The eating habits of monkeys

The past week has been busy. On the farm we are doing maintenance, or essentially making the farm look pretty. I’ve been pulling weeds for 10 days straight. Out of the crevices of rocks, on the foot beaten paths, in the vegetables beds. And the ones out of reach taunt me with their very existence. But very soon, it will all be over and I can stand tall once again!

Yesterday I was talking to Pablo in one of my “back breaks” and he came up and said let’s have a small break. We stood and admired the hard work done and tried to ignore the sheer amount that still had to be done. While Pablo stared into space all of a sudden he said “monos”. What about the monkeys? Well apparently they have taken to eating the leaves of our papaya trees.

I noticed this on Christmas as well, because I watched a howler monkey climb down and try to eat some leaves. My presence however had limited him from really going too close, because he was timid and I was very close by. I thought nothing of it until I was awoken from my inadvertent nap by the sound of a loud crash. I looked up to see a devious howler monkey trying to reach a papaya tree from the jackfruit tree. A distance of say, 4-5 feet.

I was able to watch as this brave, cheeky monkey devoured some papaya leaves while a mother and her young child watched in the scene unfold. I stood there transfixed. Something about what I was seeing was so foreign, so exotic, and yet so custom to this life here in Ometepe. For about 30 minutes I stood outside watching the monkeys slowly try to reach all of our papaya trees.

One monkey had been chased by Dukie into remaining in the tall Papaya tree, as he happily chewed on some leaves. When I grabbed Dukie and took him back to the house, I watched this cheeky thing get down to the ground and run up the trellis for the passionfruit and into a flowering plant. At this point Dukie couldn’t stand it anymore and came crashing through chasing the monkey away.

Definitely never a dull moment when the monkeys are around. Especially when they are defecating on Dukie. Never a dull moment.