Saturday, May 16

We woke well before dawn Saturday morning and headed to the visitor center, where we met our guides and learned about the gorilla group we would be visiting. There are 5 groups that receive tourist visitors, and no more than 8 people can go to see one at any time. The name of our group was Umubano; it was made up of 10 gorillas, including one 2 week old baby. It was also the furthest group from the center, which we learned as we limped along the roughest, bumpiest one hour drive I have ever seen. In retrospect I'm pretty amazed nobody was injured by colliding heads or slamming against the windows.

Once we stumbled out of our jeep we had a 40 minute walk through some local farmland until we reached the 'Buffalo Wall', the wall separating the park from the surrounding land. We were met by two soldiers with fully automatic weapons who are supposedly needed to protect us from any buffalo or elephants that might charge us (I can't help but suspect their presence also has a little bit to do with our proximity to the DRC and Uganda). From the wall we walked another 20 minutes before we met our trackers, the men who had been following our gorillas all day and directing our guides via radio.

We set all our things down and forged our way forward. I was the first person behind our guide, and I'll never forget turning a corner to see a baby gorilla rolling around on the ground before climbing up into the trees. As we walked around the area the gorillas had nested in we realized that all of them were actually up in the trees. We tried to get as good a view as possible as we dodged falling branches and gorilla pies, but they were really high up there. Luckily after 30 minutes or so we were led to a clearing where the mother was eating with her 2 week old baby – so young it wasn't even able to walk yet, it just clung onto its mother's side wherever she went.

More gorillas kept coming, and eventually we were pretty much surrounded by them. We were supposed to stay at least 7 meters away at all times, but the average was more like 3. The closest encounter, however, came when the silverback (the male leader of the group) decided to come and check us out. Our guide informed us he was approaching, so I started to film him walking. He was huge – about 3 times the size of me. As I was filming I realized that the path he was walking along actually intersected my path right where I was standing. I looked over at our guide, who seemed to realize the same thing and said “maybe you should back up a little.” I would have, but there was an entire line of people standing behind me trying to get a good view, so it didn't really work out. Instead, boss gorilla kind of lumbered his way by about 4 feet away from me. I could have bent over and touched him, or he could have turned and punched my leg into 500 pieces.

It was awesome.

The whole experience was awesome really. So cool to see an animal as rare and impressive as a mountain gorilla in its natural environment. Their human-ness was pretty crazy – some of their gestures and actions struck me as something I would do on a normal basis.

When we finally got back into town (about 3 hours after our other group), we ate lunch and set off for Gisenyi, a city on the western border of Rwanda. Gisenyi is a border city (with DRC) and a lake town, and our hotel happens to be lakeside property. 'Lake', in this instance, should not be confused with the Iowa definition of lake – Lake Kivu is pretty huge. If it wasn't for the giant mountains just across on the Congo side of the lake I don't think we'd be able to see the other side from our hotel.

About our hotel... If you know me very well you know that the beach is my happy place.
Yes, our hotel is on its own beach.
Yes, we have tiki style huts and reclining chairs on it.
Yes, the hotel bar/restaurant is an indoor/outdoor thing that sits on a point.
Yes, we stay in little bungalow rooms.
Yes, we were welcomed to the hotel with a traditional Rwanda dance.
Yes, I fell asleep to the sound of surf.

I love it.