Day 62
Went on what I believe will be my last matatu ride. It did not disappoint. I was headed out to the forest so it was one of the pickup matatus; 15 adults, 2 kids and one chicken squished into the back with 5 people standing on the bumper outside holding onto the topper. Once to the village I hopped on a piki piki, aka motorcycle, for a very very fast but beautiful ride to the forest. The next day we went on a hike in the forest, well two hikes actually. One was up the hill, very original name. It is a giant hill above the forest that offers an amazing view of the entire area. Up there is an old mine shaft cave that is full of bats. We also hiked to the river where we had a picnic. It was just nice to be out in nature away from the crowds. When we got back we laid in the grass watching the monkeys in the trees.
One great thing about being in the forest is that you can bee outside at night; just right outside of the door but still, it is nice to see the stars. All of a sudden we here this crazy loud bellowing noise that doesn’t sound like a monkey. It turns out that it is a cow in cow jail. Cows are only allowed in the forest if the owners pay to graze them. If they don’t pay and they get caught the forest guards confiscate the cows and throw them into cow jail. There they stay without food or water until the owner shows up to buy them back from the rangers, money which they usually just pocket. Most of the time they don’t stay in cow jail for too long because someone else might come and claim them as their own as well as the fact that cows are very valuable so the owner really wants to get it back.
