That Monkey Just Fell Out of the Sky

I have been avoiding making a post for the past few days. Just haven't been in the right mindset to write anything without having it sound bad; so I let my mind drift for a day or 2. Been trying to take care of other marketing sites and random book-keeping and housekeeping on the net. That, and catching up with the lovely couple whose couch I am residing on. Hearing stories of South Beach, the do's and dont's of topless beach apparel, and crazy scooters taking people for the ride of their lives' makes me wait for Tuesday just to write the next story to go with a picture. This is actually the story that gave me the idea for:

Tuesday's Tales
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This one is a little odd, but still a great story. I went on an eco-tour with Foster Parrots (a parrot rescue/adoption/rehabilitation/sanctuary facility) that had joined forces with villages in the Rupununi Valley in Guyana, South America. We had been there a few days, and took a guided tour down the 3mile road to find Hawk-Headed Parrots. We chose to walk, and found all sorts of creatures. This was the tip of the Amazon Jungle. Small Poison Arrow Frogs, Blue Morpho butterflies flitted around, making every effort to lure you into taking their picture by staying completely motionless until the snap of the lens, and then they were gone, leaving a blue streak in the picture. This also showed me how poor our hearing was from living in the 'Wild Urban Jungles'. Our guides were able to hear a truck coming down the road 15 minutes (I am serious) before any of us knew it was coming. "It just wasn't a forest sound, and I knew it had to be a car."

As we walked back with no photos of the Hawk-Heads, refusing the ride from the truck, we came across a family of Spider Monkeys. We watched them play and forage in the tree tops for a while, then went on our way. That is, until we stopped when it felt like rain. The rain was followed by a low rumbling thunder that turned into the barks of a family of Howler Monkeys. These things are LOUD!! I am not sure who wakes who up in the morning, the screeches of the parrots, or the hooting of the Howlers. Either way, we were being pissed on by the oldest monkey. Cameras out, pointing up, our mouths we now CLOSED!! We were warned that poo was to follow if we made any rash or stupid movements. Although it was not slung at us, a large branch was removed from the top of the tree and casually thrown at us.

That is when it happened, the juvenile Howler Monkey, who was about 100' in the sky grabbed for the next branch, the next branch, and then missed. This poor little monkey fell out of the sky. I have fallen out of a tree and ping-pong balled down hitting every branch, so I knew how this little guy felt. He had fallen the whole way, when at the last second grabbed onto a palm frond that stretched all the way to the ground, where this little Howler Monkey sat for the brief second staring directly into our eyes, within an arm's length, before being catapulted back into the sky to an awaiting branch. I still cannot tell you WHO was more scared, had larger pupils, or soiled themselves the most, but I could tell that monkey was thinking the same thing as we were. "oh shit...oh shit..."

As luck would have it, every camera in our hands had dead batteries right at that perfect moment, and there is NO record of this extravagant story on film, so you have to take my word for it; but it has caused me to always have a fresh pair of rechargeable batteries in my pocket (rather than in a pack that gets separated from me while on another persons' back) whenever the camera is in my hands.

The rough draft in my head had a black picture for this story, but this is Kaieteur Falls in the Jungles of Guyana, South America

The falls are 5X larger than Niagara Falls in New York; and 2X larger than Victoria Falls in South Africa, at a height of 741ft, with a total drop of 822ft, making it the "Tallest Single Drop Waterfall" in the world. There is a rock out-crop that you can stand on if your heart, mind, and soul are in the right place.or....You could always sit at the edge of the falls, tempting fate.