Day 12 - Day 11 of tour Woke up early since we had an early start that day and it was still dark. Ezio and I used the buddy system to walk to the toilet in case of hippos after receiving the warning from the day before. The toilet was on the opposite end of the campsite, and we could her some loud munching and snorting sounds as we approached the toilet. We shone our headlamp to look around and we saw a hippo about 50 feet away. It stopped eating, looked at us, and we quickly redirected the headlamp. I absolutely refused to walk any closer to the hippo and no longer had any desire to use the toilet...bushes in the dark are good enough! Luckily, I had my "whiz freedom" with me. Midway through, ... read more

Day 10 - Day 9 of tour We hired a taxi to drive a few of us to town (Kabale) in the morning, and we wandered around the town, visited a few shop, accessed the internet, and bought coffee...Happy day! The town is a pretty typical African town, with a few supermarkets, and shops for locals (clothing, cell phones, etc). We then drove to the market located several blocks away. There were sections for produce vendors, butchers, and miscellaneous items. The meat was not refrigerated, and was hanging on meat hooks and you could see flies all around...it didn't bother me so much but Ezio did not care for the smell at all! While we were walking through the meat section, a man stepped out in front of me and in my personal space. He asked ... read more

Day 8 - Day 7 of tour While the rest of the group visited the gorillas, six of us visited a non-profit organization for underpriviledged children (Little Angels - http://www.littleangelsuganda.org/). We sat in a classroom as the teacher ran through some exercises but we were more of a disruption since all of the kids wanted us to sit by them or hold their hands. There were about 45 kids in each classroom and each one of them competing for our attention. After deciding that sitting with them wasn't working, since they stopped paying attention to the teacher, I went to the front and started (trying) to sing along, and follow the teacher. Then the recess bell was rung and we went outside to a small yard. Two small children grabbed each of Ezio's hands and led ... read more

Day 6 - Day 5 of tour We decided to go Chimpanzee tracking along the forested Kyambara Gorge while the others went on a game drive. While we were hiking the guide stopped near some ants to warn us that there were ants around and to watch out because they bite. Well...stopping where there are ants to tell the tourists to watch out for ants is not the best idea, since that gave the ants a great opportunity to crawl up our legs. As geeky as it may look, I had tucked my pants into my socks (as I had read this in Last Chance To See by Douglas Adams - thanks Douglas!) Unfortunately, Ezio was wearing sandals, and he got a couple fire ant bites. BTW, they move fast, and you have to keep your ... read more

Day 4 - Day 3 of tour Left Eldoret early to cross the Kenya-Uganda border to Kampala. The border crossing had a huge line up of trucks, and it can take them a few days to clear customs! At the border crossing, I chatted with Isaac (you can call me Jackson), a teenage boy selling pop and snacks. He loves football, and his favorite team is Arsenal. He goes to school, and would like to one day become a doctor and engineer. I sincerely hope he has an opportunity to. After asking me once whether I would like to buy something, and I said that I was not interested, he no longer asked and he was sincerely interested in chatting and just talking. He did not ask anything further from me than the initial time. We ... read more