We just returned to the city of David to catch our flight tomorrow to Bogotá. We spent New Year's Eve in Panama City trying to break even at a casino. We flew into David on New Year's day, rented a 4 wheel drive and drove it as far west and then as far south in Panama as possible. After navigating a dirt muddy rutted road the last 30 miles and getting out of the car a few times to build bridges with rocks, asking locals to point us in the right direction, we arrived along the beach at Mono Feliz. We were a bit dismayed at the accommodations, little bungalows with four half walls, a wooden roof with a mattress on a platform, and an army of ants. Since there was nothing else in sight and we were racing the sun set to arrive, we had to stay. Our bungalows were right on the ocean with loud crashing waves and stifling still heat, making it difficult to sleep, but peaceful nonetheless.
The first day we took a walk down the beach towards the border of Costa Rica and another property we had read about
. After spending a few hours talking to the American owner and self proclaimed turtle santctuary about what it's like living there... the locals, the politics, and the occasional kilos of cocaine that wash up along the shore, we decided to stay put at Mono Feliz. Everyone we met after that referred to him as El Pistolera (this made sense as we had seen the pistol laying on his table) and called him crazy.
Our host, an old sailor named Juancho, and the definition of salt of the earth, found this little sparsely populated spot of paradise in 1997. His wife LuzMela, cooked us big and delicious breakfasts and dinners, including trigger fish, snapper, spaghetti and a vegetable lasagna. We were only concerned one night eating conch, which El Pistolera had told us was an endangered species. The highlight of our days was feeding the troops of monkeys that came to visit twice a day. Approximately 50 squirrel monkeys and another troop of capuchins would come and hang out, jumping on our arms and intently checking us out to eat the bananas we held.
We could hear the howler monkeys most nights, sounding like a cross between a pack of lions and a pack of wild dogs. One night they seemed to be camping out in the trees over our bungalow. There were a few sloths camped high in the treetops and thousands of hermit crabs patrolling the sand. We initially thought we'd only stay a night or two, with the primitive accommodations, no internet, no people watching, and nothing at all to do. A day spent walking the beach the other direction, a day on a horseback ride with a local guide, lazy hours in the hot hot sun, heading into the freshwater spring fed pool to cool off, and we were suddenly 5 nights in. Although we all loved this little spot at "the end of the earth", it was time to move on.
Mono Feliz = Happy Monkey = Happy Us
Thursday, January 07, 2016
Limones, Chiriquí, Panama
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Comments

2025-02-17
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jpstarshine
2016-01-08
Loving the monkeys! Looks like you guys are having fun as always. Enjoy. Love the blog posts and the photos :) Thanks for taking us with you!
aulp
2016-01-08
Oh my gosh. You guys have the greatest adventures! Travel safely. Love, Pam
Jess
2016-01-08
Looks like a fun trip so far!!!!! Stick one of those monkeys in your suitcase.....it would be great to have one running around the office!
jodi
2016-01-08
love the monkeys!
Ron
2016-01-09
Are any of those monkeys good to eat? : )
PS: I can't find any more photos... just those nine.
Ron
2016-01-09
Never mind, I found the other entries & photos. Thanks!