1 monkey, 2 monkeys, 3 little monkeys jumping on the bed.

Back to back blog posts? I know, I’m getting a little outta control over here. Haha.

We went to meet our guide and drive at the big tree by our apartment to go to Jozani forest at 8:30am this morning. The forest is ~35 minute drive from town. We learned that the forest used to be a jungle, but a lot of the trees got cut down by the people in the village to be turned into coal for selling. The government wanted to protect the forest so they started to pay the villagers monthly. But they were still killing the colobus monkeys because the monkeys ate their fruits from their farms, so once again the government stepped in and now the villagers get paid twice a month to stop killing the monkeys and to not cut down trees.

The big tree.

Signs on the road around the forest area.

The forest is mainly composed of mahogany trees, with a mix of some other random trees such as eucalyptus. It was nice to be in nature, away from the loud and noisy town and actually be able to hear birds chirping (instead of roosters). The mahogany trees produce seeds that fall to the ground, no one is allowed to plant the trees, they are only allowed to grow naturally from fallen seeds. But a lot of times the monkeys get to the seeds before they get a chance to fall. For the first 20 minutes we walked through a trail in the forest while our guide explained the history and showed us different leaves and trees. It  was really peaceful and quiet, it wasn’t too busy of a day to do the tour either.

Eucalyptus tree.

 Mahogany tree seed.

Walking through the forest.

Almond tree that no longer have leaves or fruit because the monkeys ate it all.

 Eventually we hit an area where we started seeing red colobus monkeys! The monkeys are only found in Zanzibar and at one point were endangered. At first we could hear rustling in the trees and the monkeys jumping from tree to tree, but they were too high up to be seen. Soon enough though, they came down to get leaves. The monkeys were not scared of us at all, they rarely ran when we got close and sometimes would come down right next to us to get leaves. Monkeys were literally 30cm away from, it was so cool! The only rule was the we weren’t allowed to touch them. The monkeys tend to travel in packs of around 20-25 and there were a lot of moms with their babies. The little babies were adorable, they were so tiny and clumsy when jumping between trees; a lot of times they’d fall off cause they’d miss the branch or choose to jump to a branch that couldn’t support their weight. One of the monkeys was sitting higher up in a tree and it started to pee, we were so lucky that we weren’t standing directly under it while it did it’s business…that would not have turned out to be a fun trip. At one point there were so many monkeys around us that it was kind of overwhelming and I was trying to take pictures of all of them. I saw two monkeys kind of really close together and another one not too far behind, I just snapped a couple pictures and moved on. Then Chels says that the monkeys were having sex! I didn’t even realize, so I went back to take pictures but then they stopped cause we interrupted them…whoops,  biggest cockblocks ever haha. But the pictures I took before, I managed to capture the monkeys doing the dirty without realizing it. The cutest thing was when we saw a mom scratching and picking things out of the baby’s fur, they were so precious! We took way too many pictures of the monkeys, our guide just stood around waiting for us; he probably sees the monkeys so often that it doesn’t excite him at all. He was really nice about it though.

 Looks comfy.

 Poser.

 Just hanging out.

 Three little monkeys.

 They look like old men.

 Friends forever.

 Mama and baby.

 Me and monkey.

 BABY MONKEY!

 Long tails.

X RATED MONKEY PICS.

 We can't quite figure out what's going on here, but it looks like they're warming up with a bystander watching.

 Right into the action...I swear I didn't realize this was happening when I took the pic.

 After we interrupted their session, sorry dude.

 Monkey hard on, yupp I'm a perv.

 No zoom, monkey came next to me!

 Then it went back up into the trees to eat.

 Monkey that almost peed on us.

How precious right?

After visiting the monkeys, we went to see mangroves (trees that grow in the water). It was interesting because the water comes in from the ocean, but depending on tide there isn’t always water in the area. When we went today, the tide was really low so we could see the soil and all the crabs and the crab holes in the ground. The seeds for the mangroves are really long and thing and when they drop to ground, they have to land vertically in order to grow. The area was really pretty, the roots all grow in big, circular forms. There were a few different types of crabs that we saw, but even the biggest one was probably only the size of my palm. We went through an area where there was about a foot of water under the bridge and there were small fish with really long snouts swimming in it. Overall, it was a good trip!

Walking on the bridge to see mangroves.

 Our guide showing us a mangrove seed, I wasn't kidding when I said it was really long and thin.

 All the roots of the mangroves.

 Look for the fishies.

Two trees that started growing as one...in other words, they're now married.

We got back around 11:45 and we were ready for lunch. The car dropped us off at where we want to go for lunch; we decided we wanted some fresh fish so we went to Archipelago, where we went with the Italian dentists for dinner. Mary had told us that the fish there is fresh and they’ve brought tons of tourists there and they haven’t gotten sick. Mylene ordered the grilled kingfish with mango salsa, Chels ordered the vegetable coconut curry, and I got the bbq swordfish with an avocado salad. My swordfish was really really chewy, it was too dry and it tasted really peppery. I ate only about half cause I couldn’t eat it anymore. Mylene’s kingfish was good though and so was Chels’ curry, but it was too spicy for me. We definitely splurged for lunch today. The view at the restaurant was really nice though.

 Our view from our table at lunch, can't complain.

Swordfish and fries.

After lunch, we walked along the shore, it was really pretty. The water was clear and blue and it was a really sunny day. But Preston told us not to swim in the water because that’s where the sewage pipes lead out to…gross. We would have never known though just by looking at the water, and we felt bad for the tourists that were swimming in it cause there’s no way they would have known! We walked to a little café under an almond tree, looking out onto the ocean for fresh mango juice. It was sooo frigging good, it was nice and cold and soo sweet. Yumm, perfect way to top off our lunch.

 Our walk along the shore.

 Almond that fell from the tree at the cafe.

Best mango juice ever.

First picture of the three of us; greetings from Zanzibar, friends :)

We made our way home post-juice and all took naps cause we were tired from the day’s activities. I worked on my Ethics proposal for my Master’s research project a bit cause we need to hand it in to our supervisor by this weekend to go through reviewing. I had totally forgotten about it; being here feels so distant from all the school stuff, but it had to get done. Mylene and I ordered in pizza from the only place in town we know that delivers. The man walked pizza over to us on the wooden plate it gets cooked on and then called us half an hour later and asked if the plate was ready to be picked up again. Now THAT is service. We’ve also been making cucumber and tomato salads (we peel all the vegetables) to go with our dinners so that we get more vegetables in our diets. Today, we also added apples into the salad and it was good. For dessert I had an orange and an apple (I know, so healthy…what is going on…) and I was stuffed. Mylene and I tried to figure out what we would do for the last week were here since we don’t have to work that week and Chels will be gone on her safari. But it was hard to decide since what we do will depend on how much money we have left.

It was a holiday well spent. It’s just past 10pm now, I’ll probably go shower and read a little, then head to bed. I don’t know what’s going on with Kendwa tomorrow since we weren’t able to get a hotel room for a good price. So we’re gonna go to the beach in the morning (Matemwe, the one we were supposed to go last week), Mylene wants to go at 9am so early morning it is. But it’ll be worth it for the beach!