La Isla De Los Monos: Monkey Island.

The ride up the river to the part of the rain forest where we would be staying for the next seven days was over an hour long. To break up the ride there, our power boats stopped off at la Isla de los Monos...

An island with a wide variety of monkeys.

For about 45 minutes, we played with - and even got tortured by - monkeys living there.

The staff on the island handed out bananas for us to entice the monkeys with, though most really wanted to play.

Sometimes with us...

One person noted it was like trying to pick up a cat.  They were a bit curious of us. More interested in what we had on us that weren't food...

The energy of the monkeys was fun. It was a great way to get us acquainted to the jungle, as we would be seeing monkeys (and other animals) in the wild around the retreat lodge where we would be staying.

They had the sweetest faces.

They also had the sweetest nature...

This little boy helps take care of them on the island.

They clearly found him endearing. It was very sweet.

The perfect way to set the mood for our stay.

And back on the boat we went, for another 30 minutes of riding up the river.