I think we can all agree that the unrelenting demand to see Susa and only Susa was a poor life choice. [Ed. note: I do not agree. Susa gorillas were super-cool.]  We tortured ourselves for 6 hours and the Boy has a badly bruised hip as thanks from the Silverback. [Ed. note: day 2 bruise hurt more.]  Plus, all the pain medicine necessary to even make it up the mountain was making the boy feel very ill.   I had basically decided that the Golden Monkeys were going to play on without us the next day…and said as much out loud around the local guide.  What I failed to say was that I still intended to pay for our Golden Monkey permits as that money is important to the conservation and support of the village.   So our local guide gets in the car and starts selling how easy the monkey hike is, 20 minutes, not uphill, etc, etc.  This eases the mind of the Boy and he tells me we have to go, we’ve come all this way to see them. [Ed. note: damn right. I’m not about to let a little frozen life saving medicine, a bad back, and a bruised hip stop my primate tour de force! Onward!]  Fine, I can do an hour tomorrow, but I’m going to have a long nap and a large beer now and a very nice massage at the first place we’re staying in Madagascar that has a spa…or running water and electricity for more than 3 hours a day…

We met our group for the Golden Monkeys and it seemed that luck was in our favor.   For their gorilla trek 2 days prior, they walked 20 minutes through the farmland, then entered the bamboo forest for about 9 steps and look, there is the gorilla family!  They got to spend the same hour as us with 13 gorillas and they were home before lunch! Considering we had a flight at 7 pm at an airport four hours  drive away in Kigali, home for a shower, nap, and lunch before the drive sounded perfect.  Let’s go!

As before, we hired a porter for our small bag and trekked behind the group into the farmland.  This section of the park was just beside our lodge so we really could be home early.  We got to the edge of the bamboo forest and our guide said we needed to wait a moment as he had not heard from the trackers yet about where the monkeys were playing.   No problem, we chatted with our Australian friends about each other’s travels and our gorilla experience…and after 10 minutes passed in the cool, damp jungle with no word, the guide suggested we go back out into the farmland to wait in the sun.  During this thirty minute wait, we joked that our monkey group was missing and they were just waiting out the other half of the tourists who saw the monkeys first to finish their hour…

The guide finally said let’s go and we headed into the bamboo again and turned left…up the hills, down the mud pits, tripping over vines and through ant piles.   We weren’t going deep into the forest [Ed. note: define “deep”. We were still trekking up and down muddy bamboo hills.], but rather horizontal to the farmland across…again, highly suspect that this is the same monkey family the first group just found.  When we finally came upon them, they were wonderful!  Jumping limb to limb, hanging from their curled tail. Like Susa the day before, they gathered in a clearing so we could see them without obstruction of the trees and leaves. Our guide even took a cellphone video of two monkeys grooming each other and I always know I’m seeing something special when the guides who do this daily start taking photos.  

As we were preparing to leave, we headed back into the forest and found another playful group.  There were 10 small monkeys horsing around, literally swinging on a vine and wrestling. [Ed. note: monkeys acting like monkeys!]  The Boy had been away from me during this section, so afterwards I was telling  him that it looked like a daycare and then he showed me what he was so intently observing at that time: two monkeys getting it on. Confirmation that we had stumbled upon the rebellious teenage babysitters existing across the species…

Our porters had snuck across the forest while we played with the monkeys and were just near the nursery school as we wrapped up with all our stuff.   The guide said we were taking a shortcut…and 4 minutes of walking later we were in the farmland.   Yes, our “easy” and short day of hiking turned into double the walk from one planned monkey group to cutting across the muddy bamboo forest and waiting almost an hour in the sun to share a monkey group with the others.   But at least the Boy got to watch some monkey sex!