GENOCIDE AND GORILLAS

We reached Rwanda some time ago - the days are merging and dates don't exist. Our first full day here i took a private car and the two aussie girls from the pygmy day, (see below) and went to Kigala, the capital, about a 2-hour drive from we we are staying on the Congolese border. We went to the Genocide Museum, which was built not just as a memorial to the Rwandan genocide, but to genocide in general. Of course, a large part of the museum was dedicated to the horrible events that happened here in 1994 - 1 million people in 100 days were hacked to death, or raped (if they were lucky). Others were thrown by the hundreds, one on top of another, into latrines until they suffocated to death - often a long a painful process, and worse. Death by bullet was reserved only for those who could pay for the bullet. The museum, was of course, a tear jerker, as the events in Rwanda seem only to have happened just a little while ago. I was glued to the news at the time and could not believe the apathy of the world and the UN., whose soldiers here, were instructed to only shoot at the dogs eating the bodies that littered the streets by the thousands. Mass murderers and torturers were to be left alone.

Next stop was the Hotel Rwanda (the real name of which is Hotel des Milles Collines - Hotel of a Thousand Hills, which is what Rwanda means in English). Hotel Rwanda was just the name of the movie. We had lunch overlooking the pool that played so prominently in the movie and walked the grounds where thousands of Tutsis sought shelter, and survived, thanks to the Hutu hotel manager who kept them alive through bribes to the perpetrators of the genocide and an unknown hand from above.

Today was magnificent. We trekked 3 hours, straight up steep and muddy slopes to view the gorillas made famous by Dian Fossey and the movie Gorillas in the Mist. Only 450 remain in the world and only a very limited number of tourists can observe the 5 or 6 families that have been habituated to humans, and then only for one hour, once the nest is reached. We were within 3 feet of babies with their mothers and the great silverback - an enormous beast, who protects his brood. An amazing experience, but I was very, very winded. The trail up was aslosh in thick, deep mud and we climbed over 2,000 feet in about 1 1/2 hours. Once we neared the gorillas' nest, we laid down all of our backpacks and water bottles, and everything we had schlepped up (except cameras) and climbed through thistle and bamboo and who knows what else, over terrain that had never been walked upon by humans before (at least it looked that way). Former poachers are now trackers and guides - the income gives them the incentive not to poach. A guard with gun was always close by - just in case. But, apparently, there has never been an incident where the gorillas harmed a tourist. They were gentle and playful and very mindful of our presence.

I came back to our hotel covered in mud from the bottom of my hiking boots to mid-thigh.


Loving every minute. Its beautiful here