The land of 1000 hills

Monday, August 26th:

A multi-discipline travel day, we set off early from Mahale on a 90 min boat ride along Lake Tanganyika to the airstrip. Despite calm waters on previous mornings, we were treated to a final exciting journey on the lake as the wooden boat rocked violently back and forth between the swells. Arriving at the airstrip, we transitioned to the air portion of our journey, a 90 minute flight to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. The flight included a stop off in Kigoma to “check-out” with Tanzanian immigration featuring an entertaining exchange where the pilot had to wake-up the immigration officer and get him to come to the office to check our passports, truly a case of the Mondays!

Arriving in Rwanda’s bustling capital, our first stop was the genocide museum. While a bit of a tough introduction to the country, it was a very powerful experience. An hour and a half museum visit is hardly enough of an immersion to truly understand what happened, but I was left with a couple initial reflections. 

1: The scale and brutality of the event over such a brief period of time (100 days) that impacted such a large percentage of the population is truly unimaginable

2: The country has made a remarkable turnaround over the past 26 years. While I am sure there are many remnants hiding beneath the surface, the fact that Rwandan society has come together as one so quickly after such a traumatic event is astonishing. Millions of former enemies now live side by side as neighbors without any distinction just a quarter century after the genocide.

After the genocide museum, we rose out of Kigali into the hills, stopping for some local goat skewers.

Three hours later we approached Volcano national park and enjoyed views of the volcanos, surrounded by densely populated subsistence farm land seemingly cut into the sides of mountains. At the hotel, we also joined with our friends, the Wagener’s, who met us in Rwanda after spending time down in South Africa. Together, we enjoyed a steady dose of ginger (both tea and cocktails) to help stave off the effects of the altitude.

Tuesday, August 27th:

After an early start checking into the National Park headquarters we received the safety briefing (stay ~20 feet away from the gorillas – a rule that we soon learned was hardly enforced). We also were given an introduction to the gorilla group we were visiting. The Igisha group has 34 members (massive for a gorilla family) including 6 silverback males. Unlike chimps, there is a clear hierarchy in a gorilla family, with the eldest silverback male being the leader. Underneath him, he may have a number of children that have grown to be silverbacks as well, but he remains in charge. A very antiquated society, the females of the group all belong to the dominant silverback and he mostly prevents them from mating with anyone but him. Female (and some male) children leave the group when they grow up to start there own families and to avoid potential incest. Switching groups can be accomplished by joining an existing family, being “stolen” from your family by a more intimidating male, or by starting a new family with a young male.

Give the nature of the gorilla family unit, 34 gorillas in a family is massive and we bragged about the relative size of the family we were assigned (vs. the Wagener’s 18 member family) before we went our separate ways to begin hiking. We would soon find out that size wasn’t everything with Gorilla families, as evidenced by our much calmer, more photogenic group of 12 on our second day.

After an ~hour drive, we began to hike up into the jungle, the gorilla’s high-altitude habitat. Aiding us were porters, often former poachers who have been attracted away from harmful poaching activities with the growth of gorilla tourism.

About an hour into our hike, the trackers found the gorilla family and we were suddenly thrust into the action as a large male “black back”, a teenager who has not grown his silver hair, emerged from the foliage. Quickly, others followed and we were surrounded by at least 20 gorillas. While most seemed to mind there own business, the dominant silverback was interested by us and quickly “broke” the 20 foot barrier, walking closer and closer. At over 500 pounds, a silverback is massive and I slowly backed away as our guide made non-threatening gorilla calls to calm down the silverback. 

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After the initial close encounter, we enjoyed a wonderful, whirlwind hour watching gorillas do everything from eating (a lot), to play fighting/wrestling, grooming and of course napping. It is hard to truly describe how similar they seem to us humans, so I will let my pictures serve as a guide

Later in the evening, I went for a run on the rough dirt roads of the village, attracting calls from children on every farm I passed. Fighting the altitude (8500 feet) and the hills, I managed to say hello to everyone and was relieved to return back to the hotel to rest.

Wednesday, August 28th:

We were assigned a smaller gorilla group for our second day of trekking, but the Umubano group was much more photogenic. After a similar morning routine, we came upon the group resting in a clearing and I was transfixed by a very patient mother attempting to groom her 5 month old mischievous baby. Nearby, two teenagers wrestled around and we did our best to stay out of their way, a difficult task among the summersaulting bodies. Finally, the silverback had had enough and emerged from his slumber, immediately shutting down playtime.

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Hiking down through the village after our gorilla sighting, we were again struck by the  resourcefulness of Rwandan subsistence farmers, who used every single square foot of land in the hilly, volcanic rock strewn landscape.

Later in the evening, we enjoyed a big bonfire and our final dinner together before we all went our separate ways: Ben and Jenna to Israel, Mom and Dad back to the US and the Wagener’s to Zambia. 

Thursday, August 29th:

Driving back to Kigali, we stopped at a hectic outdoor market with the largest variety of avocados I have ever (still kicking myself for not taking a picture). After lunch where we said goodbye to our guides Nic & Jana as well as the Wagener’s and my parents, we (Ben, Jenna and myself) left for the airport. After randomly striking up a conversation with a couple that turned out to be the former US secretary of energy (a noble laureate physicist) and his wife, the former Stanford admissions dean, we took off for Adis Ababa. In Adis, I parted ways with Ben and Jenna and embarked on the beginning of my solo travels with a quick stop in Singapore.

Friday, August 30th:

With the 6 hour time change (and a 10 hour flight from Adis), I didn’t arrive in Singapore until 3pm on Friday. I was greeted with an unwelcome sight, waiting for 30+ minutes in the immigration line – unheard of in Singapore’s ultra clean and efficient Changi Airport. 

Taking in the familiar sights from my four-month stint in Singapore last summer/fall, I went to an “old” favorite: Lau Pa Sat hawker center to satisfy my chicken rice craving with Katie, a coworker who happened to be in Singapore for a week for her project.

Next, it was off to meet up with my colleagues from last year’s project at a rooftop bar, where we spent the next 9 hours catching up over whiskey… 

Saturday, August 31st:

Arriving back at the hotel at 4am (although it was hard to tell with the time zone changes), I was (predictably) exhausted the next morning and feeling less than 100%. Fortunately, all I had to do was run some errands for trekking supplies and relax before an evening flight to Nepal. 

On the way back to the airport, I made an obligatory second stop at a hawker center, enjoying a last chicken rice meal before I begin my (mostly) vegetarian based Himalayan diet for the next four weeks. 

What’s next:

After spending tomorrow in Kathmandu to pick up maps, snacks and trekking supplies, I will be heading to the mountain town of Lukla (hopefully) on Monday morning, although flights tend to be canceled frequently so I may have an extra day in Kathmandu…Then, it will be about 2 weeks of trekking in the mountains (to and around the village of Gokyo) where I will likely have relatively limited connectivity, but will post updates when I can. Thanks for following along!