A visit from Annie and James

Annie and James came for a visit.  They were here a bit over a week, and now they are back in Massachusetts.   While they were here we went to visit with the mountain gorillas in Volcanoes National Park and we went to Akagera.  We also visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial, the market near KIST, two  artisan cooperatives and a pottery maker.  We kept us and them pretty busy. 

Gorilla trekking was fantastic.  We left Kigali at 4:00 a.m. and drove (were driven) to the north-west part of the country.  It was a nice drive, our driver was full of information, and stopped to let us photograph the countryside. 

The earth seems to be much richer in this part of the country and the farms looked really productive.  We had a long and strenuous climb up the mountain – we had been put in the group for the ‘easy’ hike but the gorillas moved, so we had a much longer and more difficult hike than anticipated.   

It was an absolutely beautiful hike through the forest, and then we got to hang out with some other primates for a while.  The gorillas pretty much ignored us – a couple of babies seemed to be showing off while on their mothers’ backs but the older gorillas just went about their daily business and paid no attention to that other primate pack nearby.  They must be really used to it. 

We were pretty tired at the end of the trip.  We took things pretty easy the next day. 

On Monday we went to Akagera again.  We saw an elephant!  It’s right there at the edge of the water in this picture.  It turns out that elephants look like small black rocks.

Here are a few more pictures from Akagera.