Monkeying Around!

This morning is our last in Bermudian Landing. After breakfast we walked to Community Baboon Sanctuary. This is a local organization which educates visitors and locals about the howler monkeys. The reason it is called baboon instead of howler monkey is when the British came to Belize and saw the monkeys they identified them as baboon and the name stuck, though, they are actually howler monkeys.

The sanctuary was founded in 1981 and for quite a few years received funding from a US biologist who studied the monkeys as well as the WWF World Wildlife Federation. Currently, the sanctuary receives no funding except what they receive in donations from visitors.

Our guide, Robert, led us into the jungle and to an area where a troop of howler monkeys live. He was able to spot the troop and "call" them down from the top of the tree canopy closer to where we were standing. With a bribe of banana, a female monkey and her 3 1/2 month baby came down and hung out on Richards shoulder for about 5 minutes. During this time the baby and Richard were seeing "eye-to-eye". Robert put the peeled banana in my hand and the mother reached over, grabbed my hand, pulled it to her mouth to eat the banana! We were so excited that we were able to have this experience!

Now we are off to San Pedro Town on Ambergris Caye!