We left our winter home at the Myakka River Motorcoach Resort (MRMR) with both joy for the summer’s adventures and sadness for leaving our friends there after so long. MRMR is a place best called Pleasantville – if you haven’t seen that older film you should! Thank you Molli Wills for coining the term for me. (She actually calls it Pleasantville on steriods!). Bittersweet is the best word that I can come up with. The good news is that our plans over the summer include seeing many of them in their natural habitat. Speaking of natural habitats, our first stop was in Gainesville, FL at a Harvest Host called Jungle Friends which is a primate sanctuary. Our MRMR neighbors, Sherry and John Murphy stayed there last year and they recommended it to us.
We were able to briefly meet Kari Bagnall who started the sanctuary where ex-pet, laboratory, and other primates can live out their lives in a peaceful environment that has accommodations both indoors and outdoors. There are over 240 monkeys at the sanctuary that includes species of Capuchins, Marmosets, Spider, Squirrel, and Tamarins. We took a tour with two volunteers, Diana and Joyce:
They drove us around the property showing us the different primates and explained how they got each monkey and how they care for them. The environments include a large outdoor caged area with plants, swings, ropes, and other types of activities. There is a ”habit trail” that connects the caged areas with indoor spaces and/or other cages. The caretakers also use these trails to move the primates to other habitats to keep them interested.
Capuchins:
They were so cute with their facial expressions!
Marmosets:
Talk about your wild hair days!
Squirrel Monkeys:
They were so much fun to feed! Their little hands would grab the food right out of ours.
Spider Monkeys:
They could use their tail like another appendage and then they looked like a spider on the enclosement.
Our favorite was this little guy who would react to a male voice calling him by his name ”Roger” while giving no reaction to a female voice. Check out this video:
Overall we thought that this Harvest Host was a wonderful way to spend the day. It was a little difficult getting down their driveway, but the camping area was huge and we were the only ones staying there.
There were two huge advantages for us at this Harvest Host; 1. 30 amp electrical service, and 2. the camping area was fenced in so we could let Bear out the door to run and play.
Thank you John and Sherry, we agree with you and would recommend this place to others.
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