The country is very well organized, with clean cities, organized transport, and a general sense of safety. It is pretty amazing to think how far it has come in such a relatively short amount of time.
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Bright and early the next morning was our gorilla trek. To go on the trek involves a lot of planning since you have to buy permits in advance and they only sell a limited number for each day - thus they are super expensive - over $400 each and that was significantly reduced for us since we are East Africa residents. We chalked it up to a once in a lifetime experience and that the money goes directly to help maintain the environmental conditions for the gorillas.
Before the trek we were treated to a great drum and dance performance:
On the way to the trail head we came across these guys building a house by hand.
They were still sawing away after our trek!
The countryside was gorgeous - green everywhere, flowers along the road, crops growing in the fields, tall volcanoes close as can be.
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and friendly, waving people all over:
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We had heard from friends that the hike to the gorillas could be pretty intense - straight up steep hillsides, through thick jungle overgrowth, with driving rain. As it turns out, within 10 minutes of exiting our vehicles - there they were - right on the edge of the forest and farmland. It was surreal. But it turned out these were not 'our' gorillas. We were assigned to visit another family/group and the group we had come across were for another group of trekkers - so up the mountain we went. The hike was not so bad though, it was all on an established trail and after about 40 minutes we came to our group - named the Ugenda group.
What an amazing sight and experience to see these wild animals in their environment.
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look at those feet! |
Here's a video of us hanging with them, I got kind of charged at once or twice - the guide said they just wanted to play, but I got out of there darn quick. Stay tuned for the end of the video for a random shot of Rhonda on a motorcycle taxi...
On our way back to Kigali, we came across this guy and this crazy home-made bike/scooter thing.
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