We're Off to San Francisco's Big Boat Series!

Once again, we're off and running again! After a long hiatus on travel due to my Dad's poor health (flying back and forth across the country on a regular basis doesn't really count as adventure travel unless you count adventures with hospitals, surgeries, etc.) we're taking a trip to San Francisco to compete in the Rolex Big Boat Regatta on .... wait for it... a big boat.

Actually, we're on the biggest boat in the regatta. At 73', we're carrying 22 in crew (without sandwich people or drink wenches). All 22 will be working - hard. There's breeze in San Fran that isn't available here in "Dago."

We'll be piling into a motor home with 2 other couples and doing the night drive from Temecula to Point Richmond. Should be entertaining!

Talk Like A Pirate Day!

Mark your calendars on September 19th. It's the National Talk Like A Pirate Day.

Munro is a pirate. Always has been, always will be. What else would you call a man who sets sail from South Africa to head home to New Zealand on a one year cruise that turned into a four year cruise?

A pirate.

The small fact that he lined the hull of his sailboat (another thing, real pirates are SAILORS not powerboaters) with "booty" for bribery, trade, and.... well, it's a mere detail in the life of a pirate!

Visit this web site for more information. And get a link to your Pirate Name.
Talk Like A Pirate!


My pirate name is:
Red Mary Kidd
Passion is a big part of your life, which makes sense for a pirate. Even though you're not always the traditional swaggering gallant, your steadiness and planning make you a fine, reliable pirate. Arr!

Arrr!

Munro, of course, gets the COOLEST of Pirate Names:
Dread Pirate Rackham
Like the famous Dread Pirate Roberts, you have a keen head for how to make a profit. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr!

Hurricane Katrina Homeless - Help Them If You Can

The devastation created by Hurricane Katrina has been compared to the Tsunami last December. In an effort to help those left homeless, a web developer called Gabe Roffman has created a web site that will match up people with room in their homes (and hearts) with those left homeless.

He's not looking for money, just people local to the areas of devastation to help out. All information will be kept confidential and Gabe will be working with the Red Cross and the Salvation Army to coordinate efforts.

Go to his site, Homes for Katrina Victims and sign up to help. Or pass this information along.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims.

Elvis the Squirrel Monkey Has Died

Our stay at the Mono Feliz Sanctuary in Punta Burica, Panama was the highlight of the trip we took. There we met the irrepressible Mickey and his sidekick Elvis. Elvis was a bit more shy than Mickey and also a bit older. He had little sideburns and loved to play with the laces on my sneakers. He tried and tried to tie bows, but only succeeded in untying my shoes.

Allegra Marshall has been wonderful about creating a newsletter and keeping everyone up-to-date on the happenings at Mono Feliz. We've just received the latest update informing us about Elvis. Here are her words:

.....Our precious little Elvis, who had been unwell twice during the year already, and who had lost so much body weight each time, took another turn. This time it was a lot worse though and he ended up dying in my arms on the 13th June. Jane and I trying homeopathic medicine and I frantically tried everything I could, but it was of no use. We buried him in front of the house, in front of his favourite little bush. John and I were devastated. Mickey did not understand what had happened, constantly looking around for his big brother who had always been so patient with him, always letting him have first serve of the milk bottle. Elvis was simply the best monkey! Jane was upset too as she never got a chance to know him. His little presents that she had so lovingly bought were put in a bag and tucked away. We are still not sure what happened, but a poisoned leaf or perhaps mushroom could be to blame....

A week or so after all of this, one of the locals brought us a baby monkey he had found. He knew how devastated we were losing Elvis. Mickey had been moping a lot too, and we are all too familiar with "cabanga" or heart break as they call it here - when an animal loses its partner, it often decides to die too. Birds are reknown for this and monkeys too. This did provide John and I with a huge moral and ethical
issue though as this little monkey was not injured. (Usually we only accept injured animals). It was too late though to reverse the operation, so we gracefully accepted the little guy.

Mickey was just too excited for words, jumping around,smelling him, wanting to play. He had not been sleeping since the day Elvis died. Elvis could sleep alone, but Mickey never was able to. We also had been having sleepless nights as a result. It took the little guy only a few days to settle in, but it was obvious he was a cry baby. We have called him "Mongy" as a result ("mongongo" means cry baby) but he is certainly not like that anymore! (My initial choice for a name was Felix). He is dominating Mickey in a few ways and now Mickey has to take on the older brother role, as Elvis had had to do with him.

Mongy was a lot of work the first few weeks as we had to watch him constantly, but it's amazing how quickly he has adapted. He and Mickey are completely independent now and spend most of the days in the trees catching little bugs and playing. They sleep very well together, although I still need to do a milk feed around 130am! Hopefully this will end soon as it is exhausting, especially after a late night with
tourists....."

Munro and I cried when we heard about Elvis. He had such an endearing personality. We are looking forward to going back again and meeting Mongy.

Rumor Control - We're NOT Moving!

To all you who have asked, after reading the bits of the blog that are up on the web: NO! We are NOT moving to Panama! Munro was looking into investement real estate ONLY. And what we learned taught us that now is an especially bad time to buy in Panama as their laws on foreign investement are up for some serious changes.

These changes may severely reduce the ability of foreigners to buy and hold land and even stay in the country for more than 30 days at a time.

Besides....We LOVE San Diego and our Beach House Apartment and we're staying put for a long time. So please don't get the wrong idea about our trip!

More to come on the monkeys of Mono Feliz....

Catching up on posts....

To anyone who reads this.....if you like what you've read already, please come back and visit again. Apologies for how long it's taking me to create this....

I realize that my e-mail with the link to this blog was way premature as I didn't have any clue as to how long it would actually take me to complete this. So much happened and every day was such an adventure, that the posts I've already created don't do the trip justice.

Thanks to all of you who have written or called with positive comments. Feel free to post anything (anonymously or not) in the comments fields. We will be keeping this blog going for a while.

Mickey is a 1 year old titi or squirrel monkey living at Mono Feliz in Punta Burica, Panama. The squirrel monkey is an endangered species - there are only 3,000 left in the wild. He's been hand raised from the time he was 2 days old when his mother was killed and he was brought to Allegra and John's sanctuary. Allegra is working on turning Mono Feliz into an official non-profit sanctuary, create a wildlife corridor and National Park in Punta Burica.
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