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Published: February 4th 2013
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let me introduce you to..
Pancha, the white faced baby monkey Monkey business!
We spent 3 nights in a hostel in the 3 rd largest city in Panama called David. pronounced Daveed. So our time there was brief, which will explain the brief blog......but I have to speak about the monkeys there.
I had no idea the yard was full of pets and when we unloaded the taxi and dragged our luggage into the secured yard, you could imagine my surprise when I turned around and saw this little white head dancing around in front of me trying to get our attention! It was love at first sight, well at least on this end it was.....Pancha the white faced baby monkey was not to sure of me and played shy. Rosie, the lady who feeds all the critters every day, walked up to him and he leapt into her arms and proceeded to wiggle and squirm like any 1 year old would do. With her standing there he felt safe enough for me to sneak a cuddle in too, but once she was gone, it took me the remaining days there to get him to trust me enough to hold him again. He was vey playful though and if Ian
Pancha
Getting acquainted was ever unsure as to my where abouts all he needed to do was go to the monkey cage and he would find me.
We played games like, hide the rock in my hand and he would pry my fingers open, grab the rock, stick it in his mouth then hang upside down( which would worry me that he might choke...) -always a mother lol- then put it in my hand again and I would hide it........He had a little tin water dish that I would sometimes find empty and it's very hot in David, so I would fill it up, set it down and he would look at me slyly then slowly turn it on its side to which he would then proceed to play in the new mud, rubbing his little hands all through it. Then would climb my leg!
On the premises they had 2 other monkeys, both older Howler monkeys. These are the same kind that we saw while in Tamarindo Costa Rica at the beginning of our trip swinging in the trees. These ones however were not free and it caused me to shed a tear or two over those few days at
their captivity. One was in a cage, probably 10'x10'x10'. He apparently wasn't friendly but he did get some watermelon snuck into his cage late one evening.....who me??? and the other one "Mancha" lived in the back of the property on a tether like Pancha. He was an undetermined age and had had a stroke, making his left side paralyzed. I took a bit of comfort in this thinking that he probably wouldn't have survived as long if out in the wild with this disability, but who knows.
Mancha was very friendly and must be used to getting kisses because when you approach him, he extends is good arm, wraps it around your neck, pulls you close and puckers up!!! I loved him, but not that much! I caught Ian there one day sneaking a cuddle too. He especially likes women though, so once he had me where he wanted me, he pulled me close and laid his head against my chest, like a big hug...... We stayed like that for quite awhile until Ian came along and broke up our embrace 😊 He also enjoyed laying back against the trunk of the tree and letting me rub his belly,
scratch behind his ears and under is chin. Rosie was walking around with a hose filling everyones water dish and she told us to watch. She gently sprayed the water on Mancha who absolutely loved it. She then told him in Spanish to wash his hair, and he would take his good hand and scrub his little head! After he had had enough he crawled up on the roof to dry in the sun.
Meanwhile back at Pancha headquarters he was not sitting quietly. One day we were eating our dinner outside at the table and I decided to offer him a green bean. Well he loved it! After he was done he decided he wanted more, so to get my attention he through his leftover banana at me. When that didn't work, over came his water dish.....when still that didn't work he started to scoop up handfuls of loose gravel and pitch it at me! After the laughter died down we gave him a few more green beans.
This hostel also housed many different kinds of birds. They had 3 toucans which are so unique to look at, lots of parrots, cockatiels, budgies, and many other colourful
Pancha
On our last day, swinging from my Arm birds that I didn't know the names of.
Pancha and Mancha had tethers on them to confine them so they weren't in cages. I came to the conclusion that his was probably better than a cage since people could interact with them instead of being behind the wire. Of course, not being confined is best. They are so social, and enjoyed attention so it was nice to be able to give that too them.
We walked around a bit in David but didn't even make it to the beach. From what we saw, it seemed like a nice Panamanian town. It was busy and the prices of clothes were super cheap. I bought a sun dress for $11 and a top for $3. The kids are all finishing up their summer holidays and getting ready to return to school so the parents and the stores are all doing their ..." It's the most wonderful time....of the yearrrr" song and it was busy downtown.
After that we jumped back into a nice air conditioned bus that showed 2 movies in Spanish ( that we dubbed ourselves and actually got it pretty spot on) and drove down the pacific
Mancha
Paralyzed on his left side coast for about 6 hours. We have landed in a little fishing village called Nueva Gordona, next to the bigger town of Cordona. So that's it for now fffffffffolks!
Let the adventures continue! We're half way through our Central America journey! Adios
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