Serengeti.

 

By the way, in case you noticed, we're a little behind time-wise and still reporting on our travels through Africa, though we actually just passed through DC. After a few more safari pics, and a visit through Rwanda, Uganda, and Egypt, we'll be almost up to date...and our next destination...

FUNNY MONDAY: GOT BALLS?

"Goat fighting balls?" Yes, it must be lunchtime at 1 of 7 again, with today's "Funny Monday" special being served up from rural Myanmar.

While it doesn't take a redneck or a rancher to guess that a "fighting ball" is an animal testicle, we couldn't help but be impressed by all the ways they're served here. "Dry?" "Sweet?" "with Bean?"  

It's like Burger King's "Have It Your Way," but for balls. 

If that's not enough to get your juices flowing, add a heaping serving of stewed goat's brain...with quail eggs, of course. Which are "sweet." MMMM. 

And people ask us why we lose weight when we travel. At least there's no feces this time.  

FUNNY MONDAY: DEER MEAT, SOAKED IN...

You can see some strange things on menus and in local markets everywhere around the world. Heck, in Louisiana we even heard there are places you can eat nutria rats and raccoon. At a tiny hole-in-the-wall place in rural Laos though, we found something that tops even those. Seems that, if you like your deer meet with a bit of a bitter taste, you can order it with liquid feces added. For you healthier eaters, you can even have your deer meat over a nice salad..."soaked in liquid feces in the intestine."

Call us cowards, but neither of us tried it. We opted for chicken soup instead. Maybe next time.

PARADISE FOUND. WE'RE NOT TELLING YOU WHERE.

We think we finally found it. Paradise.

These shots are from somewhere on the island of Catanduanes in the Philippines. No, we're not saying where it is. You'll have to find it yourself.

Lunch. For $5. Enough said. 

This one's for our nieces...a clown fish patrols his green carpet anenome just off the beach. 

A local surfer named Libby rips across the peak of a small wave at a famous surf break nearby. 

The view from our $10/night beach hut. Thought about asking them to move the palms, but decided to let it be.  

A time-lapse photo reveals the flight patterns of fireflies roaming the night sky. Liz likes fireflies.

We often heard the calls of black-naped orioles, like this one we photographed nearby. Kip likes birds.

Grasshoppers scale rice stalks to get a prime view of sunrise on Catanduanes. 

OK, so we stayed at Majestic Pururan Beach Resort. All photos were taken within a 10-minute walk of our hut. Seriously, this place is amazing.