We started off our trip by flying from Amsterdam to Lagos. Stayed the night in Lagos. We got up in the morning and went to the beach. This was definitely Mason's favorite part of the trip, and he asked to go back again for the whole rest of the trip.
The next day, we flew to the capital of Nigeria, Abuja, so that we could start the next part of our journey which was to see the Yankari National Park. From the airport in Abuja, we squeezed into a car. In the backseat was Efe, Maro, me, and Mason on someone's lap the whole time. And, no air conditioning! We were trying not to be whiny Americans. When we first got in, Maro asked her dad to see if we could turn on the A/C, as we were all dripping with sweat. The car didn't have A/C and he responded "Welcome to Nigeria!". Haha! It took us over 6 hours to get to the park, but we stopped to get gas and to eat some lunch.It was definitely worth the sweaty drive! The park was amazingly gorgeous. We were only staying there for one night, so Efe, Mason and I got up at 6am to walk down to the hot springs that were running just behind the resort. We were the only ones there and it was so peaceful and beautiful. The water was the clearest and cleanest natural water I have ever seen, a wonderful bright blue-green color, and it had absolutely no odor.
It was actually cold that morning, probably around 55-60 degrees, which was the only time it felt cold the entire trip. So, it felt great to get into the water. It was so warm, and you could see steam rising from the top. The average temp of the hot spring is around 31 degrees Celsius, so it was about 88 degrees Fahrenheit. Very nice!
We were enjoying our peaceful swim when we noticed a couple baboons. If you look to the right on the photo below, you can see the first one sitting and staring at us. We didn't know how smart they were though. After a while, we saw some run around to the other side of us. Once they were in place, they all started coming towards us at the same time. They wanted our belongings and were looking for food! I grabbed my camera case and held it in the water, as I was guessing I would have more of an advantage over them if I were in the water. They kept approaching closer. Efe finally got out of the water and started flashing the flashlight at them and yelling at them to go away. Most of the fled, except for one who was obviously the dominant male of the group. He didn't look amused and I was wondering if he was going to challenge Efe. But, as Efe kept yelling, he finally ran off. The baboons all ran off toward the resort.After they were gone, we saw a herd of wild boars go past us towards the resort. We realized later that they all go up to the resort to look for food in the early mornings before the tourists wake up. Walking back to our room, we saw one baboon steal a bucket from the back on someone's truck and run off with it. The man jumped out of the truck and chased him, but wasn't fast enough. Once the baboon realized there wasn't anything good inside, he dropped it.
Next, we went on a safari through the jungle. We saw several species of monkeys and some antelope. We were hoping to see elephants, as the park has the highest elephant population in West Africa, but all we saw were a ton of huge mounds of elephant poop.
We stopped during the safari to explore these caves in the middle of the jungle. They were built 8000 years ago, initially to live in. They were used again during the slave trade to hide the slave refugees.
After the safari, we made the drive back to Abuja to spend the night. On the way back, our car broke down when we hit a huge pothole. When we made it back to Abuja, we pretty much had dinner and went to bed. We had planned to drive to Benin City the following day, but we were tired of driving and decided to head to the airport and fly to Benin. I will continue with our trip to Benin later :)
