Thursday, May 22, 2008

Kuxi K'aax - A Dream Come True

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Today I had the surprise fortune of fulfilling one of several goals on my list of things to do before I die! This experience was near the top of my list. With very little planning ahead, we (my partner Roger and his wonderful son Tynan and daughter Jessica) visited "The Jungle Place" - the home of Joel and Heidi and their 13 rescued spider monkeys, 14 cats and 4 dogs...oh and their 3 Royal Toucans (also an endangered species) . Their sanctuary is located on a 20 acre parcel of jungle between Tulum and Akumal in Quintano Roo, approximately 40 minutes south of Playa Del Carmen. It is not well-known nor advertised to any degree in Playa Del Carmen and so when Roger mentioned that Tynan and Jessica wanted to go on a 'tour' of some sort on Wednesday, I went for a surf on the internet to see what I could find that wouldn't be an overpriced and trampled 'tourist trap. ' Lucky for us, they had one opening today and we scrambled to get to their home by 1 pm .
For their 'story' - you may like to visit The Jungle Place by clicking the same here But, if your interested, I'll be slowly downloading the photographs Heidi was kind enough to take of us with 6 of the female spider monkeys (including their first baby born two years ago) So please come back again to see more photos along with more details of our visit and the history of these adorable primates and their loving parents Heidi and Joel.Above is Nena with Jessica. Nena has not been able to find a suitable male to mate with in her current group, which has caused her to over eat. Sound familiar? Poor girl - she looks like she is ready to give birth, but when Heidi asks her if she has a baby in her tummy, she just looks down and pouts. They believe they will have to bring some new males in eventually hoping she will find a suitable mate.
Tynan with what looks like Luna (the 2 year old)
I absolutely adore this photo - especially the 'matching profiles'!
Roger and I with three of the females, one of whom had tried seconds before to unzip the zipper to my shorts.
Roger was definitely very popular with the ladies who had a couple of little fights over who would find a spot in his lap!
Tynan and Jessica soaking up the love

2 comments:

Holly Loves Art said...

WOW!!! I would have been in pure heaven with these beautiful creatures. How very special this day must have been. Great photos of you and Rog... all those wonderful, personable, funny characters... all around.. crawling all over you. What a dream come true.

Debby said...

Oh!!!! These are fabulous pics. Thanks for sharing.

Debby