I finally have convenient internet access so will try and catch you up with the goings ons of the last 2 weeks! The heat is still really exhausting but the animals more than make up for it.

I arrived on the Sunday ( a day late) - I left the hotel at 10am on the Saturday to give myself heaps of time to get to the LCCT in KL. Everything started well, we took off on time and then about 3 hours into the 4 hour flight things got a bit bumpy and the pilot advised us we were diverting to Balikapan (Borneo somewhere). Air Asia don't fly there so we had to sit on the plane and wait. Well! 4 and a half hours later they tell us we are going back o KL! A number of people were somewhat angry at this and began to argue with the flight attendants and the pilot who got a little upset, stormed into the cockpit slamming the door behind him! (there are apparently clips of this on youtube if you want to check it out). Because Air Asia only fly to Manado 3 times a week it was thought we would be dumped in KL and then not be able to get a flight til after Christmas as a number of flights were already full. We were told we'd be put up in a hotel and flown up the next afternoon. When we got back to KL at about 1am we were told we would be going at 4.40am so had to stay in the airport. This was a better plan but meant that a 4 hour trip ended up taking about 21 hours and by the time I got to Tasikoki I was shattered!

When I arrived there were 3 volunteers already there - Barb from North Dakota and Sam & Lucy from Tasmania and of course Simon. Rocky who is American but teaching English in Jakarta for 12 months arrived on Christmas Eve

Our working day starts at 6am - jobs depend on how many volunteers are there at the time but it usually involves cleaning and feeding the aviary macaques - Ray, Che, Mr Magoo, Demi, Roger, Vinnie, Fred and Ginger?, and Eddie. And then feeding the 2 sunbears Bon Bon and Bim Bim?? I just call them girl bear and boy bear at the moment til I'm sure as it would just be rude to call one the wrong name  we finish off by watering the macaque groups, the Javan leopard, the gibbons and giving the Orangtans Is (Iskala - named after the policeman involved in the arrests when he was rescued) and Bento, their water bottles and some attention. More about these two later!

We go back up to the house at about 8am for breakfast and back to work for about 9am .. cleaning the aviary, solitary macaques, and building enrichments which I'm pretty useless at but hey I've got plenty of time to practice! Lunch is at around 12pm so after another stop off at Is and Bento we go back to the house.

Afternoons are taken up with feeding the aviary macaques again, cleaning and feeding the bears, cleaning the solitary macaques, watering the groups and harvesting bits and pieces for different animals finishing between 4 and 5pm.

I've been for a couple of swims at Tasikoki so far - it's pretty shallow so swimming off the end of he pier is much better as its deep and therefore cooler but it's a bit further to walk.

Christmas Day was rather eventful.. first of all psycho macaque in the solitaries managed to grap my glasses and behind them and put teeth marks in the lenses before finally dropping them. Fingers crossed I can claim the straightening and new lenses on my travel insurance. Then Is and Bento escaped and well I'm not going to write about all that as I was traumatised however, all ended well and they were finally put back in their enclosure although Simon's finger is really infected at the moment due to a bite from Is. We spent the afternoon at the houses of an ex worker and one of the guys who works at Tasikoki and had traditional Minahasa food which is spicy spicy spicy! A couple of Bintangs and a chapti cus (thats not how you spell it but it's how it sounds) which is like drinking ethanol! From there it was back to the centre and an early night.

I had Boxing Day as my day off and as the village of Nemembonemba (again - it's not how you spell it but I will fix that later) was closed I went for a drive to the airport with Barb and Simon. Barb left and Simon had to book flights for his visa run). That afternoon we were picked up and taken to Tangkoko. Simon had to go to try and catch a 6 month old black crested macaque who has a chicken snare on its foot and the best time is when they are waking in the morning. We found the group and followed them for a while, it was awesome seeing them in the wild just doing what they do. 3 males sat across the path in a row watching us while the rest of the group (aprox 50 - 60 monkeys) moved off towards their sleeping tree. We then headed off to find another sleeping tree but this was the home of some Tarsiers. Tarsiers are a monkey - about 15cm tall with massive eyes (their eyes are as big as it's brain) and they have long back legs which allow them to jump about 10 times their body length!

Next day was back to work with a visit to the village (about 10 mins on the back of an Ojek)
New Years Eve night - we said goodbye to Sam and Lucy who leave early on the 1st and Simon, me and Rocky are picked up and go to Willie Smits house to see in 2010 with dinner, drinks and some fantastic fireworks.

New Years day was spent driving to a couple of macaque release sites, we had lunch and headed back to Tasikoki in time to hand out the peanuts so all will be forgiven by the primates with any luck!

And that brings me up to the yesterday the 2nd January. Rocky and I worked the morning shift before getting packed and ready to head off. Rocky went back to Jakarta and I went with her to the airport to meet my transfer to Bunaken Island. It was a 45 minute drive to Manado city and about a 45 minute boat ride. I'm staying at Living Colours which is purely a dive resort run by a Finnish couple which explains all the Finns.. the place is full and there is me, a German couple, an English couple and the rest all from Finland!

The bungalows are all set up on a hillside overlooking the sea which is great especially when there is a bit of a sea breeze as it is ridiculously hot. All bungalows have a deck with outdoor furniture, a sun lounger and a hammock.

The two dives I did today were fantastic - especially the second one along the reef wall because we saw two big turtles!! Lots of the usual fish, a couple of crocodile fish, eels, a squid, quite a few lion fish... but the highlight was definitely the turtles  I came back and after lunch lay down for 5 minutes.. 3 hours later!!

There is a family of Dugongs out just in front of the resort so will stay awake tomorrow afternoon and go snorkelling to find them.. the German lady saw them this afternoon but as I was sleeping I missed it. I won't be doing that again!

I've just come back from dinner and am sitting on my balcony listening to the sea thinking I really should get myself organised for the morning- the dive boat leaves at 8.30 am.

As I temporarily have a wiifi I will update you again tomorrow night. Good night