Monkeyland, Dominican Republic

The water felt a little choppy, but the ride to quay was pretty uneventful landing us on a beautiful resort area with neat restaurants, massive yachts in the marina and a band playing traditional (or perhaps just stereotypical) Caribbean music. There was no time to look around, as we were soon on a bus passing through towns of single-story corrugated metal buildings and overtaking scooters carrying families of 6, a sharp contrast to the opulence of the marina. It took about an hour for the bus to cross the flat region around Punta Cana and begin climbing the solitary mountain covered in rainforest where we would find the Squirrel Monkeys.

After a quick briefing (repeating what we had already been told on the bus) it was time to step through the disinfectant ‘sheep dip’ and meet the squirrel monkeys. We all lined up around the edge of paved area among the trees and in turn we were handed bowls of chopped fruit and vegetables - the monkeys swarmed over us to get the food, climbing on heads, arms, shoulders and wherever else they could get purchase. They ran along the entire line of tourists, and sensation of dozens of paws stepping on us as they dashed along was an extremely strange but wonderful experience.

Once the swarm had abated we followed the short series of paths to its end at a wide area that looked out over the valley, being careful not to step on the monkeys’ tails as we went. The monkeys were infuriatingly uncooperative when it came to having their picture taken, but that didn’t stop everyone from trying, soon though it was time to head back. Dan ended up engaged in conversation with another passenger about the roles of HM the Queen, the House of Lords and the House of Commons in the British system of government; Alex made the only rational response to this and fell asleep.Read more