Hindong Caves and Monkeys

October 13, 2012

See the monkey?

Mark and Isaiah leading the way

Alex, Anita, Mark, Raney, Cheryl, Isaiah and I went for an outing to the Hindang Caves where there are wild monkeys. We used the family's 4WD SUV for the trip. It’s about four miles from here; the last mile up a steep rocky road.We took a picnic lunch and hiked up to the first cave area where there was a gorgeous view and a place to eat our food.

Looking out to the Camotes Sea

Wacky pose!

Mark, Anita, Alex, Isaiah, Renay and Cheryl

 

There’s a zip line going from the top of the mountain over the jungle ravine to the other side. We saw a couple of people go and it looked like fun but I was too chicken to try it. Maybe next time.

 

We hiked up further where the rock formations in the middle of the jungle are amazing and there are many caves. But the closer I got the thicker the mosquitoes got and I was swarmed.

You can't see them but the mosquitos are thick

There was no way I was going into the caves where they must have been fierce. The repellant seemed to do no good what so ever. We came down to an area where caretakers make monkey calls into the jungle. First one monkey came and then another.

He came charging at my camera and scared the crap out of me.

 

We’d brought bananas, cut up papaya and cookie crackers. The monkeys are tamed enough to grab the food out of your hand or if the food is thrown they’re great at catching. After an hour we had about 25 monkeys including moms carrying their babies on their stomachs, big males with beards, juveniles and several very young and playful ones.

This is so cool

 

Three babies are playiing

 

Sometimes they didn’t seem to like my little bright green camera and would scare me by charging at me. I think they thought it was food and got mad at me for not feeding it to them.

 

 

It was an amazing experience and the only time I’ve ever been in the presence of monkeys in the wild, except for the time in Singapore when I was 15 and one jumped on the hood of our car. At first I thought it had a coconut in its hand and then realized it was a huge tumor. That's an image that sticks with a person or at least it has stuck with me.