Another ship’s tour.  Crazy, we know, but hey, it is basically free.  While we are waiting to be called to go we chat with Linda and then Pam and Bob, our Table #4 “thieves”. We are trying to remember when we have sailed together, but can’t come up with anything specific.  Pam thought it was actually on Prinsendam, but turns out it was another Ed and Cathy from North Carolina who had triplet grandsons.  Nope.  Not us!  Anyhow, we’ll figure it out one day!

Off we go on our Forest adventure, hopping into a little 18 passenger bus for the hour plus ride out to the park.  We pass the time alternately listening to the guide and watching the Tanzania world go by.

Once at the park, we hop out for our first stop – a walk through the protected forest.  This area became a conservation area in 1995 to encourage a new kind of conservation combining flora, fauna and people together to form a traditional forest of old.  On our way to the forest walk, we pass through a little exhibition center that has posters explaining the Red Colubus Monkey as well.  These monkeys are one of the rarest in Africa and only found in Zanzibar.  There is currently a population of about 5800 on the island, half of which can be found here in Jozani.  Because they have been isolated form the mainland for centuries, these monkeys are different from other species of Colobus monkeys in their coat pattern (crown of long white hair and russet red back), call and food habit.  We’re excited to see some – but Heri, our guide, has already told us this first stop is just for the forest – we’ll see the monkeys on our next stop.

And with that, we are off into the woods full of Mahogany trees, walking on lovely, maintained paths that apparently are quite extensive.  We could definitely see ourselves hiking here further – like on out to the Joshi Ruins that are ruins of a home of one of the settlers here – but that is not to be today.  We turn off onto a side trail that ends up bringing us back around the parking lot.

It is still a lovely gorgeous walk, full of beautiful forest scenes and a massive Strangler fig.

Back in the lot, we climb into the van, where a couple decide to take our seats…because they don’t want to sit in the back because the suspension is awful.  Um, hello?  Bus Protocol?  Bus Etiquette?  We tell them those are our seats and they get nasty saying we don’t have assigned seats.  Honestly, first trip?  So we dutifully move back 2 rows – because the row behind has a bag on the seat.  Now everyone is messed up, and our other van riders are also irritated with the rule breakers.  Then more come and take the seat in front of us that has another woman’s bag there saving it, and finally another woman gets on all pissed off she can’t sit up front and then curses on her way back to the back of the van. Geez Louise!

So, off we go, some of us very unhappily, to our next stop somebody’s house where there are monkeys.  Okie dokie!  Meanwhile, as we all figure out what is going on, the gal from yesterday’s tour who we thought was a pill, actually turns out to be quite nice and is railing about the people who stole the seats, as is our friend Faye who is sitting next to us.  Girls unite!  What a bunch of jerks those others are. 

Rant done!  So off we bushwhack to find the monkeys – and find them we did. OMG. They are so cute, especially the little one who just sits right there in the grass looking at us then going about his business, no matter how close we get.  He is adorable.  He even runs over and stands right next to one of the women on the tour.  So great.

We troop around this little field for a good 20 minutes following the monkeys, watching them hop from tree to tree and just do what monkeys do, completely unfazed that we are there.   

Look at those faces!!!  They are too unbelievably cute!

On the way back to the bus, we find a couple of Blue monkeys, which have long teeth, and Heri says are mean, eating a mango or something in the weeds.  The one with the fruit is carrying a baby on her stomach – you can see it’s little arms sticking up.

Our last stop of the day is a mangrove field where we walk through on a raised boardwalk.  A nice little picturesque stop in the forest. 

Back aboard the van – in our new “assigned” seats LOL – we sit back and relax for the hour-long ride back to the ship.  Then it is all aboard and sailing for Kenya with great views of the receding coast and the Dhows out in the sea and later the fishing boats on the horizon.