All the Boy wanted out of this trip was to sit on the ground and have the lemurs flock around him and snuggle.   After the wild kangaroo hunt of Australia, I had little doubt he would find a way to make that a reality…and then we started our lemur hikes.  Lemurs live very high up in trees.   And very far away from “civilization”.  We were already 2 kilometers into the rainforest before we spotted any friends.   And the rainforest is wet, and full of steep hills that have mudslides.   It wasn’t looking hot.   The Boy persisted however, cooing away at the Dancing Sifakas and Black and White Raffia to entice them down lower.   He may have even hidden away a banana from his picnic lunch to use as a future bribe.  [Ed. note: they really do live far up in the trees – at least the rainforest versions do.] But then our local guide Morris started imparting some wisdom on us…the big lemurs we are finding are basically tree camels.  They don’t drink water, which means they never need to come down from the trees – they get water from eating lots of leaves.   They can jump 10 meters from branch to branch to travel along the evergreens and find more leaves and fruit to eat.   Short of climbing a tree himself, it might be a lost dream…and the rainforest trees are skinnier than my leg, I’m not sure if they would make for a pleasant climb… [Ed. note: I did scope out a few trees that would’ve been good candidates…]

Enter Lemur Island.   Yes, it sounds like a tourist trap, and yes, it probably is, but we are tourists after all so we have to embrace some parts of it!  [Ed. note: They are wild lemurs, just human-habituated. Some were captured to be pets, then confiscated by the government (lemurs sadly cannot be pets). It’s the only place in Madagascar that lets you interact with the lemurs!]

We were lucky enough to be the first there and our guide filled his pockets with bananas and plopped us in the canoe.   About 30 seconds later we got out of the canoe on shore of the first island…and the guide started to whistle.  Three brown lemur came scurrying down the tree and one leapt onto the boy’s shoulder.   The initial photo shows a look of uncertainty and discomfort, but they both quickly warmed up to one another (and the guide put some banana in the Boy’s hands) bringing on the next 30 minutes of bucket list joy.  [Ed. note: they love being cuddly! They are so soft!!!]

I was taking photos as fast as my finger could click the shutter and just prayed they were in focus while a second and third lemur climbed up on his head…and then I screamed. There was a lemur on my back…my shoulder…oh, now my head!   Nobody warned me that the cuddly lemurs Boy dreamed of wouldn’t be able to distinguish between a willing participant or otherwise.  Suddenly the guide is putting banana on my hat…my irreplaceable hat from Port Lockroy in Antarctica is now a serving dish for some muddy primates.  And not just a serving platter, but a table and chair and what have you, they are going to town with their feast.  

It was a general win for the trip, as the Boy has once more a photo of himself cuddling an animal with a look of pure adoration I have never seen directed toward me, but I once saw with a tiger cub he was bottle feeding.   I will, however, shed a tear or two when I have to go home and burn my priceless hat…