Yesterday, we participated in our very first act of kitschy tourism: a one-hour boat ride on Lake Nicaragua. Here's a brief overview:This cute little monkey lives with three friends on an idyllic island in Lake Nicaragua, which, as we learned, is the seventh largest lake in the world. He passes his days lounging in tree branches, munching tasty treats, and entertaining tourists.
When we arrived at his island, our boat captain idled the boat up close, giving us some great photo opportunities. But the more we looked, the more we noticed a few curiosities: this was the only island containing monkeys, and it was a miniscule island seemingly devoid of food. As we were pondering our primate pal, another tourist boat idled up close, and its captain held out what looked like a large flower, which the monkey took and ate. We began to ask our captain a few questions in broken Spanish:
"Are the monkeys only on this island?" "Si."
"Do they only eat what the tourists feed them?" "Si."
When pressed, he admitted that the monkeys had, in fact, been strategically relocated to the island for the benefit of the tourists and the tourist industry. The monkey's idyllic life suddenly became just a little bit sadder.
The lake is quite beautiful, though, with its marshy inlets and hundreds of tiny islands, some deserted and others home to beautiful palaces owned by wealthy Nicaraguans and American retirees. Not surprisingly, the gentleman who owns Nicaragua's primary rum, beer, auto, credit card, and boat companies also owns a rather nice home on his own private island. Now if he would just buy those monkeys a bigger island and some banana plants . . .
5 comments:
If I had to live in a zoo, I'd try live on a private island zoo.
what about banana pants instead? stylish.
ahh!! jenna and dave, you are the best bloggers in the world! i loved it all. mucho.
Well, in 1988 I had this koala bear that ate eucalyptus outside my window every day and it came in and talked to me and was like a pet, but it was a little furry buddy (His name was Blinky), and he came to life when I nuzzled him. Other people thought he was a stuffed animal. But they were so wrong.
I bet those monkeys are just like Blinky was, and they come to life when people nuzzle them, and then they sing songs with preschoolers and whatnot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noozles
Jenna, do you remember this show?!!!!
these blogs are wonderful, guys. the forlorn semi-captive monkeys remind me of another koala bear story. at one of the myriad 'animal parks' near sydney there was this one koala that, unlike all the others blissed out on eucalyptus (yummy carbs), was jumping up and down wildly and pawing at the aluminum fence surrounding the pen. it was so weird to see a koala doing something besides lethargically sleeping, and so sad that he seemed so unhappy.
anyhoo, keep these blogs coming!
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