Dodging monkeys and catching fish
We’ve had an adventurous couple of days…but what’s new!?Danny had to leave for a few days to transport another airplane to Venezuela, so we set sail for Linton Bay Marina to check in and get a cruising permit.
Linton is a small quiet ‘town’ with brightly colored buildings lining the small islands.
Some of the homes look like they are about to fall into the ocean.
I had read about an island across from the marina that is owned by monkeys, and that there is a house there that they have taken over. This of course peaked our interest and instantly became something we just had to check out…
Jude, Kiffin, Aidan, Mycah and Kenedi were the scouts and set out in the dinghy to check things out and let us know if there were truly monkeys around, while the rest of us stayed on Tanda Malaika. For the first 10 or 15 minutes it was total silence and we assumed that they monkeys were just a tall tale. And then it came…a blood curdling scream. We all looked toward the island and could see Kiffin running at lightening speed through the foliage, in-between trees and right out into the water. In fact it looked like she was going to start swimming. At the same time we could see Aidan casually walking and a monkey walking on his hind legs behind him. From behind the trees we heard another scream, and the rest of the crew emerged into the same area where Kiffin was, and a couple of monkeys were chasing them – one in a tree and one on the ground. It was the funniest sight. We saw Aidan run to the dinghy and a monkey swing to a tree right over him, and shortly after that the rest were loaded in and they were headed back to us. They all spoke at once telling us that a monkey chased Kiffin on its hind legs while waving its arms side to side like King Louie and she stopped 3 different times to turn around, make eye contact and yell at it. In the mean time, 3 monkeys attacked Jude – one on each leg and one grabbed the back of her pants, all while Aidan calmly walked killing himself laughing and Mycah and Kenedi ran for their lives. I looked at Judes legs to see she had been bitten, so we cleaned her up with hydrogen peroxide and the mother bear in me wanted to go give the monkeys a piece of my mind.
So, Kalin, Tyrelle, Jake, Mycah and I loaded into the dinghy to see what all the nonsense was about, and as we approached, they were waiting for us.
We climbed out and I looked at the little punks and reprimanded them for being so naughty.
They looked at me as if to say “we can’t believe we evolved from that!”
We walked up through the trees to the house and saw one lazily lying on the metal roof. He later crept closer to show us his teeth.
Mycah started to panic as one started rapidly following her, and as she ran to the beach I had to remind her not to run. When one came up behind me I turned and yelled at him in Afrikaans and he decided to leave me alone.
We continued to watch them for a while then returned to Tanda Malaika and got her prepped to sail on to Portobelo.
We reached Portobelo and Danny got his bags packed and left in the taxi on his trip.
The rest of us walked up to Captain Jacks for hamburgers. Their burgers are huge, leaving us all filled to the brim and looking like we had food babies in our bellies. Portobelo is an interesting place, with several old forts from years gone by.
Painted walls, food vendors and small stores run by oriental businessmen line the streets.
A beautiful big white church with purple trim holds sculptures of a black Jesus,
And a little farther down, is a nativity with all sorts of small farm animals are in place to add to the scene.
Much to Kiffin’s dismay, a monkey sat close by watching for food hand outs from tourists.
A crowd of children were roller blading and riding bikes. We sat down by them and watched their tricks.
We handed out lollipops and they gathered around Kalin to chat since his Spanish is so good.
Yesterday we took Tanda Malaika out for a sail and Kalin and Emma reeled in a huge yellow fin tuna.
It was quite a fight, taking about 20 minutes, but they did it and brought up a beautiful big fish.
The two of them are King of the Ship for their catch.
Beautiful fish.
What a fun day of adventure!
Adventures of a Tribe 