Animals are cooler in Africa

On Saturday we went to the Reserve de Bandia Sanctuaire, about two hours from Dakar. If I could have taken a souvenir, I would have pocketed a giraffe.

 Want to ride a camel for an hour? Only $20...
I'm not really an animal person (I can only just handle my very sedentary household cat), but I definitely was one this Saturday. The wind in the truck was warm, and smelled so sweet (which is surprising, considering this was like a zoo) I could have driven around for hours.


Here are some monkeys in the famous Baobab tree. The Baobab tree has fruit - Pain de Seigne (which I had heard as monkey breath when translated a few weeks ago... of course "pain" means bread...so that was a less than intelligent mistake) - which look like they have been attached one at a time. You know the Christmas ornamental spheres some families hang in their trees outside? These fruits looked like that, hanging down from a branch by a string.
I was also surprised by the lack of boundaries that were enforced. Apparently it's accetable to sit on the animals we came to see.  Buona, one of the staff at SIT, took the first seat. Of course we each the took turns.