Misahualli - the Monkey Town

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Having left the jungle, we took a bus from Lago Agrio to a town called Tena arriving in the middle of the night, around 3 am on the 1st of June. Not having a clue where to go, we jumped into a taxi and asked him to take us to a hotel nearby which luckily turned out to be a nice place.

The next day we went to a nearby jungle town Misahualli, hoping to check out a Mariposario -Butterfly Farm. Unfortunately it was closed, but we are glad we went anyway as we got to see the Cappuccino Monkeys who rule the main square of the town.

Apparently they have been living in the trees there ever since some time in the 80s when this pet monkey escaped. The owner got himself a female monkey to lure the first monkey back, but she escaped as well. They formed a family with some other monkeys, reproduced and now coexist along with the human residents of the town. Apparently some PHD student is doing a study on them. There were at least 20 of them, running around causing trouble.

At first we just thought they were funny and sat and watched them from the restaurant of our hotel, but then when two of them noticed us watching them, they seemed to whisper something to each other, looking our way, and then ran over to our table and tried to take stuff from us. Luckily all they managed to take was a lighter.

Then, the next morning Kiki went up to the hotel room to use the bathroom, and when she opened the door to leave the room she found herself face to face with one of them. It showed its teeth and made a threatening sound. Kiki got so scared, but quickly locked the door and started to leave. When she turned around she saw the monkey trying to enter our room, turning the door knob and everything. Kiki ran downstairs and told Monia about it and we decided to both go back to the room just in case Kiki hadn´t locked the door properly (apparently these are smart monkeys and they know how to open doors, unscrew bottle tops, unzip bags etc). The monkey was still there and we didnt dare to go near it. It kept trying to open the door and seemed annoyed when it didn´t work. It also climbed around to see if it could get through the windows. Then it came back with a huge spider in its mouth. Kiki ran as she was scared it was gonna throw the spider at us. Seriously, these monkeys were not cute at all. They reminded us of the gremlins. Not at all like little Poncho in Cuyabeno who was hugging us instead of attacking...

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Photos

Misahualli
Cappuccino Monkey dipping bread in a puddle before eating it.

This was who we found outside our room when we went upstairs...
Look at the teeth!!

Misahualli
You can see why we didn´t dare to mess with this one...

Comments

[dorothy]

awesome
I was viewing your photos. they are awesome photos. did ya'll have trouble at all with the monkeys. they look harmless but I know that looks can be very deceiving. thank you for sharing. and May God grant you peace and traveling mercies on your next journey. sincerely Dorothy Scrantom.

[Jeremy]

So True
Hahaha, we had similar experience--in this town, the monkeys rule. I was traveling with my 4 young children, and it was always a tossup whether any particular monkey was going to be funny or aggressive. Overall, we just treated them like semi-tame street dogs (that can get in your pack), and we were fine. They were gremlins, though, all grasping hands and jumpy.

[andrea]

espectacular¡¡¡
estuvo buenazo el carnavak de misahuallí 2010 aunque deberían llevar muchos mas artistas

[Ferdido Amigo]

Cute as epSos.de
He is cute in his own way, you gremlin.