Papa Mono is known all around the civilized world to be somewhat of a joker and a clown - some people love his act and some people just wish he would go back to the jungle where he belongs, climb a tree and eat some more bananas. Oh well, you know what they say - you can’t please all the people all of the time!

I have to admit that on my recent trip to Ecuador, a young lady who worked at the hotel that I stayed at in the mountain resort of Mindo definitely made Papa Mono sweat a bit with one of her practical jokes. I guess you could say, that she tried to make a monkey out of Papa Mono. The young lady in question was named Rosea - although I admit she was somewhat of a cutie, because of her relative youth, she was definitely hands off for Papa Mono and I made absolutely no attempt to flirt with her for the duration of my short stay there. I acted like my regular “ape self” - in other words like a clown.

It happened on the day I was leaving Mindo to catch the public bus to Quito, the capital of Ecuador, for my final night in South America. I had just returned to my guesthouse by taxi after visiting an upscale nature lodge in the Mindo Area. The time was about 1:10PM, and the bus was scheduled to leave downtown Mindo at 2:00PM. As I was more or less packed and ready to go and the bus station was only 5 minutes away from the guesthouse, I thought had a little breathing room. After getting out of the taxi, I summoned Rosea, whereupon I told her in Spanish, I was checking out now and had to catch the 2:00PM bus to Quito, so could she please retrieve my valuables from the hotel safe and give them to me? She gave me this weird look, shook her head and told me she didn’t know where the key to the safe was.

I was a little bit concerned and started to sweat a bit, as my passport (and one of my travelers check) was in the hotel safe box, and I could not leave Ecuador, let alone leave Mindo to catch my bus to Quito, without my passport. I tell Rosea, I cannot leave the country without my passport, and begged her to find the key or maybe call the owner in Quito to see if he knew where the key was. I knew that a phone call wasn’t going to happen, as their telephone lines weren’t working. All the time, she had this real dumb look on her face.

In the meantime, I went to my room and hurriedly finished my packing. Ten minutes later after I had gotten all my belongings together, the time was 1:25PM and I went back to the lobby and beckoned for Rosea. She came out with a little smile on her face she asked me “What do you have in the safe?” to which I answered “My passport and a traveler’s check.” About a minute later, she comes out with a manila envelope containing my valuables and hands it to me, again with the same stupid smile on her face. I thanked Rosea profusely, and ask her how much do I owe her for the laundry, to which she replied $5USD - one or two dollars more than I expected - but what the hell, I just wanted to get out of there so I nodded and said no problema. Handing her a $20 bill, I told her to keep a $5 tip for herself and the other employee at the lodge and give me 10 dollars change. She came out a minute or two later, shaking her head, that she only had 9USD. Ok, I said, No problem I said as I took my change, thanking her again for everything whereupon I grabbed my bags and my parcel, and jumped into the waiting taxi, waving goodbye to the smiling Rosea.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist, let alone an aging monkey like myself, to figure out that Rosea was playing a little joke on Papa Mono - she knew where the key was all the time. Before leaving, I hurriedly looked at my watch - it was 1:35PM. I made to the bus station at 1:40 PM, twenty minutes before the scheduled departure. Breathing a quick sigh of relief, I quickly downed a beer and broke out with a big smile on my face and said to myself - ” Whoosh, that was a close call. Rosea and her practical jokes.”