"Monkeys with no tails are chimpanzees!"

On a very exciting Thursday morning we headed up into the mountains above Freetown to visit Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary.

Both Daniel and Ilanay couldn’t keep their eyes off the chimps and Danial lapped up all the information Moses, the tour guide, provided, including how to differentiate between a monkey and a chimpanzee.

The sanctuary is on 100 acres of beautiful rainforest that is the 17k hectare National Park. They were established over 20 years ago to rehabilitate confiscated, orphaned and abandoned chimpanzees with the aim to release them back into their natural habitat. It cares for about 75 chimpanzees in several forested enclosures and run tours every morning. Hunting, killing and trading chimpanzees is unfortunately still practiced in Sierra Leone.

Food is coming!

Chop Time

AJ getting comfortable 

The chimps have a tendency to hurl stones and rocks at visitors so there was netting at sections of the viewing points. The kids found it so exciting when the chimps came up with a stone in hand and they were ushered behind the net by staff. Daniel claims a stone hit his forehead, but I think it’s an embellishment that’ll help him always remember this experience.

We headed further into the forest to see the chimps that are in the largest, most natural enclosure.

Ilanay spent the rest of the day doing chimp noises and Daniel re-told all the information he'd aquired to everyone he met! Every experience here is magnified in brilliance by seeing it through the eyes of our children.