Monkeys and other animals that climb

Having spent two weeks as a tourist in Senegal, I've become accustomed to this pace of life. So this week I did two interesting things. On Sunday Roni and I decided to go to the zoo! We had been discussing a visit for some time. But on a whim we decided that Sunday was the day. Roni told Rivka, the professor in the lab, and after making a phone call, she arranged free entrance and a private guided tour by the zoo's zoologist, who is a former student in the lab. We saw some really great animals, including the tiny and wrinkly naked mole rat, giraffes, a tiger, elephants (my new favorite - sorry Richard Parker), zebras, several monkey species, adax, oryx, fallow deer, gazelle, and the only bird of note, the kea, a bird that has a propensity for putting holes in cars. In New Zealand, Roni's car was victim of a kea. Not to worry, she didn't exact her revenge at the zoo.



Arguably more exciting was my first attempt to wall climb last night. Roni is an experienced wall climber and she was nice enough to "show me the ropes". We went to Jerusalem's only indoor climbing complex, which is in a large soccer stadium. Needless to say, it's not easy to climb a 30 foot wall, let alone with widely spaced foot wells and hand grips. How did I do? Roni said that I did better than most beginners, but she's also an exceedingly nice person. The truth is that I suck. My arms turned into wet noodles after about 10 minutes. But this experience has given me incentive to improve. It was lots of fun and I think it will be even more fun when I'm not flailing my limbs, cheating by using the 'readily accessible colours' and giving up before I get to the top. But my ego is less damaged than you would think. Though there aren't any horses in this sport, I'm ready to get back on the proverbial horse.