Day 1: Monkeying around

We went straight from the airport to Frank and Maxine's apartment. They rent a cute little guest house in the back of a family's home. We were able to take a quick shower and have a delicious breakfast before we headed out for the days activities.

The keys to Frank and Maxine's apartment. Aren't they so awesome?!?!

Maxine had a delicious breakfast casserole waiting for us when we got there.

They have pictures of their grandkids and that their grandkids drew all over their place. I love it!

First stop was Lesedi Village, where we got a small taste of traditional African Culture. We went on a tour and learned a little about the different tribes of South Africa. The tour ended with some pretty spectacular dancing.

Starting our tour

You can rent a hut for the night in the little make-shift villages. Kind of a cool idea.

Tim learning a tribal handshake

This "warrior" had his game face on for our picture....that or we were totally putting him out by taking a picture with him...

Heading in to a little hut. Mind you head!

The men got to sit on chairs and the woman had to sit on the floor, apparently that was a cultural thing too. While we were inside the villagers sang us a little song in clickish. It was pretty fantastic.

Tim tried a little bug of some sort. He said it was pretty nasty.

Our cute, very energetic tour guide.

How could we not take a picture of all these Asian woman who were laughing and having a good time while taking pictures. They were also taking pictures with little white babies....been there.

There was some pretty great dancing with lots of high kicks (seriously they really did a lot of high kicks) in scantily clad outfits.

This guy was pretty happy to take a picture with us :)

Next up, the monkey sanctuary. This was so AWESOME!!! The sanctuary is home to monkeys that were originally raised as pets or bred for the pet trade. So, many of the monkeys are not afraid of people and there are a few who were even trained to pick-pocket in their former living situation and so they try to take advantage of the people visiting the sanctuary. It's pretty entertaining. Squirrel monkeys, capuchin monkeys (think Marcel on Friends), spider monkeys and lemurs all reside in the sanctuary and we were able to see all of them. Have I mentioned that growing up monkeys and apes were my favorite animals?? This was seriously an awesome experience.

Getting ready to check Tim's pocket

Thumb sucking pose for the camera.

Eye poke. The monkeys REALLY like Frank!

This guy spent some time looking through his hair for goodies. At one point he picked a piece of dry skin from Franks face and ate it. We were all laughing pretty hard.

I swear this is a look of excitement, even though it looks like a smile covering terror.

A few of the monkeys had pretty new little babies that were hanging onto their backs. So cute!!

It was feeding time so a lot of the monkey's were busy collecting some food. Do you see the little baby in this picture?

A little monkey fight. And the one with the water bottle was having a pretty good time.

Tale pulling

Our tour guide was a very patient, very nice guy! This was a super awesome swinging bridge that we crossed. The entire sanctuary was really beautiful full of awesome trails and beautiful trees.

Lemur!! There were three different species of lemurs in the sanctuary and we spotted all three of them.

This monkey climbed through the key hole of this girls shirt who was on our same tour. We were dying with laughter.

Monkeys tails are pretty strong. For a brief moment I thought he might strangle me ;)

Nice little set-up on the side of the road. I'm pretty sure you could find something very similar is certain parts of the US.

We ended the day at Carnivor's, a delicious restaurant, where we were able to try all different types of "game meats" including some other usual meats. It was so fun to try some South African foods.

Posing with some of the statues.

What a nerd

It's a good thing I found myself a nerd

The restaurant was actually really big and decorated very cool.

A look at the menu

The guys that walked around with the meat wore those awesome hats!

Selfie

Trying crocodile, it was actually pretty good

A traditional African dessert. Some sort of cake with custard on top.

Fortunately we were both so pooped from not very good sleep on the airplane and a full day of sites that we both zonked out pretty good when we got back to Frank and Maxine's place. It was such a great first day to an unforgettable trip!