Gorillas in the Mist

On Sunday I boarded a full bus in Kigali to head up the winding mountains for about 2 hours to Rungheri. From there we spent the day walking around the market and local villages playing with the kids. Finally the sun was beginning to go down and we wanted to get to the base of the volcanos before sunset. We grabbed some motos and took the most breathtaking moto ride I have ever taken. It was like something out of a movie. We got to our Kinigi Guesthouse...which was like a bungalo/dorm style and decided to take a walk at sunset. When we were coming out of the guest house we saw four boys standing on the edge of the road...three of them with sacks of food on top of their heads, and one with a smile that stretched ear to ear. We said hello and asked them where we could walk...they said that they would show us. They ended up taking us on a walk straight for the base of the volcano. On the way we passed some RDF (Rwanda Defense Force) military camps, most likely because we were so close to the border of DR Congo. The walked us all the way through their village. The main boy who showed us around name was Jorge. He told us about their soccer team there and introduced us to his best friends. They took us to their school and through their potato fields...even let us pet their cows. Everyone was so welcoming and loving that I knew this would not be my last time here. One 74 year old women walking on the road came up and gave me the biggest hugs. All of the children would stand there and say "Hello, hello, hello hello hello hello hello!" until we were out of sight. This village was truly how I imagined Africa to be. Full of people that were smiling we joy when they see you and welcoming with open arms. Kigali has given me quite a shock of an african experience, and difficult at times... but going to Sabyinyo village and meeting the futbol team lifted my spirits.

 The sun went down ove

r the cloudy volcano and we headed home to have some African tea and 

get some rest. It was to be a big day hiking to the gorillas the next day. In the morning we woke up at 5 am when the sun had not even rise

n yet. We ate a hearty breakfast and walked to the Gorilla headquarters. W

e got lucky and had become friends with an english girl who had a brother that had lived with the gorillas for 5 months filming them so she had connections when it came to group picking. There are about 5 groups th

at were go

ing up the gorillas that day with only 8 people per group. The biggest hike/family that I wanted to see ended up not bein

g a possiblity becu

ase the day bef

ore the group didnt get back til 9 at n

ight and it was too dangerous; the family of gorillas had moved too far up the mountain. We got asinged the Hir

wa family instead which was supposedly the next best. In this family there was one

 male silverback gorilla, 6 women, and 6 babies. We started our hike through the sa

me vill

age I was in the night befo

re until we got to the ed

ge of the national park. We began the hike through the bamboo forest with two RDF guards with guns for the wild buffaloe and elephants that can char

ge, a guide, and someone to carry bags. The hike was about 2 hours of seroius trekking...like nothing I have ever do

ne before. The jour

ney was wo

rth it for the hike alone. Most of the time we were walking on a ridge surro

unded by cascading jungle the ent

ire time and chopping our way through branches. At some points you have to almost rock climb on plain soil that broke away as you made the vertical climb. I thought I was 

going to not make it at one point cause the air was so thin you felt lik

e you were doing all that you could to breathe and nothing was getting through. After two hours...the guard whispered to stop and put down our bags. The gorillas were 

about 10 min away and

 could s

mell us coming. We would leave the bags behind. He told us that when we got close enough he would make a noise to communicate with the king silverback to ask permission to join

 the family. He did...and it sounded kinda like a grunt. In the distance we could here the king respond and allow us to come. we slowly approached clim

bing straight on top of layers of vines like monkey bars in this ste

ep valley. There were tons of st

inging nettles that caught your skin and hurt like bee stings. We saw our first mama gorilla with her baby appear 

only a couple feet away. they just went past us like we were apart of their clan...eating the stinging nettles on their way! Then we came around to papa gorilla who was hunched over. He must have been the size of an arm sofa! He grunted the angry grunt at us cause 

he just wanted to nap and we were being to loud and our guide grunted the "Its Okay" grunt back to calm him down again. At one point I crawled almost 2 feet away from him and he got angry and swang at me  a little bit. We spent the next hour just observing and taking in all of God's wonder. Gorillas have become probably my favorite animal...especially after this. They are so human like and give you chills when they look at you in the eye. On the way down I got my right foot tangled and fell forward...flipping myself upside down and hanging there by my foot. It was pretty hilarious. The hike down was much faster and I was sad to leave but overall it was the most amazing adventure of my life and I will never forget it!!