Monkey Business

While in Costa Rica, I would attend classes during the week but the weekends were when I would go on fun excursions and explore the rest of the country with the friends I made there. One weekend, we went to this beach that was about 45 minutes from our school, and all got hotel rooms for three days. What we did not realize, is that this area of Costa Rica was notorious for the many species of monkeys that roamed about. One day, we all decided to go to a local restaurant, and as we were eating our food, I looked up at the ceiling beams and saw at least 10 monkey swinging from the beams and running about, one of which had taken a light bulb from one the hanging lamps. I frantically called for the waiter, and in a voice laced with panic I said “THERE ARE MONKEYS IN HERE!!!.” The waiter gave me a blank look and in a very calm voice simply said, “that is normal here.” I was stunned, I mean, being from the United States, we never see anything like that. I put aside my disbelief and resumed eating my food, but shortly after this, a monkey came right up to our table, and took both a mango and a packet of sugar from my plate. The monkey then perched itself on one of the many ceiling beams and proceeded to eat both.

A few moments later, as I was eating the rest of my food, I felt something strike me in the arm only to find out that the monkey had thrown the half eaten mango right at my arm. I gazed up at the monkey only to find him laughing at me, so I was getting a little annoyed despite how funny this actually was. Once again, I took my attention away from the monkey, and went back to my food. As soon as I turned my head, I felt something on my head and went to the worst thought I could think of, which was that the monkey was peeing on me. Fortunately, this was not the case, as he was simply pouring the packet of sugar on my head. I looked up at the monkey and muttered under my breath “stupid animal.” After saying this, I made a realization, which was that this monkey successfully managed to take food off my plate, throw one of the food items at me, and dump the other on my head. To be honest, I felt like the stupid animal in this situation.

After eating, one of the locals began to tell me how smart monkeys really are, and I found out something pretty incredible that I had never known before. I was told that monkeys are often used as service animals for people with a disability or serious injury. They can be trained to remind people to take medication, help with cleaning, or even get them food. If there is one thing I learned from this experience, it is that animals are a lot more intelligent than most people think, and we should not underestimate them, as the immense similarities between monkeys and humans is astonishing. Oh, and I forgive the monkey 🙂