I’m laughing to myself as I write the title b/c when else would I blog so much about peeing in the morning. But I’m telling you, stuff goes down when I get up in the morning to pee. These are serious monkey adventures with kids!

Yesterday put us over the TOP! (And you must hold your horses because a bathroom photo is coming. Just not today. To much going on! You’ll see why as you keep reading!)

It started with me sitting there, looking up at the trees and cliffs, when I see three little Macaque monkeys sitting on a tree limb above me. They’re pretty close to us for this early in the morning. And there’s another strange thing, they all have their backs turned to me. It’s usually the opposite b/c they are so entertained by all that we do in the bathroom. You can imagine, this peaked my curiosity. Then the monkey on the end looks over his shoulder at me, we make eye contact, and he whips his head back around–I can almost hear him whistling, as if he thinks I’m not on to him–trying to be all innocent. He looks over his shoulder again, and I swear the middle monkey elbowed him as if to say “Quit LOOKING!”

“Mama, there’s a lot of monkeys out here!”

Talk about monkey adventures with kids! Well now I’m figuring that it’s time to get up and see what the heck is going on. Just then I hear Blaze say, “Mama, there’s a lot of monkeys out here!” Blaze, Pasc and Brian are all eating cereal on the deck around the corner. And sure enough, in the trees, are A LOT more monkeys than normal. Their also the Macaque monkeys that are the type of monkey we had sneaking around the first day with the wounded arm. These boys mean business, where the mamas and their babies (Dusky Langur monkeys) aren’t usually interested in your food–just your toothpaste, clothes and their reflection in the bathroom mirror. 🙂

He jumps on the table, takes Blaze’s cereal bowl…

So there we are, the four of us watching all these monkeys (maybe 12-15) swing through the trees–only thirty feet away from us. And then Brian spots him first. He appears to be the new Alpha male from his own set of wounds, and in seconds, he is on the deck. He jumps on the table, takes Blaze’s cereal bowl from him and starts chowing down! Brian bangs pot lids together and throws a plastic lid at him. The alpha looks at Brian as if to say, “I’M EATING COOKIE CRISP CEREAL! BUG OFF!!”

The management told us to come and get them the next time an Alpha came back and didn’t back down. Now there’s a second monkey crawling up on the deck and more moving in. Brian tells me and the kids to “TAKE OFF!!” and get the management. Pascaline runs like the wind!

We get back to the house, and Mr. Alpha is now on the roof with the bag of cereal and an orange. The management comes with a handmade sling shot. And the moment the guy pulls the slingshot back, the monkey hides on the other side of the roof. The monkeys know these slingshots–and I’m impressed b/c nothing seems to get those monkeys to move. After about fifteen minutes of dodging around, the management is able to scare the monkeys off and away they go–back into the jungle. But the crazy thing is that I know they are watching us ALL the time. Our monkey adventures with kids is feeling a bit to intense. LOL!

The locals have helped us come up with a plan.

For the next couple days we don’t eat breakfast or lunch here and keep the place boarded up. Monkeys are animals of habit, and you can attempt to break their habit by switching your schedule up. We’ll see if they fall for it. And for the time being, we’ve been given a slingshot…just in case. 🙂 Let’s see him try to take Blaze’s Cookie Crisp AGAIN!

Never a dull moment here! It’s amazing to be immersed in the wildlife with the kids–to trouble shoot what to do–how to still coexist with the monkeys but keep ourselves safe.

We still haven’t spotted the Gibbons monkeys yet. They are small apes (monkeys with no tails :)) that sing in the morning and late afternoon with this big, high pitched “WHUUUUUPPP, WHUUUUP, WHUUUUUUUPPPPP” call. I can hear them now as I type this blog. They rarely come down to ground level, so we hope to spot them before we leave. Their morning and afternoon choruses have got to be one of the prettiest songs I’ve ever heard.

How many of you saw the movie “Gorillas in the Mist” back in the 80’s?

I LOVED that movie! I never really saw myself as a monkey-lover, but being here brings that movie back to mind–and all the day dreaming I did as a girl about living in a jungle with gorillas. As I sit here and type with the Gibbons singing in the background, I can’t help but smile.

All feels good in the world today.

Tonight we’re going to jump off a boat with the kids after dark to see if the phosphorous lights up our bodies! Be back soon with that bathroom picture! 🙂

xo

m