Back in Freetown, while this is a nice hotel with stunning views, it is very isolated on its hilltop. I tried to break free by having the hotel arrange a hired car to visit the chimpanzee sanctuary in the national forest on the edge of town. The sanctuary was started in the late 80's after a couple bought a sick baby chimpanzee at a rural market and realized that killing mother chimps and selling their babies as pets was a thing. It is illegal to own a chimp and the sanctuary rescues any chimps they find out about. Or the chimp grows up and the owner no longer wants to keep them. And angry adult chimp has about 5x the strength of a human. There are about 75 chimps in captivity in several family groups. They can't be returned to the wild because the spent their lives with humans - some spoiled by sleeping in beds, eating human food and watching movies. There are several stages to introducing a chimp to a clan. They are quarantined for disease, have to be taught how to climb and be a chimp in a group. Based on their personality the handlers determine which family group they should join. And they are the animal most genetically a like to humans. There was once a break-out where 31 escaped. 27 returned on their own or were caught. It would be humorous except a taxi driver on the premises was killed by a group of them.
The epilogue to this outing is apparently I was supposed to pay the hotel or driver only in cash. Reminiscent of my departure from Arusha, long story short, after attempts at 4 different atms, I told the hotel/driver I would get them the cash on Monday when both my office and the banks would be open to sort it out.
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