Wednesday, November 17, 2010 – The Monkey River & Howler Monkeys!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010 – The Monkey River and Howler Monkeys!

WITH REAL PICTURES NOW!

Up and at ‘em for the Monkey River Tour.  Alfred will be here at 8am. Dan and MaryLou are going too, and maybe some others, or whoever else shows up at the dock at 8. Gerald makes himself breakfast and I go over the list of recommended items to take (like I don’t already have it in my purse!).  Mostly things like extra clothing, a long sleeved shirt, swim suit, towels, sun screen water, hats (my lucky Swarovski crystal St. Louis Cardinals ball cap), snacks, and most importantly BUG SPRAY!  We are going to the jungle! I also had both my cameras charged and ready to go, plus my iPhone if I went camera crazy, which was likely.

It was a beautiful morning, sunny and the water was smooth.  Dan and MaryLou are here already, and Alfred shows up right at 8.  There are only the 4 of us so we head out. It’s an easy ride with the smooth water. (Although I’ve put my sea-bands on just in case – don’t want to risk getting dizzy again like after the fishing trip!) 

Alfred says he will take us to Monkey River close to shore and along the mangroves. We’ll then go up the river a little ways to find the Howler Monkeys and he will tell us about the indigenous plans and animals as we go along.  (Monkey River is a few miles south of here.)

Alfred drives in open waters, but then sometimes he takes us right through some of the mangrove islands. It seems as if there are paths that have been worn right through them like a labyrinth. Thank goodness he knows his way around.  Some of these paths are so narrow that if you stuck your head outside the confines of the boat, you’d get your head thwacked by a mangrove branch. Sometimes I felt as if we were in a scene from the African Queen with Bogey and Bacall! But there was no way in heck that I was getting out to pull or push this boat! And only occasionally did he slow down! 

At one point we came to some open water and as we were speeding throu, we see a smooth flat circular area on the water – which means something has surfaced.  It’s pretty big, and we think it’s probably some manatees. Alfred slows down. He looks for tell-tale signs and then he spots them.  The water is pretty murky, but you can see a brownish path of stirred up silt, which they leave with their tail while swimming. So we follow the silt trail – slowly. Like I said, the water was murky, so you couldn’t see the bottom, you just had to look for the stirred up silt, but we followed it and they finally came up for air.  It was a mother with her cub. You have to act quick with the camera, because they only come up for a second and then they are gone again for another 5 minutes or so!

Unfortunately, all you get to see in the picture is their noses!

We get done chasing the manatees and get back on tract.  As he is driving, Alfred tells us of the homes and people that use to live on this part of the coast, the mangrove island animals and about the hurricane (Iris I believe) that wiped them out. Then we get to the town of Monkey River.  This is where Alfred is from.  He grew up here and most of his family is still here. He, his wife and 9 children now live in Independence – which is certainly more convenient for him to give tours etc for the people in Placencia!  He tells us some of the stories of his life as a child and growing up.  Fishing and farming with his father and how he learned the ways of the sea and jungle from his father and the old men of the village. It was a hard life, but one I imagine was filled with history and an education and wisdom learned that no school could teach.  

He  tells us that Monkey River just got electricity 2 years ago and running water last year.  Seriously!  Before that he said his father bought a generator to make ice to keep the fish they caught to sell.

Alfred says we will go up the river and when we come back we will stop to eat and rest.  So, up the river we go. 

We see lots of birds, mostly cranes and some others ones:

Pampas grass that is about 40-50 foot tall, cat-tails about 10-15 foot tall

Weaver bird nests hanging from a tree

Bamboo patches

And now the good stuff that we saw:

Iguanas:

3-4 crocks:

A boa constrictor:

Little bats:

Alfred pulls up to the bank and tells us we are going to go find the Howler Monkeys now.  Now’s when you get out the heavy duty bug stuff and the long sleeved shirt.  I thought I read somewhere not to wear white as it attracts bugs, so I have a black tank on.  Unfortunately Alfred says they are attracted to black not white. Luckily I brought my long sleeved jacket too, which is white!  Alfred grabs his machete and we head into the jungle.  He talks about the trees, plants, weeds, animals and bugs. Unfortunately I did not take Jane’s advice and have my pen and paper at the ready when Alfred was passing along all this wisdom.  The information is now gone from my brain. It’s dark in the jungle and I’m trying to take pictures and see if they come out.  But everyone is moving fast in front of me and I’m getting behind the group.  I can envision myself lost in the jungle and becoming a jaguar’s dinner.  Luckily, Dan wore a red shirt, and I can catch glimpses of it in the distance.  Fooey on writing it down…I’ll look it up in a book or something. Gerald makes sure I’m in front of him from now on.

We start to hear a distant noise.  Alfred says that’s the noise of the Howler. !?!? …ok... Do I want to proceed? We keep going and the noise gets louder. Now I have visions of the movie Jurassic Park in my head and the rustling of jungle leaves, creepy noises and the hair on the back of my neck is raised! Too late to go back now!  Occasionally Alfred stops to identify a tree or nut and I’m more worried about the T-Rex or Raptor that may be stomping and chewing on us at any minute!

But we keep moving and the noise gets even louder. We meet up with another group and they are already watching the monkeys.  Their guide is beating his machete on a tree and barking like a dog.  Apparently this really pisses off the Alpha Howler and he starts his howling!  It actually sounds like a phlegmy, raspy wheeze from a bad case of bronchitis and he’s trying to catch his breath! And boy is it loud! (I must be related! =)  We finally spot them in the tree tops and they really aren’t that big (not that I would want to meet up with one personally, but compared to their bark they are small!)

We annoy them enough and they finally take off deeper in the jungle…where we are not going. (I hope)

We turn and head back, and Alfred shows us a bunch of other jungle stuff (that I also did not write down).

This is a nut he says the elders used to crush it and make oil which was great for health and skin.

We think they got the idea for Velcro from this leaf.  It is the leaf of the bread fruit tree and has fur that catches to clothing.    

This is a “Tourist Tree” because the bark peels like the skin of tourists when they come here…and don’t use sunscreen. They take the bark and leave and make poultices and rubs from it.

I think this is one of the cedar trees here.

Alfred says they call this the “Viagra Tree”.  The locals make a tea from the bark and leaves and use it for….well, you know!

As we are walking out of the jungle, Alfred finds a tree that has these two walnut sized nut/fruit clusters hanging from it. He stops, careful to avoid the numerous tiny thorns on the trunk, bends the trunk down and cuts off the clusters with his machete. He says when he was a kid, and as with his kids now, they would peel the skin off and suck the nut.  He asked me if I wanted to try one.  Me, coming from the country and having once been talked into taking a bite of a green persimmon by my brother, will not be suckered again, so I asked him, “Are you eating one?”  I’ll eat one if he does first.  He says sure, peels the husk off one and pops it in his mouth.  I’m game now, he has a straight face.  He peels it and gives it to me. I smell it, then taste it. It’s good! The large seed has a sweet pulp around it and you just suck and chew the seed till there is no flavor left, then spit it out…and a tree grows from where you have spit out the seed! =)   

We make it back to the boat without having been eaten by a jaguar, extinct dinosaur or snatched up from the jungle floor by a hungry 30 foot boa constrictor, which was a relief (to me anyway). Then we head back down the river. After a little while we stopped at a house ruin hanging over the riverbank that Alfred had told us about on the way up the river.  He ties up the boat, gets out and says he will be back. After about 10 minutes or so he comes back with several big stalks of sugar cane.  I had asked him earlier if there was any sugar cane growing wild around the area (surely from the colonial days) and I told him how we used to eat it when we were in Okinawa.  He told me he used to find it and do the same, and still does.  So he stopped, foraged the open fields outside the jungle, cut some down and brought it back to the boat.  He peeled it, using the machete for us, but for him, he peeled it with his teeth! It was as sweet as I remember and the sugar water ran down my arms as I was eating it - just like when I was a kid! That brought back great memories!

This is what Alfred called the "Jackass Plant". His mom (and women in the villages) used to make a tea and made the kids drink it.  He said it was awful tasting, but aparently it is used to get rid of intestinal worms and parasites - even to this day!

Off we went again down the river. This time we stopped in the little town of Monkey River where the river meets the sea. This is where Alfred is from. We are going to eat lunch at the little restaurant there.  Alfred’s family still lives in Monkey River and his Aunt runs and cooks at the restaurant.  We go in, sit and order a drink and soon, out comes a big plate of fish, rice and beans. There was no ordering – they just brought you a heaping plate! It was really good but I couldn’t’ eat it all and got a to-go box (my favorite thing!).

When we were done with lunch, Alfred showed us around the town. The house he grew up in was directly behind the restaurant. He also shows us a Gibnut that someone in the family caught. It’s caged out back. It’s a nocturnal animal that looks like a cross between a pig and a big rat.  This is what they will have for a Thanksgiving dinner I guess!

 He tells us about the other buildings in town, where the government buildings used to be, and what the current buildings used to be before hurricanes hit. He also shows us the state tree, and tells us how the government gave every town a tree to plant.  He tells us about the erosion of the sand from the shore that has occurred over the last few years and how there used to be a huge beach there.  All in all, it’s a simple little village that thrives on fishing (no farming anymore) but mostly on the tourists that go up the river and stop to eat a lunch on their way out and the bar that the locals visit (you have to have a bar!). The roads in the town are merely paths worn in the grass. A throwback in time. (remember, electricity and running water are relatively new).

 State Mahogany Tree planted in Monkey River:

"Phone Booth" in the back of the restaurant:

We get back in the boat and head north up the shore, through the mangroves again (keeping all arms, legs and heads in the boat at all times).  Alfred takes us to the place on the mainland south of Independence where they are upgrading the commercial shipping dock/port.  He shows us where and how they are doing the expansion for the export of the banana crops. He shows us shrimp boats that no longer are working since the shrimp farmers set up the farms on the mainland. He tells us this is where they will probably bring in the cruise ships. I hope so.  It will ruin Placencia.

After that, we head back home and he drops us off in front of our building.  It’s been a fun experience, and I would recommend it to anyone coming down here.  And be sure to ask for Alfred when you do – he has such interesting history to tell since he grew up there. I just wish I would have had a video camera to preserve it!

After we get back home, I take a quick swim to cool off, then come back in and join Gerald in our newly ritual of taking a nap!  After we get up, we walk to the Crow’s Nest for our anniversary dinner (that we missed on Monday).  On the way there, we see that Patty is coming back from picking up Glen and Lucy from the airport. Gerald and Glen shake hands and Lucy tried to chew Gerald’s hand off.  She is a cutie though, just very protective of her mommy and daddy!

Our dinner at The Crow’s Nest was great and I would recommend it. The menu was varied and should please most palates.

After dinner we stop at Sharene’s condo.  She is having a party with several friends. We stop in and visit.  Sharene is having a great time and has quite the spread set up (or what’s left looked good anyway!).  I unconsciously start to clean off the counter, and Patty makes fun of me - so I tuck my head and sit down with my wine. (I’m just looking for something to do!)  The Girls, Lucy and Glen leave and head to the hot tub. Gerald and I get delayed a bit, and by the time we leave, everyone is headed back from the hot tub because it’s too hot now!  But by the time Gerald and I get there, it has cooled off a bit, so we sit for a while then come in to bed. 

It’s been a long but fun day, and while I’m trying not to think about it, in the back of my mind, I’m counting down the days we have remaining here, and it makes me sad.