What is for dinner?

It is just before three in the afternoon at Canaote. The tables have been scrubbed down and the water bowls scoured and replenished. Our picture shows Luis Angel in conversation with Mañiña. Mañiña is anticipating dinner. ‘Why do we have to wait until three thirty for dinner? Why can’t we have it now?’

The meal times at Canaote.We serve dinner at three thirty in the afternoon. Today we have steamed vegetables, apio, carrots, and pumpkin with a large helping of creamed corn. There is a side order of lettuce with a lightly steamed egg.

At eleven, we have a morning snack of fresh leaves, which Luis Angel collects from the forest.

Breakfast is always at exactly seven thirty and is usually fresh fruit and a fortified banana milkshake with added vitamin ‘c’. This morning the fruit is Lechosa (papaya to our non-Venezuelan friends). We cut it longways and leave it in its skin, just the way they love it.
The Lechosa is a very special sweet variety from our own Botanic Garden. The fruit is varied every day, sometimes lightly cooked banana and for a change, occasionally Quaker oats.
This variation in diet is most important and reflects our understanding of the foraging habits of the Howler monkey. More about that in another posting.