Poo for Lunch – Yummy

I met Isaac at 6:45 to go to the briefing point for the gorilla trek.  When we got there, a troupe of Rwandan cultural dancers was performing for the trekkers and there was a tea and coffee buffet set up for everyone to have a drink and warm up before heading out. The mornings and evenings in Rwanda are quite chilly with intermittent showers.  The afternoons are about 70 degrees.

Each of us was assigned to a gorilla family and then had to group together accordingly.  My family was the Umbanu group located on the Bisoke Mountain.  The trekkers I went with were a group of seven friends so I was the odd person out.  The four women had gone to college together at Bryn Mawr in the 70s and they were travelling together as a sort of reunion with their spouses.  One of the women was a primatologist and now is the dean of students at Bryn Mawr.  They were a fun group and not cheap like the last group of trekkers I was with.  We all paid and tipped our porters and guides generously without having to be reminded by the guide several times to pay our porters like in Bwindi.  One of the women, a smoker from NYC was quite the gossip.  She was also one of the lesser attractive of the group.  The two alpha females were thin and blonde.  One blonde was the primatologist and organizer of the trip and the other now lives in Germany with her husband (who used to be a partner at MLB – more to follow).  Anyway the NY smoker (sporting a grey curly fro – a product of the humidity) sidled up next to me to make fun of one of the blondes.  She was all too happy to inform me that the one with the dyed blonde hair was constantly showing up with perfectly pressed clothing and a full face of makeup for their trekking adventures.  She then added that she could never imagine dressing up for a walk in the jungle – how ridiculous! Gotta love women; the claws are always waiting to come out.

One of the husbands (now lives in Germany with the dyed blonde) had been a partner in the Philly office of Morgan Lewis.  I laughed and told him I had worked in the DC office, but HATED it and left.  He laughed and said he did not blame me. If he had not had a wife who liked expensive things and children, he would have quit too.  He left in 2000 and said being a partner was worse than being an associate.  This discussion opened the door to more complaints because quite a few members of the group had been or still were attorneys at firms.  The NY smoker with the grey fro started in on a long and involved tale of her firm being swallowed by Sidley and how her life went downhill.  I was so glad the guides, Patient and Emanuel interrupted this boring discussion to talk about our plan for the day and how we should behave around the animals.  My days of listening to disgruntled lawyers and being one ended years ago and I would like to keep it that way.

Similar to Bwindi, we road in our vehicles to our starting point.  Our lead guide, named Patient, rode with Isaac and me.  He told me that the group we were about to see had been habituated for about 14 years so they were not camera shy. He was curious to find out about my Bwindi experience.  When I told him how long it took the find the family, he laughed and said we would probably see our group within an hour of hitting the base of the forest.  He warned the initial 30minutes would be steep, but after that it was pretty flat.

The ride to the starting point was more treacherous than the climb.  The road was so rocky and pot-holed that I was afraid all the tossing about and jostling of the vehicle would pop the axel. I could tell Isaac was concentrating on the road so I ceased any conversation him and chatted with the guide instead.

When we finally bumped and grinded our way to the starting point, everyone exited their vehicles and were given walking sticks and introduced to our porters.  My porter’s name was Tito (Jackson if your nasty).  Off we went on our adventure.  We continued walking up the same rocky road.  I could not look up because I had to be careful not to stumble on a jagged rock and fall and lose me front choppers. This stretch of rocky road lasted about 20 minutes.  Along the way, the members of the local community and the local kids would wave and say hello.

At the base of the forest, we met our armed rangers.  Apparently there are buffalo and elephants in the forest so the armed rangers come along in case we encounter any.  They shoot in the air to frighten them off.  Patient laughed and said occasionally they shoot the slowest people, which is why they get our passport info and where we are staying before we set out so they will know where to send our bodies.

A stone wall about three feet in height is located at the edges of the forest to stop the buffalos from entering the community.  We had to first climb the wall before entering the forest. Also at the base of the forest was a huge reservoir that collects the fresh mountain water and then it is piped to the community below.

I must say the tracking in Rwanda was a piece of cake compared to Uganda. I barely broke a sweat and stayed relatively clean.  For those reading this blog and want to see gorillas, but are afraid of the long trek – Rwanda is your destination of choice.  The climb was steep and the ground soft at points and a little slippery due to the previous night’s rain, but all things considered it was tame.  I would give it a 5 ½ out of 10. We reached the forest wall at about 9:00, by 10:30 we were with the gorillas.  The steep climb only lasted about 30 minutes including a few breaks (cuz the smoker needed to breath), then we had a long stretch of flat soft ground, and then the last bit where the trackers who found the gorillas in advance hacked through vines clearing a path for us to walk.  This section lasted 15 minutes and was a tad dicey because the fallen vines masked and thick roots that may stick up and trip you.  Other than that it was just stooping a bit to duck low hanging vines and tree limbs.  But again, once we saw the gorillas all thoughts of the environment went out the window.

Perhaps due to the colder temperatures, these gorillas had much longer hair and the hair had more texture (dare I say a slight curl or wave pattern) as compared to the straight haired counterparts in Uganda.  There were two females with babies (one of the babies had lost the lower portion of his limb when two of the females got into a battle and the poor kid’s limb became collateral damage.  One of the angry females bit his foot off by mistake.  Mike Tyson’s ear biting seems pretty tame compared to that. In addition, there was a black back male and the silver back named Charles.  They were all pretty relaxed and lounging about.  The babies were climbing on their moms and wrestling with the black back.  At one point one of the moms sat up and started chowing down on a huge hunk of somebody’s poo.  Then the black back decided to take a stroll and pass by us.  He was completely unfazed by the stupid humans with the cameras.  I was able to get lots of close-ups of them.  Patient actually let us stay a little beyond our allotted hour so we could get good pictures of Charles, the silver back.  One of the trackers hacked and cleared the vines that were blocking him and we were able to shift positions and get great shots of his darling face.  Then one of the moms came over.  I got a shot of her back with poo sticking out of her butt.

Patient told us we had disturbed them enough and it was time to go.  We walked back to where we had left our bags and porters.  As we all were chatting about how great the experience was, the young black back decided to join us.  He brushed by me and then went deeper into the vines.  I was thrilled and got a secret feel of his hair.  It was thick and a tad coarse.  We thanked and tipped the trackers who found the gorillas for us to view and then we went on out merry way back to our vehicles. The descent took about an hour.

Once we paid our porters, we hopped into our vehicles.  Just as I closed the door, the sky became dark and it started to pour, which made the bumpy road back even more treacherous.  We all arrived safely at the headquarters to receive our certificates.  Due to the torrential downpour, the ceremony was cancelled and Patient came to our cars and handed us our certificates through the car windows.  We all tipped and thanked him and then waved good-bye to each other.  Another stellar day!!!!!!

Later, Isaac asked me if I wanted to go to the cultural center to see some traditional dancing and hear about the tribes of Rwanda before the Germans and Belgians came.  When he told me it would be three hours, I decided to skip it.  It was too cold and rainy to sit outside to watch and listen.  Plus after all the trekking and driving, I thought it was best for both of us to have the afternoon off.  I could tell Isaac was sort of relieved.  From guiding, he has friends in all the towns and I am sure he would rather spend some free time with them instead of toting my old ass around.

As soon as I walked into the lobby, I was greeted by a staff member who invited me to sit down.  He helped me remove my muddy boots and gaters for cleaning and gave me a pair of rubber slippers to wear back to my room.  I then quickly showered and changed and handed in my dirty clothes for washing before heading to the dining room for lunch.  There I found Isaac and we shared a table and I learned about his family and his plans to start construction of a house outside Kampala.

After lunch, Isaac went on his way and I went to the bar to take a drink back to my room and rest.  I got a double Jack Daniels and coke on the side.  The bartender was kind enough to carry it to my room.  On the way, he asked another member of the staff to build a fire in my room.  So within minutes I was resting by the fire sipping Jack and chewing a perc I brought with me –a heavenly afternoon.

Tomorrow morning I set out at 6:45 am again to track the endangered golden monkeys!!!!!!!!!