Chasing Butterflies, Finding Monkeys.

Once I had finished the varnishing, and Frieda had cleared up the breakfast dishes, we decided to take the path to San Lorenzo.  It was a lovely sunny, breezy morning, ideal for a long walk.  I was quite determined to find and photograph the Panama butterfly, I have seen one twice now, but I've been unable to catch one on film.  This is possibly not the best time of year to look for them because there are no flowers, but that wasn't about to deter me.
We sprayed ourselves liberally with OFF, filled our water bottles and headed out.  The jungle was very quiet, almost creepily so, we didn't see any butterflies, or birds, or anything for some time, then I spotted something high up in the trees, "is that a monkey?" I asked Frieda, "OH yes" she said excitedly, it was laying across the crook between two branches, just sleeping; excitedly I started clicking away with my camera while Frieda jumped up and down making loud monkey noises (quite scary) I think I was far more worried than the monkey, who contentedly carried on sleeping, totally unperturbed by the two idiots underneath the tree.
After about ten minutes of Frieda's frantic monkey impersonation's we decided to move on.  We only moved about three steps before we spotted another monkey in the tree, then another and another and another, the tree was full of them, all draped over the branches sleeping or sitting up looking directly at the two of us, probably wondering what the hell we were; not that its easy to read a monkey's expression, but I would say they all looked either confused or concerned by Frieda's behavior.  We both started clicking frantically with our cameras, while the monkeys continued to sit up in the safety of their tree with a bored expression on their little faces.

After about 500 pictures Frieda's camera ran out of battery.  We continued our walk and almost reached the river when suddenly there was this ear piercing, straight out of a horror movie scream.  We both stopped and looked at each other with horror "mon Dieu" Frieda exclaimed "what can that be?" We stood in silence for a minute before we heard it again, this time it sounded closer, "Ohhh lets go look" I said excitedly, Frieda's expression was one I really wish I could have captured on film, it could never be repeated.  "It must be a big one" she said in genuine wide eyed horror.  "No don't be silly there are no big monkeys here" I said," lets go and see", and immediately started walking back in the direction of the piercing scream, Frieda jumped behind a bush to hide.  Eventually she came out and followed me at a safe distance as I made my way stealthily back towards the noise, all the time wondering what I was going to do if something large and hairy with big teeth jumped out, my imagination was running in top gear again..  "But what happens if they attack us?" Frieda said with genuine concern.  I laughed (hoping it wouldn't be  my last)
As we approached the monkey tree Frieda pointed up and said "look it's only the little ones, they make the noise!"  Sure enough the little monkeys were the ones making the scary loud noise, and as we stood under the tree listening to them I felt quite silly. They were howler monkeys, one of the loudest creatures on earth.

The little baby