Once we got to the town of Bukit Lawang, we had to get across the river to the ecolodge... woohoo!! The bridge looks sturdy, but it was still swing-y. (We thought of memere.) The lodge itself was fine.. mostly clean, lots of friendly neighborhood bugs to keep us company, but we had mosquito nets, so that made it all okay. There was the fact of it being an ECOlodge, so everything was processed/used/recycled.. which is great. Well, except that I think our rooms were near the manure/compost pit, so we really experienced the nature smells and sounds. But we also really enjoyed all of the sights:
The big deal about this trip is that Jaffa and Eben slept in a room all by themselves for two nights!! They were just next door to us, and so at bedtime, we would kiss them good night, then Jaffa would lock the door, get in her bed and tuck in the net. She had my phone, so she would call us once she and Eben were done reading to let us know that they were going to sleep. It was very, very sweet. They are such big kids now!!!
Saturday was our day to hike in the jungle: Leuser Mountain National Park. Sunny and two of his guys took us on 6 hours of great hiking in primal forest. They were fun and helpful, and brought enough fruit for us and all of the primates whose paths we [deliberately] crossed.
We met this family on the way in. They were making chopsticks from bamboo to sell.
We bumped into all kinds of creatures too: Thomas Leaf monkeys..
..a poisonous green mamba.. which apparently jumps up to 50 feet, so we were happy that he was looking the other direction.
very large ants
Sunny and his crew made us queen and king of the jungle hats,
and we all took turns wearing them
There were lots and lots of very thick vines for swinging..
And lots of thrones for the royalty
We got very lucky.. we saw orangutans, which, come to find out that the ones from Sumatra are quite different from those in Kalimantan. They are smaller and their faces are thinner.
We didn't run into any bears, but their claw marks showed they were climbing around!
Termites, which are a tasty-high protein treat for orangutans.. Zeric agreed.
...and so did she! She had a mound in her hand and was banging on it to get the termites out. She also had some sugar cane on reserve in her foot/hand for later.
We found him a bit later. He is also a fan of sugar cane.
Then we bumped into more Thomas Leaf monkeys, their mohawks are just fabulous!!!
They were very sweet and fun and naughty. I almost got peed on! (And then I looked at pictures of the on the internet, and they have some HUGE canine teeth.. watch out!!)
..and then we found this BUG.. she was very soft and seemingly gentle
(we didn't see her canines either)
To get back to the ecolodge, we had to cross the river..
.. and stop for a beer.
It was a fantastic adventure! We were so lucky to have such great guides, and to have seen so many wonderful things. Sadly, there is still a huge issue with illegal logging in the national park, and it's just heart-breaking to think that all of what we saw might not be there in a few decades. Of course it's about people needing to feed their children, but there must be alternatives..
