Primates in the Park

After visiting a crocodile farm, a giraffe center and a baby elephant sanctuary, on a Sunday back in April in Kenya, when our driver Samson said we were going to last go to the monkey park, I thought it would be another organized zoo-type place. We pulled up to the City Park and still I thought there was going to be various monkeys all behind bars somewhere in that park.

Wrong.

On the drive, there, Samson stopped and purchased bags of peanuts from a street vendor. I didn’t think much of it; maybe he was taking them home to his kids, until he started handing them out to us in the parking lot of the park. I still wasn’t thinking much of it – was I just exhausted by then or just overwhelmed by seeing all these animals all day?  

We walked into the park and within just a few moments, Sykes monkeys began cautiously approaching on the ground and jumping through the trees. As soon as they realized we had nuts on us, they went nuts, begging and stealing as much as they could. 

 Samson showed us how to do it. 

Most of the females were mommas with babies clinging to them. 

 At first Rachel wanted nothing to do with the monkeys, but she warmed up to them after a while.

 Everyone else took their turn as monkeys jumped on their shoulders and snatched whatever they could. 

 Kenzie was probably the most enamored with the little primates. 

 After already enduring more than my share of accidents on this trip, I really didn’t want to risk having one of them scratch my arm wide open or give me rabies. Instead I let this little mommy stay on the ground and eat gently from my fingers.