Monkeys!

This week I took a boat tour on the Rio Frio and traveled up near Nicaragua. While on tour, I got to observe many species of exotic birds and some massive cayman as they sunbathed along the river’s shores. About halfway through the tour, we heard some movement up in the trees, and the tour guide told us to look up, and we could see a group of Mantled Howler monkeys. To my surprise, they were just relaxing up in the tree until the boat got a little close, and then they began to howl. That is how they get their name by howling real low to try and intimidate predators and other groups of monkeys. Depicted in the second picture is one of the male Mantles Howler monkeys just relaxing the branch. A little further down the river, the boat encountered another group of monkeys. This was a group of Spider Monkeys who were very active in showing off their skills. The group gathered fruit from the branches and ate them all while hanging about 20 feet above the water from their tails. Pictured in the first image is one of the baby monkeys going off on its picking fruit. Witnessing the monkeys out in the wild has been the highlight of my experience here in Costa Rica. I can’t wait to explore more of Costa Rica; until next time, Pura Vida!