Mountain Gorillas

When we were in Rwinkwavu, I couldn't figure out how that part of the country could be considered "flat." But within only a few minutes of leaving Kigali on Sunday morning and driving north, what had only a day earlier seemed like giant mountains felt like rolling hills. As we drove through hairpin turn after hairpin turn, the city seemed to fall beneath us. Amazingly, no matter how steep (or verticle) the hill, every inch seemed to be farmed with bananas, irish potatoes, sorghum, and even tea. Kigali is the only really metropolitain area in Rwanda, and while it contains about a million people, that only makes up 10% of the population. The other 90% live in rural towns and villages. Sunday's plan was to visit the town of Butaro on Lake Burera. We spent an hour of driving northwards on paved roads, then two hours of driving on unpaved mountain roads, that despite their rural-ness seemed to be lined by an endless stream of people walking, carrying any variety of objects on their heads, or riding motorcylces and even the now illegal wooden bicycle (due to the fact they have no brakes). Eventually we reached the hospital at Butaro where we met a number of Kate's colleagues, as well as some friends we had stayed with from Kigali who drove up in their own car. We spent the rest of the morning hiking in the beautiful hills, where were finally able to catch a glimpse of Lake Burera.


The PIH staff at Butaro were so excited that they had a number of people an cars, because it meant the chance to bring their new inflatable Kayak down to the lake for a spin. While it took a while to get down the mountains to the water, it was well worth it for the relaxing afternoon on the beach, and the view we had out over Lake Burera. The PIH staff even decided to take a dip in the middle of the lake from the Kayak, as schistosomiasis apparently lives only at the lakes edges, leaving the middles safe for swimming. While the hot weather made it tempting, I had no interest in taking the risk of having microrganisms dig into my skin, lay their eggs in my blood stream and eventualy grow into worms in my stomach and liver! Ok. On to the pretty picture now...


After having a lovely afternoon, we once again climbed up the mountain (via car) to the Virunga Lodge, for a very fancy dinner and cocktails, before heading to Ruhengeri for the night in order to see the Gorillas in the morning.

I have spent that past two days trying to figure out how exactly to blog about gorillas. I honestly can't come up with words to describe them with. After 2 hours of hiking through stinging nettles and bamboo bush, we were able to hear the cracking and moving of these enormous and amazing creatures. I can't really describe what it felt like to be just feet away from them. Awe, honestly a little fear, amusement - some of the things they do are just so human. I especially loved it when the babies would just roll down hills or start climbing around branches only to accidently break them, then look up as if embarassed.


So tomorrow morning at 6am we will be leaving Rwanda for Tanzania. I do not know when or if I will ever be back here, but the 5 days I have spent in this country have been beautiful, and seem to be just enough to come to love it while still feeling that there is so much left to see and do and learn.