Sunday, June 21, 2009

gorillas in the mist...

It's been a couple of days since my last update, and about a thousand things have happened, so this may be a long one, get ready...

Friday morning, Mandy and I left the house at 6:15 to go to Kinigi which is where the volcano parks/gorillas are. We weren't sure if they would be able to fit us in or not, so we got there and talked to the head guy and had to drop a few names :) and wait. After about an hour, he put us in a group only to take us out and make us wait about 20 more minutes! Finally, we paid and got our permits and were able to join our group and get ready to go. There were 6 others in our group, mostly people our age, and a guide/porter (someone who helps cut branches, etc. out of the way), and 2 armed guards (scary, huh?). We had a driver who took us on some very rocky roads about 20 minutes up. When we got there, around 8:00, we hiked about an hour through some farming areas. About 10 minutes into the hike, I stepped in about a foot of mud and was covered almost to my knees...isn't that a great way to start?! We finally got to the wall to cross into the volcano state park around 9:00. (A little background to gorilla trekking...2 trackers go out that morning and look for the gorillas and radio the guide to tell him where to take us, the whole trip usually takes around 4 hours). When we got to the wall, our guide told us we would see gorillas in about an hour. 4 HOURS LATER, we finally got to where they were! And let me just say, this is a hike through very treacherous terrain...none of you will actually believe I did it until you see the pictures! At 1:00, we saw our first silverback. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. We were literally 10 feet away from this huge gorilla! We got to spend one hour watching the family, and one even walked right in between us, I could have reached out and touched him. There were 4 or 5 babies, rolling around and climbing on the momma's backs. We took about a thousand pictures, and one hour was not enough time to watch! We had to leave around 2:00 and hike back almost 2 hours. Our trip lasted 7 hours, and the next morning I could barely walk! I will have lots of pictures, but I can't post them right now because the internet isn't great, but I can't wait to show everyone!

Yesterday, we went to Kwita Iniza, the baby gorilla naming ceremony. It is a really big deal in Rwanda, and there were thousands of people there. It lasted until about 3:00 and last night, we had dinner for about 15 people at the house. It was very interesting to see a Rwandan ceremony with native singers and dancers...quite an experience!

More to come, but my computer is dying right now! 
Happy Father's Day!!!! Love you and miss you all,
jess

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