I must tell you about our last afternoon and night at El Romanso. After lunch we were chatting to some British visitors when the troupe of Howler Monkeys passed in front of the restaurant to eat Cecropia leaves. The male appeared first, follwed by four or five females , most with young.
The youngsters were happily copying mum, eating the leaves and generally wandering around the tree. One tiny female leapt to a nearby branch which promptly broke, plunging her to the forest floor. We all watched in horrified silence. Just as she was about the hit the ground she managed to grab a protruding branch from a bush near the ground. Here she sat, for some time, looking dazed. None of the adults above gave her much notice except to note that she had fallen.
Well she tried every which way to try to climb back up the Cecropia tree, including climbing up the structure beneath the balcony on ehich we all now stood. Her little arms were to small to get around the tree to climb up it and the closest bush's branches to weak to hold her weight. None of the other monkeys paid her any attention. She tried for at twenty minutes. The staff thought she was about 3 months old.
She started to get desperate, especially when it started to rain. Then she just sat on top of the bush and cried.
Calling out for her mother when it started to rain.
At this point, mum decided that urgent action was required. So she tried to come down the tree to rescue her baby. She tried several times, but was defeated by the girth of the tree. We all watched fascinated by what she would work out as the rescue response. Then the mother sat very still at the lowest fork of the Cecropia tree and eyed every possible rescue route. The only way was down the tree trunk. So with that, she wrapped her tail around the trunk, desperately trying to grip with her claws she rushed down the tree, slipping slightly and calling to the baby. When she almost reach the baby, the mother shot out an arm, grabbed baby and pushed her onto her back, then madly scrambled back up the tree. Baby was very traumatised and required a soothing hug and suckle from mum, who then removed both of them to the safety of a nearby palm tree.
David Attenborough, eat your heart out!
The rain then turned into a tropical thunderstorm which continued all afternoon, which was still happening went we went to dinner in the evening. During the course of the evening, there was quite a strong earth tremor, which shook the restaurant building and which lasted for maybe 10 seconds. Suddenly there was growling above our heads. A White-nose Coati, appeared in the roof space and started threatening us. Our guess is that he had taken shelter her from the very heavy rain and that the tremor had awoken him. He of course blamed us for the disturbance of his rest.
Up at 4.00am in the morning after a restless night, during which the rainstorm continued with much thunder and lightning. The flight on a single engine propeller plane was smooth and uneventful.
At San, Jose, Costa Rica, we changed to a much bigger aircraft for our flight to Panama.
We arrived near Tocumal International Airport on time, but were not allowed to land. A severe weather alert had forced the officials to close the airport. So with this we circle around for over an hour, flying in and out of the storm. The flight was very rough and the circling most disconcerting.
Eventually we were given permission to land on the rain drenched runway. Strangely there way no bay for us and the pilot ended up parking the plane near some disused luggage carriers!
It was vgreat to be met at the airport by our friendly guide, Fabio.
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