One year ago today: Sept 22, 2005 (Chimpanzee tracking in Rwanda)

There were a ton of excellent photos from this day, and I've put a few of the best into a slideshow using FilmLoop. Click on the scrolling images below to see full-sized pictures with captions in a really cool slideshow.

We began our chimp tracking adventure very early in the morning, around 6 or 7am as I recall. After paying our fees (something like $50US or $75US per person, refunded if we don't see chimpanzees), we followed our trackers to a quasi-trailhead some distance from the park headquarters.

There was some concern, because the team of trackers that follows the chimps around in the jungle 24/7 lost them that morning. Chimps move very quickly through the jungle and can be hard to find once lost. There are a few different groups of habitutated (that is, accustomed to humans watching them) in Nyungwe National Forest, and we set off into the dense foliage to find them.

The hike was pretty tough. Not much of a trail, lots of slippery vines to trip over, and a good amount of up-and-down. Pretty fun, although I kept falling down and scaring Kim because I was holding the camera. After 3 or 4 hours, the trackers decided that it wasn't going to be possible to find the chimps on that day. Bad luck for us, since the success rate is usually pretty high.

The world's largest colonies (which congregate in groups as large as 700) of black-and-white colobus monkeys also resides in Nyungwe, so we held out hope that maybe we could find them or the chimpanzees tomorrow.

After our trek, we rested up at the guesthouse and then took a tour of the local tea plantation and factory. It was clear that the local villagers took a lot of pride in the tea plantation, and they gave us a very nice tour. We left the tea factory just as the children were returning home from school and had a great time taking photos and giggling with the kids. Because they don't generally have mirrors, the kids had a great time looking at themselves on the screen of the digital camera. And because we were far away from the city in an area rarely visited by tourists, the kids were really really sweet. It was a real highlight of our time in Rwanda to be sure, and we now think of Rwanda as one of our favorite destinations from the trip.


Kim's looking for chimpanzees!


Rwandan children with their infectious smiles.


Sunbird in the guesthouse garden.