The Roar of a Monkey

Lake Gaton, Panama Canal---Waking up on day two of the canal transit was like an exciting morning at Summer Camp as a kid, full of anticipation for what was ahead. We had been advised that the boat pilot would be there at 6am, a ploy to have us up by 7am, when he really showed up! Six of us all huddled in the early morning clinging to our coffees like manna from heaven. Chatting about the day behind and the day ahead. It was the most passengers our boat had held, six in all with a friend of the captain's just taking the canal ride and new crewmate Shannon from New Zealand joining us as well as the Canadian who will leave us, thank god, in Panama City.

We tied to a gigantic moring off the lake shore coast. Small mountains covered in forest surround us. The quiet all around in the morning hours with the calm lake water lapping at the boat was peaceful and void of the usual clanking of "boat noises" caused by the rocking motion that waves cause.

The moring for boats to hang out and wait for day 2 of transit.

But then, a sound so horrible, so loud, so raw and terrifying came from the forest nearby. And again, and again.    It was exactly the sound of a monster in a Hollywood movie. The look on my face told all the veterans that they should fill me in.

 Monkeys they said. Small monkeys with very big lungs.  I have never heard a noise so terrifying. I was glad to be safe in a boat a good distance away.  I took a video to record the noice just to make sure I was not making it up...nope, it WAS a horrible noise.

Proving once again that something small may hold in it much more than you anticipate.





The roar of a Monkey: the forest where the noise was coming from.