Gorillas!

From Kyle: 

I have heard about this trip from CASIEF volunteers who preceded us here in Rwanda. Gorillas. You have to do the gorillas. Seeing the gorillas is a life-changing experience. Gorillas make the world go round. It's not that I was skeptical; it all just felt a little hyperbolic.

Kitt and I rose well before the crack of dawn on Sunday and left Gisenyi for Volcanoes National Park- the area in which we were cycling earlier in the weekend. We watched the sun come up over the countryside and watched the people go past- running, biking, walking with kids. It's amazing how busy this place is before 6 AM.

Emmy arranged our trek with Felicien, our guide. Luckily, because it is low season here, Kitt and I got to do the hike alone! We drove way, way up into the Virunga mountains along Rwanda's northwestern border with the DRC. Then we got out and hiked way, way further up. At our highest, we were 3100 km above sea level! The hike was challenging, both from the relative lack of oxygen and the occasionally treacherous terrain. 

Thanks to good tracking and good luck, we were able to reach the area where our friends for the day, the Susa family of gorillas, were hanging out. The hour we spent watching them was incredible- easily the fastest hour of my life. About a dozen of the family members were together when we found them, including the two (adult male) silverbacks, or the "president and VP" as Felicien explained. The pack included several juveniles, who ignored us entirely and played both on the ground and in the trees. There was also a newborn! At one month old it spends its time entirely in the crook of its mother's arm. We were careful to give them lots of room.

Certainly though, the most impressive were the two silverbacks. Hulking creatures at about 220 kilograms they were clearly in charge of things, holding court, feeding on celery and bamboo shoots, ambling slowly around- the others were never far behind.

Words are inadequate to describe how amazing this was. I've never seen such a big smile on Kitt's face. Before we knew it we were done, and we floated back down the hill to the car. We spent the evening back in Kigali gushing about our experience with Patty, as well as with Ruth and Angela - visiting staff who are here this week to help Patty out with what I'm sure is going to be a very successful teaching and learning course. 

Then I put some finishing touches on the academic session that I'm leading this week on hypertensive diseases of pregnancy. It's going to be a busy week!