Advertisement
Published: October 6th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Kigali
Kigali from the memorial center... First, I would just like to say that prior to my trip to Rwanda, I would have said that Africa has been my favourite continent. The sheer number of different sites (e.g. the dunes in Namibia, Vic Falls, all the game drives, Usambara mountains, and Zanzibar), the extremely friendly people (for the most part) and the variety of experiences (the inflation in Zimbabwe, the isolation of northern mozambique, malaria and Kin House) have been hard to beat. It may be because I have not travelled in so long but I would have to say that Rwanda, and the mountain gorillas was definately icing on the cake.
On friday morning Liam (the man who hooked me up with the water filter) and I set out to Kigali. For not having been on a bus, or long journey (jas and jord would laugh) the eight hour bus ride went rather well: there were no problems, the boarder crossing went smoothly, and they even showed passenger 57 after some horrible Jesus music video. After six hours on the Ugandan side we crossed into Rwanda, and the differences were almost immediate. First, the boarder guard, while also able to speak English could speak French
Tea
I figure this cup of tea cost me about $100 USD and so I had a brief conversation in French. Canadians do not have to pay for a visa (I don't know when the last time that happened), and they drive on the ride hand side of the road (finally a country with some sense). In Kigali, the roads are wider and there are fewer matatus (shared taxis) meaning that there is WAY less congestion. Furthermore, the boda-bodas actually have helmets for their passengers (problems with head lice aside). AFter checking into a hotel, which there seem to be far fewer of good value anyway, we headed out for a taste of the nightlife. Basically if I had to describe the difference between the nightlife in Kigali to that of Kampala I would say that Kigali is like wine (quiet, relaxed) whereas
Kampala is like beer (rowdy!).
Saturday, our plans to change hotels were dashed by our hangovers and the fact that we slept until 2 o'clock. When we finally did get up we set out to find the Genocide Memorial Center which is home to a mass grave and museum covering the genocide that occured in 1994. I felt a little awkward asking the taxi guy to take us
Volcano
One of the volcano peaks that surround Ruhengeri. There is some fantastic hiking in this region to be done. there, but when we finally did arrive, my hang over and drunkeness quickly dissipated. The museum actually does a good job of covering the history prior to the genocide, what happened during the genocide (although I have no other sources of information) and briefly describes some of the other genocides that have occured in our history. While going through the different stages, I could not help but feel many of the same feelings of disappointed, shock and disgust with what we are capable of, that I did whilst visiting the Dachau in Germany. The part that almost made it unbearable and that would bring tears to anyone's eyes was the room with blown up pictures of children on the walls with descriptions of who they were, what they liked eating, what their favourite game was, and how they were either raped then shot, shot, thrown into pits, ran over, hacked to death with machetes (most).....At first I thought, wow I can't believe they had cameras that good back then. Then I realized that 'back then' was only 12 years ago. From that point on I could not help but wonder how old people were when the genocide occured, what they
Bananas
Cost = 75 cents. Man I love 3rd world countries. All hopes of feeding these to the gorillas were dashed by the stupid regulations... have seen, or even what they did.
Leaving that behind us, we took a two hour bus ride through the extremely green and forested mountains to Ruhengeri where Monday morning with the sun shining brightly we were finally able to take in the awesome scenery: five volcanoes that form a sort of cul-de-sac around the town. It was quite something and built up high hopes for our gorilla trek.
Early Monday morning, after our cup of tea, Liam and I were placed, after specifically requesting the see the largest family, with 6 others: 4 from Calgary, 1 from Coquitlam and 1 from 70 mile house. Small World! The lady from coquitlam was in her 60s and hte lady from 70 mile house in her 70s. We said we would go at a slow pace, but in the back of my mind I figured that if it meant seeing the gorillas or not we would ditch their asses and run. After all, they had seen a different family the previous day.
After an hour drive to the parking spot, we set off on a nice leisurely hike through the plants that they grow to make insecticide with two
Rwanda
Rwandan countryside guides porters for the 6 Canadians, and three armed guards in case we came across poachers. I was really hoping that there would be some kind of gun battle in addition to our gorilla visit, but alas it was not to be. They wouldn't let me use a gun to protect either. Apparently they don't know that I've been doing it for some time now. Anyway after an hour we came to the rock wall that has been built to keep buffalo from pissing off farmers. Here, the guide told us that the advanced guides had found the gorilllas and that they were only 50 minutes away. After trekking through bamboo forest and then more dense forest (following the trail of the gorillas), before I knew it, we were stopping to drop our bags and prepare for the gorilla visit.
Amazing Experience!!! The first two gorillas that we stumbled upon were cold-hard busted having sex. Apparently only the head silverback is allowed to have sex with the females which would explain why these two were so far away from the rest of the group. While there were 37 in total in the family, I have no idea how many
Food
Sampling what the gorillas eat...tastes like celery. we saw, but we did see the head hauncho just lying down taking a nap (I think North American girls with boyfriends or husbands should do something for them cause quite frankly when compared to the rest of the world, African and Central American Men, and South American Men, and the animal world of lions and gorillas, you guys have it easy) with kids running around and playing and other gorillas having fights here and there. We also managed to see the twins that were newly born, although there is no way I could say they were twins and the rest weren't. Apparently it has something to do with the nose. Anyway it was simply an awesome experience and while I could have spent the entire day with them we only had an hour so as not to upset them. On our way back I could not help but think that these gorillas were far more advanced than humans; they almost have no care in the world, they eat all day, play, rest, have sex, rest some more, eat some more and live till 40 or 50. Not a bad life, especially when one thinks of the darker side of
Gorillas
Some of the many gorillas that we witnessed just hanging out.. humans.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.341s; Tpl: 0.022s; cc: 14; qc: 72; dbt: 0.2809s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 3;
; mem: 1.2mb
dad
non-member comment
you made it !!
Ryan, glad to see you made it. sounds like the trip was well worth it. and thanks for the birthday wishes