A Quiet Day Off...

I know it has been a long, long time since I have posted anything. My apologies. I do however thank you all for the well wishes for my Dad as well as the updates from my family. Since it has been a while since a post, I will share a whopper of a story. It may be long MF, but enjoy.

A few Saturdays ago, we had finished our work in Kigoma, Tanzania and had a day off. With our free time we chose to go to Gombe National Park to visit with Jane Goodall's chimpanzees. After a 3 hour boat ride with me sitting essentially on the motor, we arrived, paid our $100 and were given a tour guide (a second year student at a tourism school!). The chimpanzees hadn't been seen for a couple of days but we thought it would still be fun to trek and search the two mountains where they lived. After 20 minutes we came across two baboons who were obviously more than, 'just good friends'!! Then, out of sheer luck we got the radio news from the trackers that the chimps had been spotted. We had to move quickly as the chimps were making their way out of the reserve. Ascending the mountain was tiresome work, but after only 30 minutes of thrashing through some dense forest and brush, we were standing 10 yards away from 3 females chimps who were resting and picking bugs from each other's hair. There was also one baby chimp playing. Very cute indeed. The scene was surreal as we were so close you could see many similarities with human behavior. Amazing I say!

Two of us (Nick and I) then asked the guide's permission to move to another spot just to the left of the chimpanzees to watch from a different angle. We had an unobstructed view from about 7-8 yards! Incredible. After a few moments, the two of us looked over the lady chimps and noticed a big male chimp about a hundred yards in the distance, big enough to look like a small gorilla. He was slowly descending a path towards our fellow hikers on the other side of the ladies. We're not sure why but just then all heck broke loose! The females started screaming and running and branches were breaking all around as this alpha male came charging along the path .....SCREAMING! The place had literally gone ape sh_t. The chimp - we later learned was named Frodo - was bounding down the path right at the spot where the lady chimps were.

I knew something was wrong as this chimp was coming straight at Nick and me. With my adrenalin pumping i started to step away from the female chimps and face off with the chimp. Nick who had received training in Uganda reacted more properly - he looked down, covered his eyes (so missed the whole thing - sort of). At full speed the chimp jumped over our fellow hikers and jumped to the tree right in front of me where Nick stood. Frodo swung around the tree and hurled himself on Nick's back!(PAUSE IN STORY TO VISUALIZE)........At this stage of the story, understand that we I the middle of the Gombe National Park, a 3 hour boat ride from Kigoma, a small Tanzanian town with limited medical facilities and Nick has a 140lb crazy Alpha male chimpanzee screaming on back and me squared off like I would box it.We'll get back to what happened next in a moment but later I found out that this was the chimpanzee (Frodo) that in2002 had eaten a human.Luckily for us, especially Nick, Frodo jumped off screaming and ran away and up another tree. It was an intense 8 seconds. Nick (and all of us really) was lucky that Frodo didn't bite his ears or fingers or really kick or punch him. I was lucky because I didn't want to have to yank a chimp off of Nick's neck!But oh boy, WHAT AN EXPERIENCE!!!

After that intensity, we were lucky that we were able to follow the chimps (between 8-10 of them) for a few hours. Incredible nature. And luckily, Frodo wasn't around too much after the attack... If anyone is interested in learning more about Frodo, google "Frodo: The Alpha Male; By Allan Fallow." You will learn how he ruled "with an iron fist;" how In one four-year period, he alone eliminated an estimated 10 percent of the park's colobus-monkey population within his hunting range; and how Frodo jumped on Jane Goodall and thrashed her head so thoroughly that he nearly broke her neck resulting in her refusal to enter Frodo's territory without a pair of bodyguards along for protection.

Wow.

More posts to follow.

Miss you all,

Christiano

PS -- Happy Birthday Elsa!

PPS -- Welcome Home Dad!

PPPS -- Congratulations Mr. Zwirko! She is a lucky lady.