Last Friday, all 20 of us and our program coordinator, Werner, and his assistant, Liezel, embarked on an adventure to Cape Town with some stops along the way. Our first stop was Cape Point (the Cape of Good Hope), where there’s a short hike before getting to a lighthouse from which there are beautiful views of the ocean and surrounding mountains. On the way up, we saw signs saying “Do not feed baboons,” but we were shocked to see baboons hanging around right on the trail! Of course none of us blatantly fed the baboons, but little did I know, there was a left over granola bar wrapper in my backpack. I turned around to take a photo, and before I knew it, I felt a baboon grab onto my backpack! I quickly decided to take off my backpack and retreat to safety, and everyone gathered around to watch the baboon go through my books, purse, scarf, headphones, etc., the whole time laughing at how this was actually happening.
Me watching helplessly as the baboon deconstructed my backpack
In the meantime, the baboon’s mate and baby joined in, searching for any scraps of food (despite there being none), and eventually, we called up a ranger to scare them away. As soon as they ran away, everyone in our group helped me gather my baboon-scavenged things and we went on our way, warning people on the way down to get rid of all their trash!
We continued on the rest of the day to Boulders Beach to visit some penguins, none of which (luckily) stole any backpacks from any of us. This was a *small* reminder of the wildlife surrounding us here and the amazing things that happen here that would never happen back home!
The perpetrator
What? No baboons in Chicago?