Never know what you’ll run into ‘round here

A couple of days ago we were riding the motorcycle back home after a day at the beach. The road to our house, Carbon Road, is beautiful with lush jungle on both sides and occasional houses along the way. Gordie spotted some “critter” in the road and stopped. To our delight it was a 3-toed sloth who was just starting his way across the road. Lucky for me he was slow as it gave me time to find my glasses and my cell phone so I could take his picture before he went back up a tree for another week.

Today on the way home from the beach I had an encounter of another kind. We stopped at the local hardware store in Hone Creek to pick up a handle for a shovel. As we approached to door I noticed a car from the Jaguar Center, a local rehab shelter for lost and injured jungle animals. The gal from the center had a 1-year old Congo (howler) monkey with her. When I went over to talk with her, little “Angela” climbed out the car window and sat on my head with her tail around my neck - a breathtaking experience. Guess you could say we were not fast enough with the camera, so the photo you see here, a few moments AFTER the perfect photo op, was taken when her “daddy” came out of the hardware store. To say the least “Angela” was very excited and couldn’t wait to go see him. Fortunately I did stop her from leaping off my head and promised to go to the Jaguar Center to visit sometime soon.

What’s a visit to Costa Rica without monkeys?

Early each morning before 5 and each afternoon about 4, we can hear the unique roar of howler monkeys who live in the jungle canopy near our home. Although we have become accustomed to their daily chatter, hearing these characters for the first time is a memorable experience for visitors. And, naturally, they want to see the monkeys in person. We have found two places nearby that are almost guaranteed “monkey sighting” spots. One is at Cahuita National Park, and the second is on a side road near Punta Vargas (halfway between Cahuita and Puerto Viejo). Since the National Park was closed because of the heavy rains and flooding when the family was here, we took them to the spot by Punta Vargas. High in the trees on one side of the road were white-faced capuchins (the organ grinder type) and on the other side were howler monkeys. One of the capuchin monkeys looked as if he were posing – complete with a banana in hand. Better than a zoo any day.