And now, for something completely different. At the beginning of this month (now last month actually- I am a slow post writer) I found myself back on the other side of the world, spirited away (by this I mean an 11 hour night flight in economy with a four hour, 4am layover in Mexico City) to Guatemala. Every time I get to travel for work I have to pinch myself- and when it afforded an opportunity as good as this, I had to make sure I used it to see a little bit more of the country.
The verdict? Guatemala is drop dead gorgeous. It’s dramatic, it’s varied, it’s steeped in wildlife. And few of its species are more charismatic than the coati.
White nosed coatis, the species in these pictures, are relatives of the racoon. They don’t appear to be very widely known outside of South America (almost every person I’ve talked to about our coati encounter responded with a puzzled stare), but they really should be- with long bottle brush tails, little white ears and wee scrunchy noses, well- they’re a pretty easy sell.
We caught up with this particular group in the dry forests on the shores of Lake Atitlan. There were about 20 or so out foraging, making the most of the relative cool of mid-morning before the heat drove them to find a shady snooze spot. They weren’t particularly good at sharing, and there was a lot of bickering involving high pitched squeaks and pulling back of their improbably long noses. Getting the photos proved to be quite the challenge – coatis are fast, they fit perfectly into the undergrowth and a blue sky and fierce sun put the contrast levels through the roof- but I hope that some of these pictures capture something of how brilliant they are.
