Neighbors Bringing Gifts

 Most people have neighbors who bring you cookies they've baked, or who tell you to mow your damn lawn, or ask your dog to quit pooping in theirs.  We have neighbors who bring over a sloth on a stick.

He apparently wandered over to their yard and got stuck in the wire over their fence.  They coaxed him down on a stick and then brought him to our house so he could scamper - okay, drag himself slowly, being sure to pace himself so he doesn't get too tired, since there's no use rushing things - back to the jungle, which is literally right behind our house.

So he held on to the branch and just kind of watched them as they carried him around, with an expression on his face sort of like that of ancien regime aristocrats being carried on a sedan by their peons.  The jungle is about 30 yards from where they dropped him, so he might be there by tomorrow.

The Caiman Whisperer

Give Mallory one beer, and there's no telling what can happen.

This, I am told, is a night monkey.  I don't know what the thing with bulging eyes sitting on her shoulder is.

Swimming with the Fishes

Note that there is absolutely no evidence in this photo that she was pushed.

So it is possible, though not necessarily advisable, to swim in Lake Gatun.  It's important to avoid passing ships.  It is also helpful to avoid water snakes, crocodiles, caimans, jaguars, and swimming within half an hour of eating lunch, or even longer if beans have been consumed.  My daughter chose to follow none of those rules. 

Morning Ruminations

There is no question, at least among the most eminent scholars, that Cap'n Crunch with Crunchberries is the greatest breakfast cereal in the history of mankind, followed closely by the now defunct Quisp.  There is equally little doubt that Frankenberry was among the most abysmal.  Fruit Loops was an honorable mention, somewhere among the top quartile of food products that have formed part of a nutritional breakfast since the post-WW2 era.  Fruit Loops commercials were mediocre at best.  However, in real life, the toucan kicks ass over all other breakfast cereal mascots.  There is no dispute on this point; don't even bother posting a comment if you care to disagree.

Ugly Monkey

 These are called monos "titi," and I think somewhere I've read that they're actually called "Geoffrey's monkeys."  They're tiny, maybe a pound in weight, maybe 6-8 inches from head to butt, not counting the long tail.  They're ugly; their faces look like bats, and they have essentially a white mohawk for a hair style.  Notice the second photo, what looks like a black tumorous growth on the back behind the head.  If this were a sci-fi movie, this would be the second head emerging from the torso.  In fact, it's a baby, and they carry them around while they bounce along the branches and mooch bananas from tourists like us.

Capuchins

They're not just monks; they're monkeys, apparently so named by the Spanish because the white around their heads and the black on top made them look like monks.  They don't behave like monks, though; they rudely grab food out of your hands, wolf it down, scratch their crotch relentlessly and screech merrily while doing so.

Oh.  I stand corrected.

Sloths

 This is our back yard, and this is a sloth.  This was yesterday.  I've heard some interesting things about sloths, but I don't know if it's true: that sloths are sometimes green because their fur hosts algae; that sloths only poop once every eight days or so, but they come down to the ground to do it; that sloths eat the leaves of one particular tree in Panama that has an almost marijuana-like effect on them, which explains both their habitual stupor and what happened to the Doritos.