Monkey Island

A little early for a blog post, but I just had to share my adventure to Monkey Island! It was amazing! Thanks to my two friends who are married and Peace Corps volunteers, I got to tag along with them and a visiting relative to a place in the southwest of Cameroon where rescued chimpanzees are kept safe. Hunting and eating monkeys is a big problem in Cameroon. My postmate has even witnessed children hunting monkeys near our village.

It took a few hours traveling on a dusty dirt road to arrive at this sanctuary. Our driver goes there a lot, taking people such as Peace Corps volunteers to this remote place by the water. Monkey Island is just a name we gave this place but it is not known throughout Cameroon. The only way people visit is by finding out through word of mouth. The people who run it like it better that way. The money we pay to see the chimpanzees enables them to provide for these animals and the low-advertising allows them to take care of the monkeys the way they want to, which I think is very well.

View of the camp

 

The younger ones (up to 3 years old) are kept at the camp and sleep in an old cabin. We played with these ones first. Banana was the most entertaining and loved to cause trouble. He reminded me of a young child, always full of energy and never tiring even though he certainly wore us out. He would even bite a little, like a puppy, although never breaking skin. He reminded me why chimpanzees are dangerous and how I would not want to encounter a bigger and older one. But we had fun with the little ones. One of them loved untying and tying our shoes. She even figured out how to unzip the zipper on my boot. And lastly, my favorite, the youngest: Chance. Less than a year old, his mother had been killed by pygmies (Cameroonians that are hunter/gathers in the jungle) and they had kept Chance so that they could eat him when he got older. Someone found out about Chance and called our driver. He immediately went to pick him up and probably had to pay a lot of money to buy Chance from the pygmies. Chance has become very attached to the main guy at the camp. He played with us but only would let our driver and this other guy hold him. At the end I was finally able to share an apple with him by biting a piece off, feeding it to him and then taking a bite for myself. Five minutes of heaven right there.

Me and Banana

 

 

Sharing an apple with Chance

 

The older monkeys are kept on two islands next to the camp. We took a boat out to see them, anchoring a short distance away. We threw fruit to them as they clambered out to see us. I could tell that they enjoyed their life: they were safe, untouched, and free to enjoy their piece of land with no fences. But I could also tell they were dangerous. I doubt anyone goes on those islands. There were up to 8 on each island, the teenagers were a bit rambunctious but the oldest were quite calm. One of them even had a baby on her back. It was brilliant to see them up close and I knew the money we paid was being put to good use. Mostly all these monkeys (most are chimpanzees but not sure on the rest) are rescued orphans and this island is probably the safest place for them in Cameroon.

 

So I guess this is one wild adventure where I actually got to see and touch the wildlife!

 

P.S. Our train got derailed on our way to Yaoundé. Thank goodness it was just the two luggage cars that went off the track but that meant a few hours wait for the train to get going again. Naturally when it derailed, most people got off and stood staring at the problem with their hands on their hips. Oh Cameroon. But we were lucky, some intelligent person decided to detach the engine car from the luggage cars, move it and move the rest of the train and then reattach them. Of course as we pulled away, we left all the luggage cars. Not sure how people would get their luggage back but it is normal to lose luggage in Cameroon and for trains to derail. Thankfully we had our luggage in our car! This is the wild life.