Monkey Madness at Alouatta Lodge Panama

Alouatta Lodge is about an hour (depending on the vehicle and who is driving) from Boquete and 30 minutes from David. This incredible Eco-Lodge sits on the side of a mountain amongst the plains and forests of Chorcha, in Chiriqui, Panama. Alouatta is latin for Howler Monkey. As you can see from the pictures, there are plenty of monkeys; howler, capuchins, and night monkeys. The accommodations at the lodge are in an ALL weather, tropical jungle hammock. This truly allows you to spend a night in the jungle like no other rainforest experience in Panama; night walks, lagoon boat trips, fishing, and birding.

 

Squirrel Monkey

 

 

 

Michelle as Monkey Tree • Some of these Howler Monkeys were orginally rescued and spent time at Paradise Garden, Boquete, Panama

 

 

 

Squirrel monkey at Eco-Lodge Panama

 

Steve and Michelle’s Story • The founders and owners of the Lodge.

A short story by Steven and Michelle Walker

We have worked with plants forever it seems, I started at 14 when my parents bought a Market garden in New Zealand and veggies were our life.  Steven decided a conventional career didn’t suit him and at 18 started a landscaping business in South Africa.  Years passed and we met, fell in love and did all those things that young people do.  During this time we discovered that our interests were mutual and we carried on our passion with plants in South Africa, the Seychelles, New Zealand, Indonesia and Australia.  Stevens main passion is Palms and mine is whatever I can grow that will give me an edible product of some form.  This also of course entailed learning about plants, growing conditions and medicinal and cooking methods.

My love affair with monkeys started in earnest in South Africa with the Vervet Monkeys that frequented the Parks and gardens where their antics and curiosity kept me enthralled for hours.

Around this time and after 9 years in Australia the life style started to take its toll, everything was controlled and you could put money on waking up in the mornings to yet another perfect day.  We needed change.  We needed a little disorganization, a different culture, a different language [oh well, we would cope with this too].  We researched and read and studied and there are just so many places in the world we could have gone to but in the end, with 2 school aged children, we decided to try panama and if we weren’t happy, we’d just move on to another region.  So we packed up and left, destination Panama, to the tropics which we all love, the lushness of growth, the wealth and variety of plants, the afternoon rains from light drizzle to torrential downpours, its all so life giving ~ and there are monkeys too, several species in fact.

Months of searching found us the property we have finally bought, a 15 hectare piece of land sitting up on the shoulder of Cerro del Monte, the only flat topped mountain in Panama [they do tell that aliens visit the Planet Earth here].   Our first sighting was little more than an animal track through 2 metre high Heliconia, up the hillside we trekked until we managed a ‘glimpse’ out through the tress and vegetation and that glimpse was wonderful, we had to have this place.

The sale transactions took place and work started; the bottom half of the property had been cleared previously so this was carried out again.  Slowly, we started beating back the wild Heliconia and planting of other trees of our choice, and shrubs and so the beginnings of our botanical gardens.  The top half of the property had not been cleared and so this was left to provide the wildlife with much needed sanctuary but since, we have cut tracks through these high forested places to enable people to walk through and see the birdlife and other animal life that we have resident here.  These tracks also have differing degrees of difficulty so there is something for everyone.

One day, not long after we had purchased the property, our friends at Paradise Gardens ~ Paul and Jenny Saban ~ had received a baby Howler Monkey as a rescue and only a couple of weeks later, as we headed down the mountain side to our place, there to greet us was another baby Howler Monkey found walking along the roadside by one of our staff.  They had brought it to us for us to see.  What a dirty little wretch it looked.  But we were faced with a dilemma.  Two choices…. Leave it to die or adopt it and try to reintroduce it it when it was old enough and strong enough.  This was the birth of our idea for being able to relocate rescued animals on to the land here.

 

Yahoo [an appropriate name for a Howler Monkey] grew strong and came to think of us as his family and admittedly, we had thought that he was a she until when he was almost two years old [an educated guess] he made it quite clear that he was growing up as a male.  We built a large enclosure that would house not only Yahoo but also the baby Howler Monkey from Paradise Gardens eventually and to be somewhere they could in safety, acclimatize in an area they would live and socialize with other monkeys.  It only took them a couple of months to get used to the area and they are both now free roaming on the property but come and visit us each morning and evening [and at any other time they want company or food].  They have also had visits from the wild Howler Monkey troops [of which we have a few] and they do interact albeit on a limited basis.  They are not overly that confident as yet but time is a great educator.  

The idea that we could share and provide these experiences with other people coming to visit us was something we discussed at length.  The property is indeed beautiful and spectacular, the bird life rich and diverse as to the animal wildlife, insect and magnificent butterflies but the best part is lying in bed in the very early morning just as the black night sky starts to lighten, to hear the troops of Howler Monkeys calling for the sun to rise or then late in the afternoons calling for the refreshing rains to fall.  What better name then for such a place than that of the Howler ~ Alouatta.

Our adventures continue as the days unfold and there is always a new surprise somewhere, a new butterfly to see flitting around or a new plant flowering, watching the dazzling displays of ‘fire flies’ as they dance in the grass and trees and seeing the ripening fruits on a tree where ~ oh oh, there was fruit there before but now the monkeys have been around and got to it first.  If we are lucky, we will watch large tarantulas crossing one of the trail paths up in the forest.  There are myriad things like this and all these things we really do want to share.

So remember, when visiting Panama and especially Chiriquí, come by, visit us, stay awhile, chill, breathe and learn the magic of nature.

For more information about the Lodge:

 

http://www.boquetemountainsafaritours.com/junglesafari.html

Comments

[me]

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[James]

What a wonderful place, I have read so many things about how beautiful Panama is and its such a great place to invest too. The monkeys are adorable, didn't know they were so friendly.