Last Thursday we decided to go to a park near Apeldoorn, The Netherlands, called “Apenheul“. Literally, this means “Monkeyhill”, but I like to refer to it as Monkeyland. Before I continue and tell you about the monkeys, I’d like to direct your attention to the pictures above.
Yes, it is what it looks like. I ate grasshoppers. Since they were fried they mostly tasted like… fried stuff, but I have to say it wasn’t bad. For €4.- we got a portion of about 6 grasshoppers so I suppose they’re supposed to be eaten as a delicacy. I expected a lot more and when I saw the plate with just 6 grasshoppers I felt disappointed and relieved at the same time, as you can imagine.
Time for some monkeys now. I went to the park with Tsvety, my girlfriend, and Petar, a Bulgarian student and friend of mine who lives here in The Netherlands.
One of the first types of monkeys we came across is this beauty at the left. The monkeys in this park are not in cages, but instead have their own areas or, if they’re dangerous (like gorillas), their own island. So most of the monkeys you see can be just a meter away from you (3 feet), or less!
On the Monkeyland map they write down the feeding times, which is a particularly special time to go and have a look. You’re not allowed to touch or play with the monkeys, because they want them to be as ‘wild’ as possible instead of them being used to human contact. Yet the most fascinating time to see them is when they’re in contact with people.
This doesn’t go for all the monkeys though. They have a group of bonobo apes, which are, I believe, the lifeform that’s closest to human beings and watching them is just fascinating. They are so man-like in their behaviour and movements. It’s almost like it’s people dressed up as apes.
I think we as human beings are very arrogant to think we are much more than these apes. Go to this park and have a look at the human behaviour in there. We act like animals, pushing each other to be able to see more, cutting in line at the food places, mimicking our fellow Earthlings. 😀
I’d like to leave you with some more ‘family pictures’. Enjoy!
And finally our decapitated delicassy 😉
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