Rapid response update

Well I've proven to be a pretty irregular blogger.

And I've more or less conceded that a full and detailed travelogue of the trip to Sapo is not going to happen.

Suffice to say it was a wonderful trip, though we left 36 hours behind schedule, drove through two nights, cracked the drive shaft in the overloaded pickup, spent an unscheduled day having it welded back together, stopped for lots of roadside meals and tea, visited small remote towns and a gorgeous wild forest.

In Sapo I saw fresh tracks and dung of chimps and forest elephants and got a decent look at a clan of Diana Monkeys. Did a nice bit of canoeing on the Sapo River and learned a lot about local community conditions and the frustrating attempts to enforce prohibitions on extractive use in teh Park since there are a set of illegal gold mining camps and a constant pressure of hunting.

Bushmeat is a major delicacy. In fact the driver of our international-NGO vehicle stopped to buy a monkey for his family table on the way back to Monrovia.

In Liberia, we've had independence day a set of arrests for an attempted coup, a denouncement of said Coup by Senator Prince Johnson, who's most famous for cutting the ears off of former President Doe on video tape.

They've also tentatively agreed to restart the university after a month of closure due to faculty and student strike over arrears of "research stipend" payments that turned into a violent set of protests.

More soon. Previous post attempts cut off by finicky internet connections. Will try to keep it short and sweet for my remaining time here.