One year ago today: Sept 21, 2005 (Boo hoo, no gorillas for us)

We woke up early to secure our gorilla tracking permits from the Office Rwandaise du Tourisme et des Parcs Nationaux (ORTPN). I had read on various forums that permits are pretty easy to get during this time of year. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case for us, so sadly no gorilla tracking for us. We resolved to return someday to visit the gorillas some other time, but with only 500 or so remaining in the wild it's no sure thing.

We did have the fallback option to join up with a group in the DRC, but decided against it because of the continuing civil war and somewhat tricky transport from Kigali. Instead, we decided to go chimpanzee tracking instead, since Rwanda provides an opportunity to do that as well. Because Nyungwe National Park is way off the beaten path (only a few hundred people visit each year), we decided to hire a driver through a travel agent. It ended up being pretty expensive (something like $350 per person for 2 nights including transport, accomodation, and food), but I was pretty excited about seeing chimpanzees (though admittedly a bit bummed about the gorillas).

After lunch at an Indian restaurant and the obligatory photo outside the Hôtel des Mille Collines of "Hotel Rwanda" fame, we set met up with our driver Jean toward Nyungwe. It was a beautiful drive, about 5-6 hours, and we definitely appreciated having our private jeep. The Rwandan landscape is truly spectacular (more photos in the coming days) -- extremely green and lush with many terraced hills. In fact, Rwanda is known as the "land of a thousand hills" and is oddly reminiscent of Southeast Asia.

As I mentioned earlier, Rwanda is one of the most densely populated countries in Africa. Lines of farmers, children, and women with large objects on their heads walk on the roads -- seemingly far away from everything or anywhere. One thing you notice about Africa and undeveloped countries is that for the most part, people work extremely hard. In the States, we tend to equate poverty with laziness, but it's not so in the third world.



Unlike most Rwandans, our driver Jean spoke English. We had many guides during our travels, and I think Jean was one of the best and most likable. The intensity of the Rwandans' desire to build a new future together in the aftermath of the 1999 genocide was one of the most striking things about the country. There are memorials of rememberance everywhere, and we would visit one in a few days. There was a real consciousness about doing things in new ways. For example, they used to drive on the left-hand side of the road, but now were driving on the right-hand side of the road. French was being replaced by English in the school systems.

And gone (at least among those we talked to) was the distinction between tutsi and bantu that drove them to violence. When Kim asked Jean whether he was tutsi or hutu, he emphatically replied, "I am Rwandese. There is no more Tutsi and no more Hutu here."

We experienced the first of several flat tires we would encounter in Africa during our travel that day, but eventually made it to the small Gisakura ORTPN guesthouse outside of Nyungwe just in time for dinner.