TRAVEL | ANIMALS | WILDLIFE | GUATEMALA
He Said He Saw a Dog Monkey
We hadn’t seen one of those before
We had recently arrived to Guatemala and had found a house to rent in Flores, the stunning capital city of the country's northern state. Flores is located on a small island on the south shore of Lake Peten Itza, Guatemala's third-largest lake. It is also nearby to Tikal National Park — thought by some to have been the capital city of the Mayan empire.
We knew immediately that we wanted to stay in Flores for a couple of months. We had recently been through a bit of a harrowing ordeal while housesitting in Nicaragua when civil war broke out, and I think we just needed a safe place to rest for a while. Flores has a very peaceful small-city vibe with a population of just 16 000 people. We loved the community of people that we met and made some fast friends in just the few days that we were checking the place out.
Securing the house rental was a gift from the heavens as there wasn’t much available in town.
Keen to visit Tikal straight away, after unpacking and getting ourselves organized in the house, we wasted no time and headed off for El Remate, another small village on the lake, but much closer to the National Park. Staying here meant that we could catch a bus to the site early in the morning.
Our bus was to pick us up at 6:00 a.m. When we purchased the ticket, we were assured that at this time, we would be some of the first to arrive at the park.
Now, we are NOT early risers in any sense of the term. For us, it was a big deal to get up this early, but we knew that it would be worth it. Not only were we attempting to beat the crowds, but we knew that the heat of midday would be too much to handle at some point.
We were with two other people who were older than us at the bus pick-up location. I think we all let out a chuckle when our bus pulled up and we climbed in to realize that almost every person on the bus was fairly close to the age of 18. Most were sleeping and bobbing their heads — eyes were rolled back, their mouths gaped open.
I realized they had come from Flores, an hour’s drive away, and most likely from the small handful of hostels that existed in the city. The smell of stale booze wafted through the air. I could only imagine that most of them had only had a couple of hours of sleep, if that. But hey, at least they were quiet!
I sat behind a guy who was trying to sleep by resting his forehead on his upper arm. The hand of this arm was trying to hold onto a metal bar that was across the door of the bus, in front of him. I felt so sorry for him as he would finally fall asleep, only to have his hand release and his head snap down and then quickly back up again before he hit his nose on his knee. This event happened on repeat for the entire 40-minute drive. Okay, I felt sorry for him, but I also laughed pretty hard!
These kids were TIRED! I could feel it. But I also knew that they were young and most would likely jump out of the bus and be raring to go when we got there.
As we piled off the bus with the young travelers, we were met by a man selling cheap maps. We hadn’t done any research about Tikal at all, so we figured that we should at least have something that told us where to go on hand. We unfolded it immediately.
“There!” I announced.
I pointed at the map. My finger had landed on Temple IV, the farthest point in the park from where we were standing.
“Let’s start there then work our way back. There will be nobody there at this time of day.” I surmised.
Of course, we had no idea what Temple IV had in store for us. We just wanted to put as much distance between ourselves and the youngsters as we could. No offense, but they can be loud when in groups. Trust me, I know, I was the loudest of them all at that age!
We headed off at a quick pace and tried to control the urge to stop and snap photos on our way through the incredible temples that we passed along the way.
About 15 minutes later, we approached Temple IV and I could already see that we would not be climbing up the front of it. They had built a set of towering wooden stairs that crisscrossed up the side of this massive tower. The front had been overgrown by vines and was crumbling away in parts. This was clearly an attempt to preserve this amazing pyramid and I can imagine that it could be quite a safety hazard.
As we climbed the wooden stairs to get to the top we came across a group of monkeys swinging in the trees. The sun had just recently come up and the jungle was starting to come alive. It was a foggy morning, which added to the somewhat spooky ambiance.
As we made our way around the corner to the best viewing area we giggled when we saw the other couple that we had been waiting for the bus with. They had been even quicker at getting there than us! They also told us that they had the same plan — to get away from the kids. We all chuckled at the state of affairs on the bus.
After speaking with them for a while, we soon learned that she had been to Tikal in the past, but back then, they climbed up the front of Temple IV. Admittedly, she was relieved when she arrived this time to see the wooden set of stairs. She told us that it was quite a treacherous endeavor even back then and she wasn’t sure if she could climb it this time around.
The four of us spent a good amount of time up there in the peace and quiet. The fog was starting to break and we could see the tops of other temples in the distance sticking out of the jungle canopy. Toucans screeched as they bolted from tree to tree, and howler monkeys made their presence be known. As the jungle came to life there was a literal buzz to the landscape around us.
The other couple soon pulled out a snack. They had purchased a scone from a bakery the day before and were immediately quite annoyed with how crumbly it was. Her crumbs were falling all over the area where she was sitting, and she seemed quite embarrassed about it. We had seen signs all over the park indicating that we shouldn’t feed the animals. I’m sure she was feeling bad about the inevitable happening after we left.
At one point she scooped up a bunch of crumbs then walked to the edge of the temple and threw them off — some sort of attempt of getting rid of the evidence, I suppose.
A few minutes later, and after we had been up there for 45 minutes or more, the first group of kids arrived. As predicted, they were talking and animated and the vibe of our quiet solitude shifted drastically. The other couple figured that that was their cue to head off. We wished them well on their journey. We were happy to take in the scenery for a bit longer.
Of course, as one is wont to do, many of the youngsters would go down as low as they dared on the front stairs of the temple to look down the 200-ish feet (61m) below to the ground. As they all took turns looking over the edge, most would return to sit on the giant stone steps that made up our viewing deck.
“What the hell is that?” One of the young guys announced as he approached the edge. He was a solidly built young man and looked tough in his tank top, his muscular arms bulging. With one foot close to the edge, his body leaned over as far as he dared. We could all tell that he was quite confused by what he was seeing.
His friends were seated back on the steps.
“What is it?” They wanted to know.
I think everyone up there was now curious about what this guy was seeing. We were sitting on the steps above them all and had a perfect view of this unfolding.
“Ummmm, I really don’t know. It looks like some sort of dog monkey.” He told them, clearly confused.
Well! You can imagine the excitement that ensued. A bunch of them jumped up and ran to the edge to see what the heck a ‘dog monkey’ was.
“What is that?” One said.
“That is the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen.” Said another.
By now we were wondering what on earth a ‘dog monkey’ was as well, so with curiosity getting the best of him, Chris jumped up and followed along to see what all the fuss was about.
Looking over the edge he claimed, “Oh that is just a coati mundi. Yeah, they are common in Central America.” We had already seen a few of them in Costa Rica, so were familiar with them.
As he made his way up and onto the top of the structure, his nose was sniffing the ground in front of him vigorously. It was then that I realized that it was following the trail of crumbs that had been left by the lady with the scone.
As it climbed, it kept sniffing the ground and licking up the crumbs. It was completely content and oblivious to the people watching it. I was happy to note that everyone stepped back and gave it the space it deserved.
Suddenly, it must have realized that people were around because it raised it’s head, looked around and didn’t follow the trail of crumbs any further. Instead, it made its way to the side of the temple and disappeared off the edge.
I’m sure it realized that it could come back at the end of the day when all of us noisy people had gone, and then clean up the rest of our leftover goodies.
In doing some research for this article, I learned that coatis, as they are commonly called, can actually be found as far north as Southern Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, and as far south as Northern Uruguay. They have a very large range!
We saw a few more coati mundis running through the forest floor during the rest of our day at Tikal, but the highlight of seeing them came at the very end. We were walking back to our bus and noticed a large compost pile that was behind one of the buildings.
As excited as a 5-year-old seeing Mickey Mouse for the first time at Disney World, Chris exclaimed, “Oh my god look! There are baby coati mundis!”
Sure enough, a family of them were digging through the pile and we languished in the moment of watching these adorable animals in miniature. It’s too bad that we were too far away for a good photo.
A while back this YouTube video came across my feed of these wonderful creatures. Their antics are played in reverse which makes it hysterical.
I like to think that coatis are Central and South America’s version of our raccoon here in Canada. Though I don’t think they are as much of a pest as raccoons can be. But what do I know?
Well, I guess I do know one thing. There is no such thing as a dog monkey!
Read more by Globetrotters writers:
Aarti Tailor writes about animals seen in my home turf of Canada.
Angela Choi writes about her realization that animals are often used for our pleasure.
If you like my writing and want to read more, follow me and sign up here to get my articles by email. We would also be happy if you considered leaving me a tip by using the link to Patreon or Ko-Fi below:)
We have been nomadic since 2017! Join our journey by hitting these links:
Website | Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn| Patreon| YouTube | Medium | Twitter | Ko-Fi | Unsplash
