Last week we walked to the Atitlan Natural Reserve. Our Spanish school provided a very shy guide for us. Initially I thought it was kinda silly to take a guide, especially one that didn't talk much. However when he took us off the trail to show us where the monkeys hang out, we were glad he came along.
In the Nature Reserve there is a large enclosure for the monkeys where they have tons of room to roam. They have trimmed back the trees and surrounded the area with small electric fences so the little guys don't run free. Currently there are 5 monkeys living in the reserve. They are all former pets so now they are unable to live in the wild. This is the definitely the next best thing.
There is a small area where they have shade and where they are fed and this is where our shy guide led us. It was way cool to see them up close and watch as they swung around on the chain link right in front of us. One of the Monkeys was more friendly than the others. (He got a little too friendly with Kaytie if you ask me.) He sat next to her for probably 5 minutes with his tail wrapped around her thigh, progressively moving further up. I'm not sure if I was jealous because he was making moves on Kaytie or because I wanted to be the one he was getting all cuddly with.
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| There was also a whole gaggle of these little guys. I'm not sure what they're called, but they ran around in a pack of fifteen or so. |
In addition to the monkeys and weird little critter pack, there is a 170,000 cubic foot butterfly reserve. Interestingly, butterflies are a big part of why we are even on this trip to begin with. When I was first following the blogs of other Overlanders, I saw posts about the big monarch butterfly reserve in Mexico. So when I started expressing my overlanding desires to Kaytie, I had at least one good reason to want to drive through Mexico. After checking out this little reserve, we only want to see the big one in Mexico more.
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| These aren't actually butterflies. It's just a super cool flower that grows here. |
After the monkeys and butterflies we had a short hike across some rivers via rope bridge to check out a 70 ft waterfall. It was pretty incredible. The most fun we had was running and jumping on the bridges, freaking out Kaytie and our guide.
*Most photo credits go to Brett. Our battery died after only a few pictures.
Oh man, that bridge picture of you and Kaytie from afar is absolutely amazing. What a cool place! The "little critter pack" was made up of creatures called Kuadamundi (don't ask me how I know that, I was suprised I was right when I googled it just to make sure..) but I am very jealous you saw them--quite exotic. Thanks for sharing guys! Brightened my night shift :) Keep on, abundant life livers. And be safe.
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