The Joy's of traveling or traveling with Joy? After a cold start in Washington DC we landed here in Nairobi Kenya 24 hours after takeoff. Making a very fast transfer in Paris we were surprised when our luggage rolled off the conyver in Nairobi. Nothing to really report, we stayed at the Pan African Hotel again which has great security as it backs up to the Israel Embassy. Back at the airport for our flight to Rwanda we spoke with our driver about the recent happenings here in Kenya. Earlier this year the arrivals hall at the airport burned causing mayhem at the airport, resourceful as they are a new car parking building was made into a make shift arrivals hall as a matter of fact we did not even realize this until we were outside. Then the most recent Mall attack has caused the Kenyans to be short on tourist this season with Hotels running at 10% capacity. The airport is even much less crowed then the last two times we flew through Nairobi.

Needless to say the people here are super friendly showing off their African hospitality from the African dressed doorman at the hotel to the guy cleaning the mens room. Today's weather is perfect at about 75 degrees; coming out of the 7 degrees we were experiencing in DC it feels great.

Boots laced up and shorts on we start our trek up the mountain to see the Gorilla's in the morning after which I will complete this blog.

January 10, 2014

After landing at Kingali International airport we were met by our Guide Aimable, who quickly drove us to one of the Genocide Memorials. Not ever hearing much about the genocide while it was happening, we were surprised at how many were killed (1 million) in a hundred days. We spent two hours reading the stories and listening too accounts of the bloodshed. In a somber mood we left wondering how this can still happen.

We turned our Land cruiser north to head for the mountains. Playing the Africa game of how close can you pass pedestrians and bicyclist our driver/guide had us at our mountainside lodge in no time. Entering the lodge the lobby was full of people, however you would not know it as everybody was on their device tapping away as the lobby was the only place for Wi-Fi. I find that these "devices" that have made our lives so hurried have also created a room full of zombies. Try as I might , I work hard not to become a Smart Phone Zombie and is one of the reasons I enjoy these far out places but it looks as if technology has caught up with Rwanda (too Bad). Our Lodge only hooked up to the electric network two months ago. I write these blogs before going to bed or during slow times.

Today was our Mountain Gorilla Trek, now trek is used lightly here as we got lucky after only hiking for 20 minutes in a potato field we jumped a 7 foot tall wall and walked another 20 feet and found our family of Gorilla's munching away on the landscape. I had been working myself up for months for this trek and bam 45 minutes in I am being pushed aside by a Gorilla that wants by me! We followed this family including a very up and close pass by the head honcho Silver Back that I would be lying if I said my heart wasn't pumping as he was very intimidating. We followed the pack for an hour before turning back.

What I write here will never translate into the feelings of the up close encounter with these King of the Jungle. At the moment I struggle to think what I should write. Was it the way we heard "Cracking" noises as we approached the wall we climbed over? Later we found out the cracking was the Gorilla's pulling down the bamboo stalks to eat the leaves. Or maybe the whimpering of the baby Gorilla's wanting their mothers to carry them, the grunting of the Alpha male silverback. Whatever it was that hour with the family will last a lifetime.

Part of the adventure was the ride up to the Gorilla's as you are like a rock star everybody waving and smiling glad to see you. Our close encounter with the Rwandans is but a marvel of what they went through and as the population seems young maybe the Genocide has faded but is not forgotten.