We were looking forward to the trek to the Golden Monkeys but it turned out to be little more than a stroll: less than one kilometer.
This is a farmer preparing his patch of earth for planting. We have not seen any farming machinery since we've been in Rwanda. But look at that GORGEOUS soil! As you can see in the background, this patch is on the shoulder of a volcano and where the lava isn't covering the earth too deep the soil is RICH!
The area is laced with drystack (mortarless) walls made of lava rock. This potato field will be ready for harvest in about a month, according to our guide.
This smiling Mama monkey was the first we encountered. You can see her baby's arms hugging her, but her arm is covering his head. He jumped off and went to eat some bamboo a few minutes later, but he wouldn't pose long enough for a good picture.
Anything good crawling around that golden coat?
This greedy thief has a potato with the stem still attached. He let me get within about 4 feet of him. He was very intent on his potato. Though the monkey's didn't seem afraid of the humans at all, none of them made any attempt to interact with us either. We had to wear masks, and leave our backpacks and water bottles back on the trail under guard. These are a highly endangered species and they were very protective.
I pulled down my mask for a second and snapped a selfie with the fellow sitting on the fence behind me. I held my breath while I had the mask down, too. But the tracker immediately told me to replace the mask.
I think this is a male and female. It's too early in the season for mating, but they were
very. . .frisky.
The permits to see the monkeys cost about $100 per person. Plus you must tip your porter about $11 to carry your backpack. (It's their only source of income, so though it was ludicrous to give him a backpack with two water bottles and a phone, we paid the fee. Then you have to tip the trackers, (we apparently needed 5 of them) . .. Then you tip the guide, So it ends up being about $120 per person.
We only got to spend an hour with the monkeys but that was plenty, really.
Was it worth it? ABSOLUTLEY! We LOVED IT!
We decided to squeeze in a trip to see the Golden Monkeys when our kids come to visit us, even though it's on the opposite side of the country from the Safari park (Akagera, a MUST SEE). We also decided it would be worth it to go see the Mountain Gorillas after all at some point while we're here in Rwanda. With our residents cards it will cost us $500. For tourists, it's triple that.
And we want to climb the volcano that has the lake in its crater, too, which is also a guided adventure and often includes awesome wildlife sightings.
Next time: Our visit to the Gorilla Guardians village was not what we expected.
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