Even cooler than lions

Last week was a busy one - presenting on my project for the RHSP management, coordinating surveys and interviews, entering data, and observing the MC trainees conducting circumcision surgeries (lucky me, I was standing right next to the surgeon for a particularly long and messy procedure.  I lasted an hour before I had to leave the room - which was longer than the surgical assistant made it.)  And all of that happened in three days, because we had big plans (4 days worth, in fact) for the weekend...

On Thursday, we got an early start on the drive to the Rwandan border near Kisoro.  There are two things you can always count on when driving with Abu: 1. You will listen to primarily slow jams from 1997, and 2. Your speed will rarely drop below double the posted speed limit.  So we made good time and stopped for lunch in Kabale at the Little Ritz.

Also in Kabale, I bought the best shirt ever.  

We continued the drive to the border, around hairpin turns on the edge of mountains, with Abu still maintaining a consistently illegal speed.  We were rewarded with this view of Lake Bunyonyi.

Shortly afterward, the drive became more exciting when the road turned into a construction zone.  The narrow mountain road was in the process of being widened, which meant that we got to experience:

1. Several moments of being unclear where the road actually was, since all we could see were bulldozers and piles of dirt, followed by...

2. Speed bumps, every ten feet, for several miles, followed by

3. Watching a bulldozer directly uphill from us create an avalanche in our direction, followed by

4. Clinging to each other in the back seat while the car skidded around a curve about three feet from the edge of a gravel road with no guardrail on the side of a mountain; subsequently requesting that Abu slow down a little. 

Finally, we made it to the border at Cyanika, where we said goodbye to Abu and joined the locals crossing the border on foot.

It was market day in the nearby town of Kisoro, so there were a lot of interesting imports and exports happening.  Mostly on people's heads. 

We experienced a surprisingly friendly border crossing into Rwanda (who ever heard of customs officials being nice?) and met up with the transport we'd arranged on the other side.

After driving another half hour to the town of Ruhengeri, we settled into our hotel for a cold Primus beer, dinner, and an early bedtime, since we would be up the next day at 4:45 am for.... GORILLA TREKKING!!

The mountain gorillas living in the Virunga mountains on the borders of Uganda, Rwanda, and the DRC are a critically endangered species - as of January 2011, there were only 786 left in the world, although their numbers are increasing through conservation efforts.  Visiting them requires the purchase of a permit (expensive, but proceeds go to conservation), and only a limited number of permits are sold per year.  We were apparently very lucky that some cancellations allowed us to book just six weeks in advance to visit the gorillas in Parc National des Volcans.  

With the sunrise and the mountains in the distance, we drove to the park headquarters, which were soon crowded with white people wearing what looked like the entire inventory of Eastern Mountain Sports.  

One final picture together, then Megan headed off to climb Mt. Bisoke, while Elizabeth, Leigh and I joined five other people and several guides - one carrying an AK-47 - to go find the Hirwa gorilla family.

We started off through potato fields towards the mountain.

Photo by Elizabeth

I was ready to take on basically anything with my awesome hiking stick.  

After the potato fields came mossy ground and eucalyptus trees - the air here smelled like eucalyptus. 

Then we hiked through a bamboo forest....

Then came brambles and thick vegetation, which our guide cleared with a machete as we went.

AND THEN GORILLAS!  My first glimpse was this baby climbing onto its mother's back and riding away.  I was surprised by how furry and fluffy they look.  

We got to spend an hour watching them.  The zoom on my new camera is amazing, but we were so close I barely needed it. 

Photo by Elizabeth

Photo by Elizabeth

IT WAS AMAZING.  

At the park headquarters, we had been told that we should stay 7 meters away from the gorillas.  The gorillas, however, clearly didn't respect this rule.  This one came wandering through our group while we were all looking the other way.  I turned around to find him coming down the hill straight towards me, and as he went by he reached out and TOUCHED MY LEG!!  A GORILLA TOUCHED ME!! AHHH!  

I should add that while we were looking at the gorillas, this is what the gorillas were seeing.  

The pants-tucked-into-hiking-socks look from QENP had to make a comeback mid-hike when I realized that there were literally ants in my pants.  

And with that lovely image, I will leave you.  

Next:  Photos of Kigali and the rest of our time in Rwanda.