Another Las Catalinas Day – Monkey Style

A family of five howler monkey spent the afternoon munching some buds on the trees right in front of our Casa Teja today – providing a great photo op even for those of us without much telephoto.  The papa was extremely vocal!  The others – muy tranquillo.  Quoting from Wikipedia “Howler monkeys are widely considered to be the loudest land animal. According to Guinness Book of World Records, their vocalizations can be heard clearly for 20 miles (32 km).”

It may be hard to sleep in in Casa Teja tomorrow morning…

Las Catalinas – One Sexy Place


Last night I went kayaking at sunset.  It was perfect, magical conditions with just a slight breeze, a beautiful perfectly organized swell from the south, and a great sunset.  Well, once I got a ways offshore I saw something large on the surface of the water.  I got closer and closer.  Driftwood?  Manta ray?  Nope.  It was two large sea turtles – mating!  I paddled right up next to them before they noticed me, and before I figured out what they were.  We were all horribly embarrassed!  But they had picked a very beautiful and romantic setting.  I hope the remainder of their evening passed without disturbance.  And from now on I go nowhere around here without a camera.

PS – This sunset is from a couple of nights before.  They have been amazing of late here.

Whales!

whale-jumpIn mid-February, just off the coast of Las Catalinas, a lucky group of passengers aboard the catamaran “Lazy Lizard” were treated to an amazing show with mother and baby Humpbacks breaching the water. The mother was much larger than the 32 foot boat. The whales seemed to be showing off for the passengers who, fortunately, had cameras!

I was just out on the Lazy Lizard last week.  We saw two big groups of jumping manta rays.  It is always something!

- Charles

PS – this rivals my dolphin encounter from last year.

White-faced Monkeys

I was in Las Catalinas last week and I need to catch up on some posts related to that very enjoyable trip.  On Thursday morning I was out for a hike and as I was descending from Windy Peak I heard some commotion in the trees.  There were at least a dozen white-faced Monkeys making their way through the tree tops.  They were moving steadily, leaping from tree to tree and branch to branch.  These are capuchin monkeys – like in Night at the Museum.  Mischevious little fellows.  This was an exciting sighting because we don’t see these guys that often at Las Catalinas.  We have lots of howler monkeys – but the white-faces are comparatively scarce.

We are investing a lot of effort into helping Las Catalinas regenerate a full-fledged, glorious tropical dry-forest ecosystem.  The means planting lots of trees – especially native ones that retain leaves, wildlife food, and shade through the dry season.  “Siempre verde” – always green – we call these.  Preventing dry season fires, and fighting them if they do break out, is a big part of the job also.  So, we are very happy to see such a nice large group of white-faced monkeys, and plan to make the habitat of Las Catalinas ever more welcoming for them!


Whales in the Neighborhood

There have been some whales hanging around Las Catalinas of late – especially a mother and baby.  Bob Davey took this video with a small camera from his porch in Flamingo Monday morning.  Pretty cool!


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