Rwanda

We took a quick flight from Arusha to Kigali, Rwanda, not on a private plane this time, but we did get pop and snacks. We spent a few fairly uneventful days in the pretty city of Kigali where we managed to book permits to see the gorillas - we were told that they were the last permits until August, but we heard the same thing about two seperate dates so I'm not sure how true it was. We also visited the incredibly moving Kigali Memorial Centre which commemorates the genocide that occured in 1994. It was very beautifully done, emotionally moving and as shocking as it needed to be.

Rwanda is also one of the few places in the world where you can trek chimpanzees, however after looking into it, it would prove to be a bit of a mission to get to the park where they are occasionally found. It also would be very expesive, and of course there are never any guarantees that you will see them. Also, as the permits for the gorilla trekking were a whooping $500 (US) each, we felt we'd already invested enough cash in the pursuit of the heirsuit. Sorry you chimps, but as you aren't as endangered as your larger cousins, you aren't the primate of choice at the moment.

After Kigali we headed down to Huye, mostly because we had a few extra days on our hands waiting for our gorilla day and also because we wanted to see the ethnographic museum there. The museum did not disappoint! We had a great time noodling around the exhibits, including a life-sized traditional house that you could walk inside. We even caught a glimpse of the Intore dancers and got to listen to their incredible drumming, especially beautiful because it was an outdoor performance and the beat was echoing off the trees behind them.

We headed to Musanze, jumping off point for the Parc National des Volcans, the Rwandan home of the gorillas. The town was an okay place to spend a few days but the real highlight was obviously the beasts themselves. The morning of our trek we got assigned to a medium sized group, Hirwa, with about 12 members that were a 'medium' walking distance. The hike was incredible - we went up through farms and eucalyptus plantations into the forest behind that was rich with bamboo making it as dark as the evening when you were in the thick of it. It was also unfortunately rich in stinging nettles and I'm very glad we both had reasonable hiking pants, I would not have wanted to do the walk in flip flops and shorts (though a few people in other groups were!). After walking for about 90 minutes, the trackers asked us to leave our bags and they hacked a hole through the bamboo. We walked through it and 'le voila' - a mother gorilla grooming a baby about 1.5 meters away. It was incredible. There was also the family silverback lounging with a few adolencent males about 2 meters away and another mother with a playful baby about 5 meters away. The whole thing was unnerving but incredible. We spent the next hour following the family as they meandered through the forest, getting to watch them feed on bamboo, play fight and roll down hills, and watch the silverback look absolutely magnificent and huge and occasionally lost in contemplation. It was fabulous.