Holy Monkey... What a rush!
Trip Start
Oct 31, 2011
1
49
137
Trip End
Mar 16, 2012
Where I stayed
What I did
Ubud Bali, Bali, Indonesia
Monday, December 19, 2011
We spent the morning today doing nothing, we sat on the front porch of our Villa taking it all in, and the view never gets old. It was raining, and the smells were amazing. It seems to rain every morning, and then clears up to a beautiful sunny day. Even when it is raining it is beautiful, the rain is warm.
At around 3:30 p.m., we left for Monkey Forest which is in Ubud. Everyone around here talks about Monkey Forest and kept asking if we had gone, so we decided to check it out. Once again, it was an amazing, almost surreal experience. Imagine walking through a forest, and having hundreds of monkeys walking around you, and climbing onto you to eat a banana. These are not trained monkeys, they are not in a cage, they are free to come and go as they please. They are certainly use to hanging out with humans, but I would not call them tame, as the bite marks on my arms would attest to. They can be very aggressive, trying to get into your pockets, or purse in search of bananas. One of them almost made off with my bag! It was only Alan's heroic efforts to stave off the irate primate that saved my bag! He stomped at the ground and played tug a war with the monkey! I yelled and ran.
The monkeys that live in this forest are called Balinese Macaques, their scientific name is Macaca Fascicularis, and aside from humans, they are the most widespread and successful of all primates.
In the Monkey Forest we visited, there are about 537 Macaques. There are approximately 64 adult males, 177 adult females, and 296 young ones. These Macaques live in primarily three clusters of females and males, each of these groups tend to use different areas of the forest at different times of the day.
Adult males weigh up to 8- 10 kilos, have large canine teeth, broad shoulders and facial hair that resembles a moustache. The adult females are smaller than the males from 4 – 8 kilos, and have facial hair that resembles beards.
It was quite the experience, and for Zandréa, who has loved monkeys since she was very young, she says ``it was an amazing experience I will never forget, even though they are crazy little ...somethings!"
I added two videos today, now that I figured it out, so be sure to check them out!
That is all for today, tomorrow we will hang out with elephants if all goes well.
Goodnight!
