Farewell to Rwanda

 The initial draft of this post is being written as we are in our Kigali hotel room, waiting for the shuttle to take us to the airport for our Wednesday 9:30PM flight (to Entebbe, then Amsterdam, then Detroit, then to Grand Rapids) arriving home after a 27 hour journey!

Our last 10 days at Kibogora went quickly. We had a delightful but rigorous 7 mile roundtrip hike with 5 others to the shore of Lake Kivu where Susie and 4 others went for a swim.

We rode to Kigali this past Saturday and have enjoyed a few days of splendid Rwandan tourism! We had a 2 day tour planned and had an excellent driver who navigated the incredible traffic of downtown Kigali. We spent several hours at the Genocide Museum which was very emotionally moving – it is the final resting place of over 100,000 of the one million Tutsi and moderate Hutus who were killed in the 1994 genocide that lasted only 100 days. Pictures were not allowed inside the museum – all we can say is that it was very reminiscent of Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem or the Dachau concentration camp outside of Munich. The stunning cruelty of people towards each other was almost incomprehensible!

Then, after a 2 ½ hour drive to northern Rwanda, we arrived at the home of the mountain gorillas!! We had an overnight in a lodge reminiscent of those we have stayed in on Kenyan safaris and then, on Tuesday the 18^th, we made the short drive to Volcanos National Park where we joined a group of 6 others for a trek up the mountain in search of gorillas! After about an hour of very difficult uphill climbing over rocks, in mud, and over vines, our two guides told us that the gorilla family that we had been assigned to was nearby. Thankfully, we had hired porters not only to carry our backpacks but to give us a hand on the more difficult terrain. We were AMAZED by the gorillas. Lysenga was the dominant male, or silverback, of the family that we were with. He was joined by several females, juveniles, and babies. We were able to watch them for an hour. Lysenga was not bothered by our presence and almost seemed to be ignoring us. He sat about 15 feet away from us before plopping down six feet from us for a halfhour nap, not bothered by his children playing nearby.

Goodbye to our friend Dr. Pacifique.

A dip in Lake Kivu after a strenuous hike.

On a Sunday afternoon, a view showing a well-kept boulevard in Kigali. The roads were, in general, the best we have encountered in our African adventures.

Below, the weekday traffic in Kigali is very heavy with cars, buses, trucks, motorcycle taxis, and bicycles all vying for road space. Driving here takes nerves of steel!

At the Mountain Gorilla View Lodge with our excellent driver Danny.

First sighting of 24 year old Lysenga, the silverback "boss" of his family of about a dozen gorillas.

Lysenga seemed indifferent to our presence.

 Here he is, striking his "I am the boss" pose. One of the other trekkers is close behind him.

After sitting about 15 feet from us, Lysenga casually walked over and plopped down for a nap about 6 feet from us. We were amazed!!!!!! Some family members joined him for naptime while a few younger kids played nearby.

Susie with one of our guides with the volcanos in the background. Our trek took us onto the hills on the left .

Farewell to our two excellent guides, Emmanuel and Christophe, who safely guided us to the gorillas and taught us many things about their behavior and habitat.