You heard right,
We saw tons of them at this sacred forest in Osogbo. You don't see monkeys anywhere else in Nigeria. I've been here for two years now and this is the first time that I've ever seen any in Nigeria. They were all eating and relaxing everywhere, and the people that worked there were just walking by them like nothing. Unlike in zoos, these monkeys are allowed to go wherever they want! Crazy, right? Some are just lounging around, eating fruits from a bag and nobody blinks an eye. Except us. Of course. The reason why there were so many of them everywhere is because they're considered sacred in that forest so you better not kill them, or you might find yourself in your own funeral too soon. And there were so many shrines there. We went on a trail, and on it were all of these beautiful clay statues, and they twisted and turned and melded with each other. There are a few cottages, too that were like the statues except house version. And there was this super creepy suspension bridge that looked like it was about to fall at any second. We went over it, cuz it was the only way to cross a river. The river is actually the centerpiece of the whole place, as it's the sacred river that one of the Yoruba Goddesses is the spirit of. So there were a lot of offerings of food in front of the statues near the river, to the goddess. I can't remember her name right now, but I'll edit this post when I figure it out. Like I was saying, we went on a small forest trail, but it was a pretty short one. The reason is because even though there's a lot of space dedicated to the forest, it's around the river, not in the forests themselves. And we took a trail that went a little into the forest and ended there. We almost walked into somebody's farmland before we realized!
Signing off,
The Traveler
We saw tons of them at this sacred forest in Osogbo. You don't see monkeys anywhere else in Nigeria. I've been here for two years now and this is the first time that I've ever seen any in Nigeria. They were all eating and relaxing everywhere, and the people that worked there were just walking by them like nothing. Unlike in zoos, these monkeys are allowed to go wherever they want! Crazy, right? Some are just lounging around, eating fruits from a bag and nobody blinks an eye. Except us. Of course. The reason why there were so many of them everywhere is because they're considered sacred in that forest so you better not kill them, or you might find yourself in your own funeral too soon. And there were so many shrines there. We went on a trail, and on it were all of these beautiful clay statues, and they twisted and turned and melded with each other. There are a few cottages, too that were like the statues except house version. And there was this super creepy suspension bridge that looked like it was about to fall at any second. We went over it, cuz it was the only way to cross a river. The river is actually the centerpiece of the whole place, as it's the sacred river that one of the Yoruba Goddesses is the spirit of. So there were a lot of offerings of food in front of the statues near the river, to the goddess. I can't remember her name right now, but I'll edit this post when I figure it out. Like I was saying, we went on a small forest trail, but it was a pretty short one. The reason is because even though there's a lot of space dedicated to the forest, it's around the river, not in the forests themselves. And we took a trail that went a little into the forest and ended there. We almost walked into somebody's farmland before we realized!
Signing off,
The Traveler
