Monkeys

I'm traveling today to Monkey River Town to do some bird watching and look for Howler Monkeys.  Monkey River Town is a small creole village of about 200 people at the mouth of - you guessed it - Monkey River.  It's about a 45 minute boat ride (or half hour in my boat!) from Placencia.

Waiting for my boat at the docks, I met Nancy and Jay.  Jay is moving down here from Alaska, building a house on one of the coastal islands and in the meantime he's living on a sailboat. (sounds like a character straight out of a Jimmy Buffet novel!)  Nancy is a former girlfriend of Jay's, who now lives in Wisconsin.  She came to visit while the house construction happens.  On this day, Nancy has signed up to go to Monkey River while Jay works on his house.

We talked for a few minutes and soon a boat pulled up.   This is Ebar, our guide for the day.  Ebar grew up in Monkey River Town and has been a tour guide for many years. He introduced Nancy and I to a family from San Francisco, already on the boat and off we went.  And I do mean off!  Ebar pulled the boat off shore, turned around and cranked it up, we flew across the water.

                                    I'm not fond of this picture, but it illustrates our speed
                                       - I don't have my bangs pulled back, it's just the wind!!

So, we're motoring along and come to the mangroves.  It looks like we're heading straight into them until the boat turns suddenly and we're zigzagging a path through the cuts.  Suddenly Ebar stops the boat and says it's important that we stop and listen for other boats as the maze through the mangroves is narrow and we don't want to crash (it's already been narrow, btw).  According to him, some boats inconsiderately go really fast and cause accidents.  Hmm.  We listened for 15 seconds, fired it up and sped off again through the cuts.  At least we stopped to listen first.

Leaving the mangroves we traveled along the coast stopping to see birds along the way.  We saw

                                                                           Frigates

                                                                            Osprey

                                                            and Anahingis, among others.

Soon we were pulling into the mouth of Monkey River.  Ebar asked if we wanted to have lunch later on.  When we said yes, he told us we'd have to pull in and order now so the food will be ready for us upon our return.

We all got out of the boat, went in and ordered our lunch where Alice, the little Belizean woman who owns the place just nodded as each of us in turn said whether we preferred fish or chicken (chicken!).She didn't write anything down and didn't speak very fluent English, plus we weren't the only tour group stopping to order.  Made me wonder what would be waiting for us when we got back!

Soon, we loaded back into the boat and began our journey up the river.  Ebar was a fantastic guide!   His ability to spot a tiny creature across the water was impressive.  He'd drive us close to get a better look and made sure everyone had the chance to get a photo.   He had so much knowledge of the plant and wildlife along the way, even knew the Latin names for everything, flora and fauna!

Here are some of the things we saw: (Sorry the pictures are hard to see.  Besides being small, the weather kept changing from clouds to sun to rain and I had a hard time getting the exposure right.....plus my up-close vision leaves a lot to be desired so I can't check the pics while I'm taking them!!)

Great Blue Heron

King Fisher top left part of tree

 Tiger Heron

A Liniated Woodpecker (center) and a Parrot (on top right branch)

Iguana! (right about left center)

The beautiful bloom of a Provision Tree

I had no idea Iguanas went so high in trees.  Ebar told us they call iguanas Bamboo Chickens and that they are very tasty, although they no longer hunt them to eat.  There were a lot of  things of which I didn't get shots  -Little Blue Heron, Yellow Warbler, Turkey Vulture to name a few.  I was really taken by all of the morning glories...covering everything on the edges of the river...and every color you can think of.

We also saw Crocodiles.  They're really hard to see in the pictures because they hide in the branches and roots on the edge of the water.  This is the best shot - he's right in the center, if you look closely you can see him smiling!

Me and Nancy, cruisin'

The whole thing reminded me of The Jungle Cruise at Disney World, except it was real....and Ebar wasn't as funny as Sara.

Before long we pulled ashore at an opening in the jungle, where we disembarked, doused ourselves with bug spray and set off on a hike.  Ebar warned us that the path was narrow, to watch what trees we touch because some have thorns (boy, DO they!) and to be careful not to step on ant hills because - in his words, 'you step on ant, you get ant in de pants, den we watch you dance'!  Ok....he's almost as funny as Sara.

 Into the jungle

 Cahune Palm.  Yep.

Didn't I say there were thorns? 

 A termite nest, which is apparently edible and tasty - but only if the termites are inside.  So says Ebar, who ate a couple of termites for us right there

 A lot of damage still remains from Hurricane Iris in 2001

Mega Bamboo!!  (it's not native, btw...) 

My favorite, the Gumbo-limbo Tree!  It's my favorite for a couple of reasons.  It's fun to say.  Go ahead try it.  Gumbo-limbo!!  I've read about them in novels and have seen one once, in Key West.  The locals call them Tourist Trees, because their bark turns red and peels off...much like us fair-skinned visitors from the North spending too much time in the Caribbean sun.   Gumbo-limbo!!


Finally, what we've trekked this far to see.  At a certain spot in the jungle about a half hour in, Ebar stops walking and starts looking up.  We hear some rustling in the palm fronds, but don't see anything.  Ebar takes out his machete, lets out a howl and whacks the machete against a tree trunk.  Above us all around we hear what sounds like a cross between a really big dog and a lion.  "Woooof, woooof, rawrrrrrrrrrrrrr"
Howler Monkeys!

That black spot in the center is a Howler Monkey.  It's not a good shot.  You just have to take my word for it, it is one.
There must have been 7 or 8 of them, up in the trees all around us.  It was kind of creepy because you had no idea they were there until Ebar whacked the tree and they all started howling.  One wonders what else we walked right on by without ever noticing!
We hung around for quite a while, watching and listening, then eventually made our way back to the boats.

That's me, back lit and hard to see, wearing my Jeff Probst-iest blue adventure shirt and khaki pants 
- hey, when in the jungle.....
We rode the boat back to the village, stopping along the way if there was anything interesting to see.  Ebar spent a lot of extra time with us, even circling around if he thought we missed something notable.
Docking the boat, we went to lunch here:

You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant....so long as it's fish or chicken.

This is Alice.  And she remembered ALL our orders....and the three other group's!

In Monkey River Town

Parrots sit on porches

Cats come into restaurants - this guys joined us for lunch.

They don't teach trash to swim.

It's a pretty peaceful place.

After lunch we got back in our boat and went to look for Manatee on the way home.  We checked out their usual haunts, sitting quietly with the engine turned off, watching to see if one pops it's head up for a quick breath.   

Manatee stay under water for 5 or 6 minutes and can most easily be spotted when they come up for air.

 Unfortunately, none were breathing at the times we were watching.

(the look of manatee disappointment)

All in all, it was a great day.  I saw a lot, had a fun boat ride, enjoyed Belizean food, met some nice people - Ebar, the San Fran family and Nancy.

Nancy and I decided to meet the next day for coffee, well...I'll have hot chocolate, but still.

DAY 6:  Boats, jungles, monkeys....no manatees.

GUMBO-LIMBO!!!