A close look at the head silverback of the group. (NB: Title is a direct quote from our guide; no comment on my many, lovely, not too hairy, cousins.)
The Gorillas. The Mist. And (a few) references to Diane Fossey.
It's so uncomplicated to be a tourist!After a two days spent mostly in Save (first meeting the Sisters and touring the school, then giving my house a complete reworking). we drove through some real Rwandan rain (to Teddy's delight) from the nicely sloping hills of the south to the daringly carved, barely clingling roads of the northwest. After being stuffed by the Sisters' lunch of the day before (where Teddy tried everything and my mother impressed with her recollection of French) we were more than happy to skip lunch in lieu of bananas and peanuts, thus skipping Kigali and doing the whole drive straight through. My father had the good sense and gumption to rent a car, so we were the "very safety conscious white rav four" that swerved for pot holes and slowed for the impenetrable, aforementioned mist. We even stopped to take some landscape shots - all four of us on our own cameras, classic Americans and our gratuitous technology!And as soon as we passed Kigali, even I was in new territory and could relish the scenery without thoughts to spotting my town or having correct change; for those few hours I could have been anywhere, on vacation with no worries except to getting that one great shot. It even looked like a new country. The mist was extreme, reducing approaching people to silhouettes mere feet from our car, and completely obscuring the periferal landscape with the exception of the closest trees. The roads were more challenging, real mountain roads that twist and switchback often with barely space for two cars (which made the endless stream of trucks harrowing). And the mountains were really mountains. Dark green and velvety, like jagged, moss covered rocks from an ant's perspective!
We met Claire and her mother, Vivien, at our guest house located just minutes away from the park entrance. The guest house had beautiful views (below) and apparently benefited genocide widows in the area, but otherwise had little to recommend it. So, moving on.
The next morning, after some orientation at park headquarters, we set off to see the gorillas, the six of our party, two more visitors - a writer and her translator - and two guides. After a short drive that put our 4WD to the test, it was time to hike. Two trackers and some soldiers ("for buffalo") joined us, we all got our walking sticks (sounds kitchy, but they turned out to be instrumental for the steep and slippery mud paths) and headed off.
The rest is pretty hard to describe in a way that does it justice, so look at the pictures and hopefully I'll get some movies up sometime soon!
We walked and walked through the jungle, up steep and slippery trails that guides basically hacked out with machetes a few paces ahead of us.
And then suddenly, they were right there!
A close look at the head silverback of the group. 
