Day 13. James was really looking forward to this day. He is a monkey fan. He has done a few reports on monkeys at school and has a number of stuffed animal monkeys in his room. After seeing just a few in our Port Alfred days, he was ready for Monkey Land. First, we needed to find breakfast. Before we found our breakfast, we found these baboons on the side of the road waiting for their breakfast when the horses get fed. We were just so excited to see them 20 yards away from us on the side of the road.
A nice lady at the gas station by our farmhouse recommended a restaurant called the Peppermill (not the casino). It took a little while to find it, but we finally did and what a recommendation it was! We ended up eating there three times! There was a cool playground nearby:
And a mohair factory that sold textiles, clothing and all sorts of crafty things from this source:
I think my kids have outgrown kids entertainment, but they don't think so (even if James pulls the head off of a rocking horse).
After a great breakfast, we entered. . . MONKEY LAND! Monkey Land is a refuge where monkeys that have been raised as pets come to relearn how to be monkeys. Apparently you can take the monkey out of the jungle, but not the jungle out of the monkey and owners don't realize this until a few years into ownership and a few carpets and couches later. A huge forested area was covered in netting and we walked through the trees getting an up close view of all the monkeys, which was just thrilling!
Tamarin
Ring-tailed lemurs
Lemur
This one was one of my favorites because he's just beautiful, though I don't remember him name!
He's picking through another monkey with his tiny little fingers and finger nails.
The monkey he is picking through is named Elvis.
Although James was so excited about seeing all these monkeys, he didn't dare get too close. Even so, he had a smile on his face and a look of amazement through most of the tour.
This spider monkey was in the process of learning how to not be around humans. He wasn't so successful with us and went right of to this lady's leg. Our guide said calmly, "hold still, don't scream, hold still, don't scream," and then used a stick to hit the ground around the monkey to get him away. But he followed us a while along the trail, until the guide finally got him to go away.
This monkey seemed slow and old, though I'm not sure he was either, because we watched him nimbly move away from us and through the trees.
Throughout the park were tables like these with fruits and nuts to feed the monkeys. Feeding from these table serves two purposes: to feed the monkey and also to provide less competition between them. Since food is provided there is no need for competition.
That little bump sticking out is a baby monkey head!
This monkey is called "blue-balls" for obvious reasons. The shinier the blue balls are, the more testosterone. We were impressed with our guide;s ability to talk about this monkey with a straight face. We couldn't keep a straight face!
Monkey Land not only has a lot of monkeys, but the longest suspension bridge around, which just happened to have monkeys crawling along the top!
And can you do this!?!?
James had a great time in the gift shop as well and Spencer finally found a great souvenir: a magnet that says something like: "I wish I were a monkey then throwing poop at people would be legal."
And one last truth from Monkey Land:
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