A cute little baby howler monkey by the name of Angel was my inspiration.

I came across Angel’s photograph (above) on the internet when I was researching Costa Rica and my life changed as instantly as hers had.

Rescued by two Gringas on the Pacific coast after she was orphaned, Angel was transferred to the care of a Spanish couple on the Caribbean coast who rehabilitated wildlife and I wanted to do what they were doing.

I lived, dreamed and researched howler monkeys. We visited Americans Brenda Sue Bombard at the Refugio de Animales de Nosara and Steve and Vicki Coan at SIBU Sanctuary on the Pacific coast in Guanacaste on two separate trips.

We drove to Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean coast and spent a day with Encar and Sandro at Jaguar Rescue where we met Angel — renamed Angelina — as well as Brad Pitt and other orphaned howler monkeys.

Since there were wild howler monkeys on the property we had purchased in San Ramon, we knew “soft releases” would be possible. Which meant that just as they did at SIBU Sanctuary and Jaguar Rescue, the females we released would be able to come back to seek medical attention or to show off their babies.

The males, like Miracle Charlie, would be able to come back to show off their pregnant females (in his case, two wild ones and a third who had been released with him).

After spending about US$20,000 on the first year of a veterinary technician program, equipment and supplies (including an incubator, microscope and second refrigerator), a monkey enclosure attached to our house, and for a biologist to prepare and submit our application, we received our permit from MINAET.

MINAET is the Costa Rican Ministerio de Ambiente, Energía y Telecomunicaciones which monitors and issues permits for these kinds of ‘environmental’ activities and after we had that in our hands, we were ready in November of 2011.

But no orphaned howler monkeys came our way, possibly because Zoo Ave (privately owned by a Canadian couple) has taken responsibility for rehabilitation in the Central Valley for many years.

Then, on Friday the 13th of January 2012, fate intervened. With two spider monkeys… The Monkey Diaries here on WeLoveCostaRica.com will be our story.

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It’s clear that Monkey Mom Michele and Monkey Dad Paul Gawenka are doing this for the love these incredible monkeys – it certainly is not for the money which they have been spending to try and provide an environment where they can rest and recover before they are released…

As you’ll see from the PayPal confirmation below, earlier this week I paid US$100 into Paul Gawenka’s PayPal account (pgawenka@yahoo.com) to help with the costs for a new enclosure…

Michele and Paul don’t have some fancy ‘charity’ that you can contribute to but they’ve given me their personal guarantee that every penny of my money and any money that you may give goes towards helping the animals – they don’t want a dime for themselves – so please log into your PayPal account and follow my lead and send them a US$100 to pgawenka@yahoo.com

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.