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Journal
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Friday, December 29, 2006 Jambo from the Masai Mara! After a brief layover in Nairobi (during which we had a picture-perfect visit to the Kenya Wildlife Service and got to play with two 5 year old cheetahs - more on that when we get home) we arrived in the Mara at 4pm on Wednesday afternoon. We were greeted by our guide Samuel, who absolutely rocks! The Serena Land Rovers are very roomy, and have open tops and sides which make for great viewing. The highlights of our first game drive Wednesday evening were cheetah and rhino. It's all a blur, but we've been in the middle of a herd of 15 elephants (including a 4 week old baby!), seen several cheetah families - one with FIVE cubs, one with three, and one hunting a marsh omngoose, and just got back from watching a lion drama where two giant males chased off two juvenile male intruders and then returned to the two lionesses with four cubs. Yesterday after the game drive we were surprised with a bush breakfast beside the Mara River complete with resident hippos and crocodiles. Even though the Mara is really the northern part of the Serengeti (which we visited last December) it seems entirely different. It has been unseasonably rainy, so everything is lush and green, which means no dust. We have two more game drives before heading out tomorrow, and then it's a long haul back to Chicago.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006 We're back in Kigali now after an utterly amazing day. We were joking that after our experience visiting the Amohoro group, today was really "gravy", but today was even better! We were assigned to the Sabinyo group and our guide was Francois. The Sabinyo group is famous for having the largest silverback, and Francois has been with the park service for 26 years and is known to be the best (he was Bill Gates' guide when he was here in July). We were psyched. The drive to the departure point was much shorter, and without the muddy bumpy part which is always a plus. We hired a porter and headed off through the farmers fields past goats, huts, and waving children. We reached the national park border in about a half hour where we climbed a rock wall and headed into dense bamboo and eucalyptus. It was just as muddy as yesterday, but knowing that there were boot washers back at the lodge we really didn't care. There were 7 in our group and it took us about an hour to reach the "drop your bags" point. Along the way, Francois pointed out not only the types of food that the gorillas eat, but exactly how they eat them :) As we readied our cameras, we could hear noises coming from the dense bamboo forest ahead of us, but we couldn't see any gorillas yet. Francois and the trackers hacked a path into the forest and a few minutes later we were standing a few feet from a MASSIVE (450 pound) silverback as he sat and ate bamboo. Meanwhile, babies and subadults sat nearby and in the canopy over our heads. Again, we could smell their pungent aroma and hear their...flatulence. Bamboo makes you quite gassy apparently. In addition to Kinyarwando, Swahili, English, French, and who knows what else, Francois speaks fluent gorilla. He interacted with them continuously to reassure them that we were not a threat. At one point, something spooked the silverback and he let out this wild howl and charged sideways. A little while later, his girth caused the bamboo canopy he was resting in to give way and he tumbled backwards into the path that we'd used to reach them. We thought the experience was over, but oh no. Francois gathered us and we followed them through the bamboo forrest! They eventually came out in the clearing where we'd left our bags (though the rangers had moved them) and we watched them there - in full sunlight - in the wide open - and all took turns taking photos. At one point, the silverback thundered towards one of the females - and you can't imagine how the ground shook!!! We were back at park headquarters around noon, and then headed back to Kigali. We couldn't wait to look at the pictures, so we're in the business center at the Intercontinental. Excuse (and appreciate) the lack of processing.    Tomorrow we head to the Masai Mara in Kenya. Not sure if there's internet connectivity there, but if there is, we'll find it.
Monday, December 25, 2006 Greetings from Volcanoes National Park! This morning we trekked to see the Amohoro group of gorillas. Wow. Just wow. Actually, right now we're in Gisesyi, near the Congo border on a bit of an excursion. This morning we woke up early to catch a ride to the PNV Park Station where we filled out all of the never ending paper work with 3rd world countries. I think the drive to where the trek began was more difficult than the actual trek. The vehicle in front of us got stuck and had to be pulled out. Quite a treat for the local villagers to watch, all the while speaking to us in French. We think we got the closest group. The trek was about an hour, first through open farmland and then through very dense bamboo forest. When we reached the trackers, we dropped our bags (well, our porter put down our bag) and we proceeded with only our cameras. We hiked straight up through this bamboo thicket, with a baby gorilla right over us. Then there was one to the right. And one farther down. Our group of 7 maneuvered a little farther down into a patch of nettles where we had a great view of about 9 of them and stayed with them for an hour. We were so close that we could hear them grunt and fart! We're both convinced that we at least a few good pictures, and I think I was able to capture some good video too. And no nettle stings, but we were both covered in red Rwandan mud. Magically, when we returned to our room at the Gorilla's Nest, an employee appeared offering to launder our clothes and wash our boots. It's going to be pretty difficult to top this Christmas.
Saturday, December 23, 2006 Greetings from Kigali, Rwanda! The travel gods were definitely in our corner yesterday. There were all kinds of weather delays at O'Hare, but our flight took off on time! That has to be the first time all year that either of us had an on time departure with American :) The only remotely eventful thing was seeing Mike Ditka in the Admiral's Club lounge. We had the exit row to Brussels, but neither of us were able to sleep much. The three hour layover in Brussels passed quickly and before we knew it were were on the Sabena flight to Kigali. It too was on time and we landed here around 8 local time. It was slightly raining, but since we had all of our luggage as carry on we were able to put on our rain pullovers before deplaning into a foggy mist. At the bottom of the steps we boarded a bus that literally drove us half a block to the airport building. I was still waiting for the "no, you need a visa" surprise, but as US citizens we did not and we breezed through immigration in less than three minutes. Our driver for the next three days, Vicky (male), was waiting for us right on the other side of customs and we hopped in his jeep and headed 5km to the Intercontinental. Along the way we saw festive Christmas decorations, local hangouts, and the Hotel Mille Collines (if you've seen the movie Hotel Rwanda). We also learned a few phrases in Kinyarwanda such as Amakuruki, which means "how are you". The Intercontinental is definitely upscale, and I will definitely appreciate the huge tub and complimentary bath products after the next few days of trekking and staying at the Gorillas Nest. We just finished a hearty breakfast of white eggs (someone please google why eggs are yellow in America, Andy's guess is chicken diet) and bacon (which is ham - why are American's the only one who know what bacon is!). Today we're driving to Ruhengeri which will take about 2-3 hours.
Friday, December 22, 2006 
Thursday, December 21, 2006 Our bags are packed, we've started our malaria medication, and if the travel gods are willing we're out of here tomorrow afternoon. Packing this year was pretty easy, considering we had the helpful/slightly obsessive diagram from last year. A bit of modification to add some hiking gear, and some new camera equipment, but other than that it's pretty darn close.  (click image for larger version) Did I mention that this is all carry on? A new snag in the process is the TSA 3-1-1 nonsense. We've whittled our necessities down and have everything in two neatly packed quart sized baggies - one entirely devoted to repelling products and the other jammed with 9 days worth of the bare minimum of essential liquids. Do "wipes" count as liquids?
Saturday, December 02, 2006 Since Andy is stuck in Florida, I decided to go see the Agora statues that he saw a few weekends ago when I was sleeping (he went at 7am on a Sunday). They were a lot bigger than I expected (about 9 feet tall), but the wind was HOWLING so I didn't stay too long.      
Friday, December 01, 2006 
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