Thursday, December 27

There is a nature reserve attached to our hotel. The reserve takes in orphan orangutans and helps rehabilitate them. The orangutans are fed every day at 10am and 2pm. We signed up for the 2pm feeding. The reserve is in the jungle so you have to douse yourself in bug spray and wear long pants. It was such a hot day today, too. I’m not sure what the temp was, but I know the heat index was about 100 degrees. The walk wasn’t too long, about 10 minutes, up a few sets of stairs.

We waited and waited, but the orangutans never showed up for the feeding. We kept getting our hopes up when we would hear rustling in the trees, but the ranger told us that that was just monkeys. The ranger told us that if the orangutans didn’t come that he would get the baby orangutans from the nursery. I wasn’t too bothered by the orangutans never showing up because the babies were sooooooo cute!

They ate and played and were so much fun to watch. Eventually, the Macaque monkeys made their way closer and closer to the feeding platform. The ranger stepped away for a minute and the monkeys took advantage and swept in to steal some food. The baby orangutans were terrified and one ran off. When the ranger brought him back, he was clinging to his leg. The ranger couldn’t get him to let go. He would try to get him to hang on the ropes and the orangutan went right back to climbing up the ranger and clinging his arms around his neck.

The whole experience was really great and we are so happy we did it. This vacation has been incredible and I’m sad that the end is quickly approaching.

Photo credits go to Dave. Didn’t he do a good job?