Island Life, or Those Pesky Wild Monkeys

Living on a sparsely inhabited island for a week allowed for a number of encounters with nature (Goulet!). There were goats, jellyfish, snakes, lizards, dolphins (I saw a pod of 8 or 9 swim by with the late afternoon sun in the background- it was awesome), and possibly mongooses and wild boar. When we asked our hostess about animals on the island, she said they had wild monkeys.

Early Easter morning, Taylor and I got up and walked in what we hoped was an easterly direction to see the sunrise. We walked and climbed and tried to keep our direction consistent. After about 45 minutes, the sun was clearly up, but the clouds were too thick to tell exactly where. On our walk back through thick, high shrubbery we turned a corner and were greeted by a big, furry, brown…donkey. We’d just been discussing bears, so it was a bit of a relief. Taylor introduced herself and talked to our new friend for a minute or two, but he didn’t budge. Eventually we went around him and continued home.

Sometimes Croatians mix up donkeys and monkeys.