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Saved: November 29th 2014
A Tipical Please
I think it's meant to say Typical Place - as in rustic & not touristy...only the sign remains of this hostal on Monkey Beach.It’s 7:00 am in Misahualli, a village at the end of the asphalt where the Misahualli River empties into the Rio Napo, a major tributary of the Amazon. There’s a sandy riverfront beach at the confluence of the two rivers. At the far end of the beach a family capuchin monkeys lives in a grove of trees. I’m told that the current inhabitants are descendants of monkeys who have always lived there. As “civilization” came to the sandy point that juts into the rivers, troop after troop has begun to interact more and more with the residents and visitors in Misahualli. At any given time there’s one dominant male, his harem of adult females and his offspring. When an adolescent male matures he is pushed off deeper into the jungle.
I descended to “La Playa” (Misahualli’s monkey beach) just after daybreak, around 6:45 am. The first monkeys I saw were the beefy male with a tiny baby hanging onto his back. As the papa mono moved along the low branches collecting fruit & seeds the wee one clung tightly, winding its tail around dad’s belly. The images that look a bit fuzzy were taken without flash in the
father & son
hold on tight little one! weak early morning light. I followed the monkey family’s movements along the beach for nearly an hour – laughing at their mischievous antics, traipsing behind them as they made their way to the town square.
Since I was there on a weekend during the school holidays, there were lots of visiting Ecuadorian families with their children. The local vendors knew well what the monkeys most like to eat and they did a brisk business selling the meter-long guabo pods (with cottony fruit within) and carving cacao pods in half (so the fleshy cacao within was accessible to the monos). As curious tourists began to gather in the plaza, I watched a few savvy adolescent chimps work the crowd. One little clown would sneak up behind children and grab whatever they had in their hand, leaving some kids in tears!
I hung back on a shady side street and watched the big papa monkey and several others hang around the “fritada” vendor’s stall. Fritada is a popular dish of chunks of pork fried in a deep copper wok or “paila”. The vendor sliced off bits of fat and the monkeys skipped over, one at a
on the beach
scampering on the sand. time, to collect their tidbit. It was all quite civilized! A street doggie sidled over, carefully eyeing one of the monkeys as he slowly ate his fat chunk. This canine clearly knew better than to try and steal away the morsel – he knew who was the boss!
The photos for this blog were culled from among the more than 100 pix I snapped on that Misahualli morning. Needless to say, I had to delete quite a few shots of monkey butts (I clicked just as my subjects began scampering away!) Make sure to keep scrolling down to see the complete collection! More jungle adventures soon to follow….
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Kathy
non-member comment
Monkeys, Monkeys Everywhere
I know how clever and unafraid of people some monkeys can be and quite frankly, they can scare me - sharp teeth and nails and speedy to boot. I love to watch them from a distance and you got some great photos - thanks for sharing. K & B