Dali Lodge Day 2

Today (Monday) was primarily a primate day.  We started the day with a morning “swamp walk” at Biloxi Swamp Preserve.  The preserve is know for a diversity of monkeys and birds.  Our group of nine split into two subgroups: one interested in birding as well as monkeys (that would be us) and the other having general interest.  We ended the morning with 35 bird sighting (we heard more) and three different species of monkeys, including the red-tailed guenon below.

For lunch we visited a local farm for a cultural exchange.  The food was all locally grown and very fresh including the beef — the steer was killed at six that morning.  After lunch we went on a chimpanzee trek.  This was quite adventurous.  Many times we left the trails to get to areas where the chimpanzees were located.  Some of the paths we took were made by forest elephant.  We saw many chimp, most up in the trees, but we also saw a few on the ground. We saw babies, young ones, moms and other adults — playing, sleeping, eating, just living their lives as if these odd bipeds with cameras clicking weren’t right there.