Rwanda, mountains, gorillas.

 This place is ridiculous. So incredibly beautiful. The fog in the morning is thick and undulates as the sun tries to burn it away in the morning. Chris and I had a little dance party last night, they do a lot of jumping.

The tea here is standard black tea (grown locally, of course) boiled with milk, sugar, and a ton of ginger. It's really soothing and warming. 

We gathered in the morning to go trek to see the gorillas! We chose a longer hike. Our guides chose the family we would visit and is in radio contact with the armed guard each gorilla family gets. The guards live and sleep near the gorillas; someone is protecting them from poachers at all times. 

We were briefed on how to make submissive gorilla sounds and to stay 6m  away at all times, doused with bug spray and set up for the hike. The drive through the village at the bottom of the mountain was like going back in time. The children all run out to wave as you go by, the men are smiling. The adult women seemed less happy to see us, likely because these damn jeeps rip through the village throwing dust on the crops and endangering children and animals...

This was the kind of village I wanted to see though. It was outside of capitalism, if that makes sense. The houses were mud and thatch, the soccer balls were made of woven grass. Plastic wan't really here and that is such a beautiful thing to see, Rwanda keeps it very, very clean. The whole country adopted a tribal practice wherein the last Saturday of every month every person over 18 must clean up or improve infrastructure in some way. It seems to foster a better sense of community, pride, and again, the place was pristine.

After a hike that was a little over an hour up the mountain to the very edge of the Congo, we found the Isimbe family, consisting of a silverback and about 14 more mothers and juveniles. We were allowed one hour to watch them. I cried like baby for a bit, it was pretty overwhelming. We were so close and they were just playing and resting and eating and carrying on as normal.

At one point a toddler broke a branch loudly and freaked out the silverback who immediately jumped up and zeroed in on us. I get the training now.. it was tempting to run, but we all hunkered down and grunted friend until he calmed. Damn he was big. A curious toddler came near and stared into my eyes for a few minutes.. pretty amazing. The masks are to protect the gorillas from dirty tourist germs.

August 5 part 2, Kampala, Uganda / Rwanda

 Cari and I hopped in the van so the guys could do the crazy streets of Kampala in a downpour with crazy traffic and no rules and many cops and goats and trucks without the extra baggage. I'm glad we did. On arrival at the hotel the riders were exhausted, excited, and very happy to be alive. If they described it as hairy, I would  have used much stronger terminology. We cleaned up and headed to the roof of our hotel for dinner; a completely empty (except for the 11 of us) revolving restaurant over the city in the midst of an epic thunderstorm. 

A good sleep (though short) to get ready for the ride to Lake Bunyoni.  Leaving Kampala was.. doable. 

Bright and early and ready to shine. Escaping the city and a shorter ride (or it would have been if the roads were.. well, roads) we take a turn and end up in switchbacks up a mountain on the most ridiculous trail I've ever seen. It was incredibly bumpy and dusty , families with small children on the mountain edge mining rocks together, schoolchildren walking everywhere in their uniforms. I wish I had more photos of this but I was hanging on for dear life. We got the the lodge after a harrowing day, quite high up the mountain. The rooms were rustic and beautiful, and the view.. My God.

Chris and I went for a swim (props to our illustrious leader for thinking to ask first about Crocs, hippos and penis fish) and rejoined the crew for a great dinner and more than a few bevvys.

Next morning was time to leave Uganda. Sore asses in the seat and down the bumpy, rocky mountain, we left behind the cities for a very different experience.

Made it to the border of Rwanda , so cool watching the land change to mountains and clean air and mist. The border crossing was uneventful aside from one of the folks not getting an exit stamp and having to go back and get it. If you don't, when you leave the next country, they make you go all the way back to this crossing on a very short timeline to get the stamp, so it could have been a pain in the ass if it wasn't caught. Apparently the border guards went through every bag in the van and carefully inspected the ladies' underthings, lol.

I really loved this lodge. So did mosquitoes.