Forrest is an 10 week old shepherd mix and the penultimate Puppy of the Week. Forrest arrived at the Amazon CARES clinic after a Zoo Peru volunteer found him wandering the rainforest at just 3 weeks (hence his name).

When I arrived at Amazon CARES, Forrest had been living at the clinic recovering from malnutrition and parasites. Playful and friendly, Forrest quickly became a favorite of the volunteers who loved parading him around town on his daily walks.

This Friday, Forrest was adopted by a woman who met him while he was out with volunteers. Today, the papers were signed and Eliza brought Forrest to his new forever home just a few blocks from the clinic with a promise that volunteer could visit anytime. Congratulations to our Puppy of the Week and his new owner!

Photos of the competition can be seen on my flickr site [tag: puppy_patients]

As a reminder, the panel has a strict criteria and puppies are judged on cuteness, snugglability, and new puppy smell.  A new Puppy of the Week will be chosen each Saturday. After four weeks, the winning puppies will compete in a head to head final battle of cuteness to determine who will be crowded Puppy of the Trip.

When we stepped off the boat we were greeted at the dock by Louis, a friendly spider monkey. As we walked up to the main house, we saw the more than two dozen monkeys who roam freely on the island. When we visited, there were 7 types of monkeys on the Island, ranging from Sakis to Tamarins.

We spent the first part of the morning playing with orphaned monkeys at the rescue. Some of the monkeys were shy and remained high above us in the trees. However, the braver monkeys came down to eat bananas from our hands. These curious little monkeys played in the branches, swung from branches and climbed all over our photographer.  When the monkeys were comfortable enough to play with us, we learned we had to clutch tightly to anything the monkeys could grab and steal (especially sunglasses and hats!)

After monkeying around a bit, we walked into the rainforest to learn about the flora and fauna on the island which the staff of Monkey Island works to conserve. Under the shade of the canopy, we snacked on wild jungle fruits (like sweet camu camu and sticky caimito).

Below are a few photos from my our visit to Monkey Island (check my flickr set for more)

]]> http://courtneyknapp.com/2009/12/17/monkey-island/feed/ 0 http://courtneyknapp.com/2009/12/13/thank-you-fish/ http://courtneyknapp.com/2009/12/13/thank-you-fish/#comments Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:57:39 +0000 Courtney http://courtneyknapp.com/?p=309 Last night, I was given a fish as a thank you gift.

More specifically, I was given Patarashca, a traditional Peruvian dish of an Amazon river fish wrapped in leaves (usually Bihao), then roasted over a fire.

My thank you fish was from two Señoras who were grateful for my help translating at the clinic where their dogs had surgery. They arrived at the clinic on a motorbike and took three steaming plastic bags out of basket on the front of the bike. Inside the bags were two enormous white fish wrapped in leaves, a pile of yuca and a recipe so I can make my own Patarashca.

The women caught the fish that morning so the Patarashca was incredibly fresh. It was richly flavored, with a salty flesh so perfectly cooked each piece fell off the tiny fishbones as I pulled it apart to enjoy.

I had never been thanked with fish before, but after trying Patarashca it may become by preferred means of giving thanks.