Monkey River

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Placencia offers some good exploring of jungle areas. We took a one hour boat ride to Monkey River. On our boat ride, we went around lagoons and saw Iguanas that were 4 feet. This was a prelude to the wildlife that we were about to see.

Once we docked, we put on rubber boots and trekked about 2 miles into the jungle. I was glad we had rubber boots as it had rained briefly in the jungle, my long pants came in handy since there was an abundance of mosquitos but since I had Deet on, I didn't receive any bites.

We saw Black Howler Monkeys, which were the size of chimps. Luckily, we were in a "safe" range, as one of the males in the tree decided he had to pee, so we didn't experience the yellow rainshower. When walking through the jungle it is a wise thing to not only look in front of you, but above you as well.

On our trek, we saw some Toucans and other bird life.

The trees were magnificent especially the Cebia tree, I couldn't believe how big the base of the tree was. I saw a strangling fig tree and a mahogany tree as well.

The day before, our guide while on an excursion with some tourists, saw a Jaguar from a distance. The day we went, he noticed a fresh batch of prints, so we were probably being tracked by the same Jaguar.

After our jungle trek, we were rewarded with a creole style lunch at Alice's Restaurant. We had our pictures taken holding Parakeets.

I enjoyed Monkey River, there is so much to see. The only regret I had is my camera did not have a zoom lens so I didn't take pictures of the Monkeys since I couldn't get close enough.

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