At 8am we said goodbye to everyone at the lodge and headed to the office to say goodbye to Nick and settle up - nothing to pay -indeed he told me I had not used all the money on the inclusive rate we had paid and he owed me money - well that's a first and made payment of the tip very easy - I told him to give the extra to the the staff.....all happy we headed off to the Primatology Centre which is not open to the public but REGUA can arrange trips if you are interested. They are studying the primates ie the marmosets and monkeys of the area and hope to successfully breed and release animals to stop them dying out - particularly the golden lion tamarinds which are particularly rare and endangered. They also act as a rehabilitation centre for injured animals. As we started our tour we saw hanging in a tree yet another wild 3 toed sloth - all the time we spent in Guyana searching for them and without trying hard we find 3 of them in Brazil! This one was extra special as on it's back was a baby.
The marmosets were interesting - some looked furry and cuddly on the bottom but had bald heads and jagged ears which made them look like vampire bats on top - very strange how evolution works. As I tried to take photos through the cage bars the marmosets were very funny and interested in what I was doing; they kept trying to touch the camera lens. As well as several different types of marmosets we saw the endemic and endangered woolly spider monkey (muriqui), a nail monkey, night monkeys and a black spider monkey.
We ate our packed lunch at the centre and then made our way to Rio for our night at the Best Western hotel close to Copacabana beach - which we walked along because you have to don't you! It was quite cool and not much beach volleyball going on - I think there is more on Horse Guards parade, London currently! The hotel was clean and modern and very comfortable for one night. As it had wifi I caught up with my emails and watched some of the Olympics on television....interesting listening to commentary you don't understand!