I spent 4 months following squirrel monkeys near Guadalupe. I was totally excited and bewildered to be working in the beautiful forest I could only have seen on TV before.
Walking around the forest took a lot of getting used to, with lots of laughs at me falling over and sliding down hills. While following the monkeys, I was interested in their activities, what they did, and where they went. I took notes on what they were doing every half hour and placed a GPS marker every 15 minutes, because they move very fast. I was also interested to see what the local people thought of the squirrel monkeys, so I devised a survey. This was challenging considering most people in the area only spoke Spanish, and before coming to Costa Rica, I spoke no Spanish at all, and Google Translate became my best friend. Generally, people seemed delighted to be asked about the monkeys and what they think of them, which made what I was doing feel all the more important.
This was an amazing first experience of field work and a pleasure to work alongside Fundación Saimiri.
