Bonobos alongside Chimpanzees are mans' closest relatives. Whilst Chimpanzees are well known, Bonobos are not. Partly because they are only found in one country (the Democratic Republic of Congo) and partly because they were only discovered relatively recently.
Yesterday Adam collected our passports from the Embassy with our Visas. Over the Christmas break we are heading to the Congo in central Africa for a chance to interact and photograph these fantastic creatures. We are staying at the "Lola ya Bonobo" or "paradise for bonobos" which is a sanctuary whose aim is to protect the species by a variety of means. If you are interested, we recommend reading their excellent website. As well as paying for our lodgings, we have donated US$3,000 as a way of contributing to the work of this charity.
We are really looking forward to spending time with these wonderful relatives of ours! We will keep you posted - we are going to see whether we are able to update this blog whilst we are there so watch this space from December 26th. And as a travel tip, to get arund the one piece of hand luggage restriction at London airports, we have decided to take the train to Paris and fly from there.
Have a fabulous year end and holiday season everyone. Safe travel.
Julie and Adam
Bonobos - 7 December 2007
