Monkeys in the Square

Nancy and Nicole:

We arrived in Banos last night, a very touristy, adventure sports type city. Our rafting adventure in Tena was excellent!

Yesterday we headed to the small town of Misahualli which is famous for their mischevious monkeys who take over the square most days. We waited around in the rain for awhile and were thinking the monkeys weren´t going to come out afterall, so we headed back to the bus and waited for them to leave. As we were looking out the window, suddenly a bunch of monkeys began to descend on the towns main square! They were jumping off of rooves, climbing over cars, and ascending the plazas central monument. We saw some fellow tourists feeding them some food, so I went to a store and bought some crackers in plastic wrapping. As I was walking back to Nancy, a monkey saw me with the crackers and ran over to us and started trying to tug them out of my grasp. I put up a fight for a bit but then got nervous he would bite me so I let go of the crackers. He jumped on top of the roof to eat them, but couldn´t open the package, so he dropped it to the ground, giving us a second chance. I grabbed the package and started opening it but as soon as I got them opened, he ripped them from my hands again! Needless to say at this point there were Ritz crackers all over the square and we looked like very foolish tourists. Luckily we were able to pick up several whole crackers before the monkeys, or dogs, got at them, so we were able to offer them to the monkeys one by one, which was pretty neat. I sat down after the crackers were gone and the monkeys started searching me for more food, looking through my pants pockets. But alas, after they realized we were out of crackers, they walked away without a backwards glance.

 

Then we headed to Banos and have been enjoying the amazing cafes and restaurants. Today for lunch we went to a Danish/Ecuadorian Cafe where they served delicious veggie sandwiches with really amazing cheese. Its been a nice change from living off of rice and fruits. This morning we took a bus to see some different waterfalls in the area and we did some hiking around some of the bigger ones. We also went across a canyon on one of those carts attached to a zipline. And then, very surprisingly, I got suited up for a canopy adventure, where you go across the canyon with your body attached to the zipline with straps.

Tonight we might go on another bus to view the nearby Volcano at night, or we may soak in the famous hot springs. Tomorrow we are leaving our jungle adventures and heading to the Southern Sierra - back to Llama country! Adios amigos!