L'Hoest's Monkey

After our Chimpanzee adventure we headed to the park offices to drop off our local guide and avail ourselves of the restrooms and small snack bar (I had a soda).

These monkeys apparently had the same idea.

And whereas we had to pay for our snacks, they found them for free.

In special receptacles set up at the park (this fellow is sitting on one).

So while it is verboten to feed the animals, one can discard food in the rubbish bins, and thus indirectly feed them. Bringing them in for excellent photo ops.

Not that we would do such at thing (but only because we didn't think of it at the time; besides, we had given away all of our extra food to the villagers where we began our chimp trek).

Bananas are clearly a favorite.

But any fruit would do.

While we watched they came down one hill, across the highway through the park, and then over to the park office area.

We spotted one. And then another. And then another. One by one they made their way across.

They kept coming and coming. Up the hill to where we were waiting with cameras in hand.

They were wary but not afraid of us. And if we weren't vigilant they would have been in our luggage.

Note the two plastic bags in the back window. These were the only two plastic bags we would see in Rwanda, and we brought them in. Plastic bags are banned. And this is one of the main reasons Rwanda is such a clean country. We saw very little trash anywhere. Contrast this with Kenya where there was trash everywhere. Rwanda has a culture of cleanliness. And it shows.

But they were easily chased away. Our encounter was a nice way to end our time in Nyungwe National Park. We all agreed that it would have been nice to have another day here. But we were off to the Mara ...