MONKEYS!

This sunday Vikram and Benji took me to some nature reserve places near the edge of town, including a gigantic banyon tree. If you've never seen a banyon tree before (there are some in the southeast US), they're awesome: They drop vine-like roots from their branches which eventually reach the ground and form new tree trunks. This banyon tree is the oldest on in the area, hundreds, possibly thousands of years old. It covers over an acre of land, and you can walk around WITHIN the tree itself. I've got some pictures, but they don't really convey how cool it is to be in amoung the tree.

We were walking around between the tree's trunks and all of a sudden I saw some movement on one of the branches: "Oh my god, there's a monkey over there!" Vikram and Benji were completely casual as they replied "Yes, there are quite a few around here." So I look around in some more of the branches and there were about a dozen monkeys all over the place, some only six or seven feet away from me. Monkeys. I mean, actual real live monkeys. Not in a zoo or on TV but right there. Some of them would come up right to my feet to grab food and paw at my shoe. Tiny adorable baby monkeys, too, hanging onto their mothers' backs. Monkeys. It was the most amazingly wonderful thing ever and my friends here were acting like it was just a few stray dogs, or something else cute but commonplace. They were actually pretty surprised when I explained that there were no wild monkeys in America, just in zoos.

If I lived here, I wouldn't be taking monkeys for granted. I would stop by the banyon tree every day after work to hang out with the monkeys. If I was going to read a book I'd read it with the monkeys. I'd buy a laptop so I could play videogames and write and do all my computer stuff chilling under the tree with the monkeys. It'd be the best part of every day.

Speaking of animals, there are cows in the street. These urban bovines (or as I like to call them "Cowz N tha Hood") are involved in brutal turf wars and eat garbage off the sidewalks. Okay, maybe just the garbage part. They're pretty badass cows, though. When traffic's moving slowly they walk right past your car close enough that you could reach out and pet them. Moo.