Monday, October 28, 2013

Rescue Centers

On the last two days in Iquitos I visited two animal rescue centers. Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm has a tribe of red-faced Uakari monkeys living nearby and when I arrived they were hanging out near the entrance.

Peru has a problem with people illegally capturing and selling animals. Sometimes the animals are rescued from the market or airport. The birds have their wings clipped and then they are not able to fly.

This bird doesn't really look anything like Toucan Sam and yet that's the first thing I thought of. His beak has a large hole on the other side because he wasn't getting the proper food, but it's healing now.

There were a few pygmy marmosets. I got to see this one close up!

These monkeys were really playful.

Keep your eye on this one though! Get too close and she'll steal your things. She was trained by a gang as a pickpocket, and she was pickpocketing the visitors at the rescue center so she had to be put in monkey jail.

There was an ocelot, probably captured for its fur. There was also a jaguar but he was hiding, even when he was offered a snack of meat.

The last stop of the trip was to a Manatee Rescue Center where baby manatees are cared for until they are old enough to be released back into the wild. The baby manatees were hungry, and I got to feed them.

I was also able to pet them. They are very soft.

The last stop before heading to the airport was food. I walked to three highly-rated authentic Peruvian restaurants and they were all closed, so I ended up at The Yellow Rose of Texas.

Last sunset over the not-Amazon River.

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