Monkey business....

Today Dominic and I went to a park called City Park. We hooked up with a super nice cab driver Maharan who said he didn't have anything else to do so he was our tour guide at the park. I guess b/c the park is located so close to the "slum" area (the word he used) he was a bit concerned for us. Anyways, the park was full of monkeys...hundreds of them. They are so used to people they come right up to you. They're also little thieves!!! I brought a couple of bananas and I peeled one(like monkeys don't know how to peel bananas) and one snatched it right out of my hands when I wasn't expecting. The poor little ones were only left sucking the peel. Dominic was getting a bit freaked out so I gave Maharan the other banana. He was giving out little pieces at a time when a big monkey out of no where came a flew in front of him snatching it out of his hands. Then there was a monkey in front of me that watched me take the bananas out of my backpack. When I went to pick up my backpack from the ground he bumped into me from behind and almost knocked me over so he could take off with my backpack. How rude!!! No more bananas for him. We were surrounded by monkeys because they call all of their friends. There were also a couple of kids who were feeding them peanuts and the monkeys were sitting on their shoulders. Apparently they are quite friendly and used to people but I wasn’t brave enough to do that.

The park is surrounded by what they call forest…I would refer to it more as jungle. The trees and vegetation was so tropical and wild looking. We went for a 2 hour hike. Maharan talked almost the whole time about his culture and family which I enjoyed very much. Dominic loved the ride in the sling and decided to have his morning nap. As we walked we saw a bunch of children with a lady breaking down branches for firewood. By the looks of them they were very poor and from the “slums”. We saw a lot of nearby shacks that bordered the park. I also saw many people (a lot of older women) coming back from the market with huge bags of vegetables, fruit and rice being carried on their backs. It was at least a couple of kilometers back to their homes. I am reminded yet again how blessed we really are!

Maharan then took me to the market which carried loads of every type of fruit and vegetable you could possibly imagine. I wish I could load my suitcase full of mangos… I love mangos! It was fun walking around the market with the locals. Everyone was very friendly. They couldn’t understand why we don’t grow bananas, pineapples and mangos???