Gorillas Lake Kivu Hotel Gisenyi

... great too but it’s hard to be anything but cool during an experience like that.

We tracked back down following a different route, still under the rain, through potato fields. I ended up being surrounded by about 8 of the cutest kids you’ve ever seen who loved looking at the instant replay on Arnaud’s camera of the photos of us he’d taken. Further on down 3 super excited kids were shouting out hello’s at the top of their lungs and ran ...

... happened: The country was divided up into two groups based on social classes. Those with 10 cows were called Tutsi(15% minority), and those with less than 10 cows - Hutu(85% majority). They were all given identity cards showing which group you belonged to. The Tutsi’s had power for a while until the Hutu Revolution in the 60’s. Then a few decades of build up then in 1994, the Hutu’s started wiping out the Tutsi’s en masse. They ...

... the mornings to find where the gorillas are hanging around and a guide then leads you on a hike to find them. This can take anything up to 4 hours but we were with our assigned family within about one and a half hours.

'Amahoro', meaning 'peace', was the name of our family of 16 gorillas of all age ranges. They are truly wonderful to watch, gentle giants although with the bigger males at over 200kg, they can still be aiming to be gentle and cause ...

... your hands. Then someone says grace (they are very religious) and there are meats (chicken and beef), a sticky dough and vegetables. You basically get a bit of dough, rip some meat off and dip it in the sauce and eat it. It was pretty good but I was crazy tired from all the running around. Unfortunately I had to have a few drinks with the host's brother Baracka or else it would have been rude. He told me how the fighting in Congo with Rwanda and Uganda had started in ...

... see the gorillas but he didn't have the permit in his hands so was waiting until he got it. To pass the time I decided to go hiking in these lave caves outside of town and had a few kids that tagged along partially because they thought I looked like Michael Scowfield from Prison Break (must be the shaved head). What was a little freaky is that the kids casually picked up a skull and told me it was a child's head from the genocide. I thought ...

... feeling of just standing there. Our guide said the day before only one gorilla came out and the rest were fairly hidden but we had all the photo opportunities you could possibly want. The Silverback sitting up, babies playing and catching rides on their mums... it was just magic. For the rest of the day we were on a massive high and even the next day we are still feeling pretty lucky to have had the experience.

We’ve been told we’ve got a ...

Gisenyi/Lake Kivu October 25/26-On a Saturday morning, Ruhengeri is very quiet. The streets are empty. We had to wait until 12:00 to get a bus the 1.5 hours up to Gisenyi. We arrived in Gisenyi, and found a room in town. There are many hotels along the beach, but they are expensive and not worth the splurge. Our hotel is owned by a man named David from Kigali, whose entire family ...

... knowing what to do when I was about 30 feet from him, I just decided to wave hello to him. Suddenly, all you can see was a shiny set of white teeth. The guy had a smile that stretched from ear lobe to ear lobe. I immediately felt more comfortable. The security guard looked like he was in Grade 10 and suddenly looked very friendly. We met at the border of the private and public area of the beach. The border was actually a flower bed. We shook hands when we ...

... of a hill. We added it to our ever-growing list of "Things To Do At Some Point." The ride was fantastic; as soon as we got to the highest mountain pass, we were rewarded with clear views of the famous chain of the seven volcanoes, forming the natural border with the DRC and Uganda. It is in these mountains, the Parc National des Volcans where Dian Fossey spent years with the mountain gorillas and battled with poachers ...

... accompagnied by a guide. If you want to start for a walk early in the morning, the best thing you can do is to stay overnight at the camp site at the Uwinka HQ, where you can put your tent - you must bring everything you need: tent, sleeping bag, warm clothes (the nights are cool at 2400 metres), water, food. The nearest towns for provisions are Cyangugu or Butare. If you don't want to camp at Uwinka, you can stay overnight at a ...