Much ado about nothing…
It happened while Papa Mono was at Posada Amazonas, an all-inclusive jungle lodge not far from Puerto Maldonado located in Peru’s Amazonian basin. It could have happened anywhere in the world, but it happened here - in Papa Mono’s stomping grounds. Papa Mono went to the public lounge to hook up his laptop to the lodge’s telephone line in order to access the Internet. Sitting down the couch, I asked the tourist who was fiddling on his palm pilot whether he was using the line - the answer was no. I was taken aback when this tourist starts nosing into my business whereupon he asked me, “Unless you’re monitoring your stock portfolio, why can’t you wait until you get home for the Internet. What could be so important anyway?” Well, I was about to tell to this intrusive character - that it is his none of his business, why doesn’t he chill and eat a banana or two, but political correctness and diplomacy got the better of me so I answered him very civilly - “Papa Mono needs to make an entry into his travel blog”. Apparently satisfied with my answer, this boorish lout (double entendre) with palm pilot in hand proceeded to call out to some young preadolescent girls trying to recruit them as playmates for his daughters. Papa Mono reckons that he must have been from British Columbia, Canada. No American would have acted as boorishly as this!
It happened while boarding an early morning flight on American airlines on 9/11 from Quito to Miami. As I walked thru the first class compartment of the aircraft, I happened to overhear a somewhat unusual request from a middle-aged American passenger who was sitting with his wife - Calling the stewardess over, the bloke asked her “When you have some time, could you please bring us a glass of champagne”. The time was about 8:00AM - I guess “Mr. Big Shot” had to wait awhile for his champagne, as the flight was delayed an hour or so because of a problem with the jet’s fuel pump. Oh well…
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