The Adventures of Mooch the International Monkey

Mooch loves to travel (although he can be a little grumpy about it sometimes) and last summer he went to France for the first time.

"I tried to order the banana crepes. But Monsieur Crepe said they were fresh out!"

Here he is posing by the merry-go-round near the Eiffel Tower.

One of Mooch's many passions is cooking. His favorite style of cuisine is Chinese. (He's not very good at it, but don't tell him!) His restaurant is called "Chez Mooch" because although he loves Chinese food, he likes French style.

Because Mooch lives mostly in tropical climates, he wanted to find some snow last winter. He found it in Boone, North Carolina and, boy, was he excited! He jumped right out of the car and immediately started making snow angles! Poor mooch didn't bring warm enough clothes so he had to spend the rest of the night snuggled up by the fireplace.

Over the summer, the Mooches got to go to Guatemala to visit Tikal, an ancient Mayan city. They enjoyed their lakefront room at their little hotel in Flores. It was perfect for watching the sunrise. Later they took a bus into Tikal. They were shocked to encounter REAL MONKEYS! The forest was full of howler monkeys and spider monkeys. The old Mayan temples towered over them but they enjoyed climbing on them. They are monkeys after all.

Portugal didn't have any monkeys, but Mooch still had a good time. It turns out that he loves exploring old castles and eating fresh fish. And there's no better place to do those things than in Portugal. His first stop on this trip was Sintra, a little town just outside of Lisbon. He explored a very fairytale-like forest and then went swinging on chandeliers at the castle! He may have gotten into a little bit of trouble, but what's a monkey to do when he sees a perfectly good chandelier??

Who knows where he'll decide to go next!