New Places to Explore!

Over two weeks ago, our family made a fun discovery in the area - a little nature preserve complete with rescued and rehabilitating orangutans!  We knew such a place existed, but we didn't know it was open to the public - and it only is open on Sundays and holidays...we happened to show up on a day that was a holiday!  Admission is totally free, though, and they have a little hut with windows for viewing the orangutans playing in two huge cages.  You  can just take a seat and observe their antics to your heart's content.

We were able to get pretty close but we had to look through a dirty tinted glass so pictures didn't turn out great.  These animals are so docile and human-like.  At one point, one of the orangutans must have been able to see us through the glass and it plopped down, rested its chin on its arms and just watched us like we were watching it!

This center is the same one that eventually releases rescued orangutans on islands upriver for a sort of trial run before they are completely released in the wild.  We were able to see lots of those orangutans with my parents in January on our little boat trip.  They say they have rescued more than 500 orangutans plus countless other creatures.  We weren't allowed to tour very much of the area as they are pretty protective of the animals since they hope to send them back into the wild but we did catch a glimpse of an adorable sun bear.  Anyway, it was a wonderful opportunity for the girls - our animal lover Madison especially - to see these animals and learn about how they are rescued.

They also had a lot of fun boardwalks to follow and explore some of the surrounding jungle, though Sean and I were never quite sure if we were supposed to be out there!  Oh well, nobody yelled at us so we had fun with it!  We all came home with multiple mosquito bites...next time we'll take our bug spray because we will most definitely be going back.