17 stitches needed after monkey tastes face

October 8th, 2010: I have always liked observing wild monkeys. This is either from a distance in the wild or the confines within a cage, but rarely do I like seeing them at close range. This is especially true when they have a “Kong” complex and are not fearful of humans. Going to a convalescent home for monkeys, I intended to only see the monkeys, not pet, pick up or be monkey bars – in this case…human bars. Not sure what monkey did it but a few weeks prior one of the monkeys opened a kid’s face resulting in needing 17 (or so) stitches to sew the boy back up after the free tasting.

I have had plenty of non-caged monkey experiences from around the world with mostly all of them being bad experiences with the angry miniature sized monkeys who thought they were doubles from the film, King Kong. From the one that wanted to attack me in Cambodia to the viscous one in Indonesia that wanted some bananas when I only had one that is not meant for consumption…I just don’t like monkeys invading my personal space.

As soon as I entered the animal refuge a spider monkey came to greet me being extremely vocal. Keeping my hand out I successful kept him away from me. Seeing too many monkey attacks in my life my body had a small adrenaline test to make sure it was functioning properly.

Then I saw a Howler monkey peacefully sitting in a chair…mentally I was waiting for it to spring on me. None of that happened and I didn’t encourage it either as I walked way, way around him. But then something did happen when I was about to leave. I met some other tourists and in the process of talking to them, the howler monkey had his chance when my guard was down…climbing up onto my shoulders, sitting there with an unbreakable grip around my neck.

That was all that was needed, as he somehow single handily smashed my fear of close contact with monkey. For the next few hours, I played with the monkeys that roamed freely around the sanctuary making it the highlight of my trip here in eastern Bolivia.

The next time I run into a monkey on the street I don’t think I will not be such a hater. I will still be cautious and ready to break some tails if they get too close…but, I will at least know that not all monkeys think they are Kong.

This experience easily tops my past week here in this region. From the stripper I met who wasn’t a stripper to the time I was hysterically laughed at by an entire village of school children as I was trying to find a horse to take me back out of the middle of nowhere to the main road (long story…see photos) – fortunately I succeeded and it was only a village of 100 people.