Gorilla trek.

Gorilla Trek, Uganda.

I tried to get a gorilla trek for me and the boys, but they were too young. In the end, I was able to join Jacelyn (one of Paul's Canadian classmates) on her gorilla trek. It was the last weekend that my family was to be in Africa. I had loved all the time I'd had with the boys and we'd been together non-stop 4+ months at that point. Plus, I had a lot of things on my emotional plate. This was a much needed weekend away from my family (and nice time for Paul to be with just the boys) and I'll be forever grateful for being able to join her to see these amazing animals and to have Jacelyn's down-to-earth company.

Roadside market. I love how the cow looks like it's on the roof. Most of the things are sold in the amounts you see them stacked in.

Steep countryside. Very lush and pretty. Hard living, though.

I just really like how this sign says "piggery mgt." I would have liked to know what they would teach. Also Irish potato means what we think of as yellow potato. When you were out at an eating establishment and there were whole or cut cooked potentates they were simply referred to as Irish, not potatoes but just Irish- that took me a bit to realize. 

We stayed the night up in the hills and it was chilly. They made us our own little charcoal fire for warmth since we were eating outside. 

This place got it's power off the grid. At night, the lights ran on battery and to walk to and from they hung lanterns along the paths and you also had our own to take with you. I have since gotten one of my grandma's just like it and used it a weekend here at our cabin. I love it. I love this picture. It was so amazing up there. So soothing and healing feeling. You just felt the peace and like you could breath. I think that was also in part to the cool air, lack of dust and traffic.

Beautiful view from the eating area. It was just the two of us staying there. We were along the edge of the DRC and the residence said they could see helicopters, lights (at night) from the warring occurring.

Outhouse and hand washing station at the ranger's office.

We were along the edge of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. The specific family we saw is one that has been watched and tracked for more than 10 years (I want to say 15 years). They were used to people watching them so they didn't run away. Here you see Jacelyn sitting in of their beds from the night before, at this point we knew were getting close to them. They weren't in the forest when we saw them, they had come out into the farm lands. We followed a narrow path between patches of farms then up and along a really steep hillside. The sticks were nice for 'sounding' to see if you were going to be stepping on the ground or just vegetation that would drop away. 

This is the silverback of the group. Once you reach the gorillas you can spend one hour. I didn't take too many photos and of the ones I did, there weren't too many that were great. They were pretty indifferent to us being there, or they seemed like it. It might also be that they just refused to look at us. As if were were an annoyance and they thought we might go away of they ignored us. Before this silverback was sitting here (in picture) he moved and wanted to walk between our group (it was us, the guide, the escorts with riffles and the other 6 tourists who each had porters). He kind of stood there a moment to wait for us to move then walked through. He was so close we could have touched him. He practically walked on Jace's feet. It's almost hard to remember they aren't tame, they aren't docile, they could kill us if they wanted. Then when you see him walking towards you and you all start to move and the guide are saying slowly! slowly!! -you remember.

After. We stopped here for lunch. We are excited, giddy and in awe about what just happened.

It was a special experience that I'll always treasure. Similar to the night I saw a mother sea turtle come out of the Pacific, dig a hole, lay eggs, bury them and return to the ocean under a full moon with a close friend and her daughter. These mountain gorillas are at risk. There are some estimates that suggest there are less than 1,000. Habit loss, poaching and war are some of the threats they face.

Photos Uganda

One of the early weekends in Uganda, we took a family trip to Entebe, the four of us! We went to the botanical garden and a reptile park.

This flower was AMAZING. It looked totally fake. We found out it seemed vaguely familiar because plastic copies are often displayed in Asian restaurants. It is in a tree that also has a round hard fruit. In this instance I mean that as a botanical description not edible food.

The boys looking at a GIANT spider. It is called a golden spider because of the web. I thought the web had that hue due to pollen that had stuck on the sticky web but it's the color the spider makes. It would be interesting to look into the evolutionary reason why. Some spiders make a white cotton like back and forth design that is meant to be like dappled sunlight to attract insects. 

What do you think this is? Looks like the skin of a small animal right?! It's not. It's the outside of some flower/fruit (not edible again). This example isn't fresh it's dried so it's more stiff and brown vs silvery/green. I was tempted to rub my face on it since it was quite soft but I've learned my lesson about plant fibers being soft then suddenly super irritating to your skin so I refrained. We tried to trick the kids that we'd picked up the skin of a rodent/small animal.

These monkeys are really everywhere, not talking about my boys. 

Reptile Park

This place has signs but was WAY off the beaten path. By the time we go there I'd began to think the place was a hoax, luckily it was not, it was real.

Yes, we are glad for the glass.

BEST BEST BEST part was this enclosure of chameleons. They had 3 types. One didn't make it very long since it was from a higher, colder mountain area. They had babies too since they reproduced in the enclosure as well. SOOOOOOOO cute. It had a kind of a bad smell which I thought was perhaps from years of reptile excrement (I know the smell because of the years we owned lizards). Nope -not it. Turns out they put in dead fish on the ground here and there to attract flies for the lizards to eat. Although this stinks, it's creative and works.

I wasn't the only one who was in a spotting holding frenzy. It was an internal frenzy for all the boys and I. We were outwardly calm. 

This is the type of chameleon that is more suited to cold mountain areas. I want to go back there with the boys and just find all of them and hold them all again. I think it would take me a long time to get tired of it.

Look, this guy matches your shirt.

This guy was SO tolerant and patient. He was really most fond of the poisonous snakes. See his back right hand? It's his snake stick thing, he used to press down their heads to grab them or to bother them enough to show us how some would hiss. Then he'd pick them up! After irritating them! This wasn't gardener or gopher snakes. They were vipers and such. He loved his job, he had specific snakes that were his favorites, ones that could kill him if they bit.

When we were looking at some snakes a bit of heavy metal tubing (thrown by a weed whacker with a metal saw disc) hit my ankle bone and hurt like, well you can imagine. There is still a bump (months later) that swells and subsides with a lot of activity. I'd get hit again but to hold these little guys. See that tiny cute baby, no I am not talking about my son who is so cute I could die, I am talking about the baby match stick size chameleon. I have only SEEN pictures on books of them this size. I was trilled to find them.

More babies. I am reliving how over the top cute they are as I type this.

There was also this giant grasshopper in the enclosure and of course it was spotted by my boy who held it.

Just a few pictures from around the city of Kampala:

This is one of the garbage eating storks. In real life they are Marabou Storks. They are GIANT and not super cute up close. There is supposed to be this crazy percentage of garbage they eat in Kampala in one day, but I forgot it. One of Paul's classmates was really sad when one pooped right on her. Her head, shoulder, filled her pocket, shoes etc. A favorite story of the boys to hear. Have Paul tell it to you some time. Nasty.

Sometimes the translation of things was interesting. Part of the time it was incorrect and part of the time it was us not knowing Queen's English. Just two examples we didn't know; a Jacketed Potato was a baked potato, a crumpled fish fillet was a breaded fish filet. If you didn't notice the odd menu choice here it is the last drink choice, a Glass of Birth. Turns out this was a typo and it's a glass of milk. I don't drink milk but I'd rather drink a glass of milk than a glass of birth, because my imagination can make a glass of birth pretty gross. If you are wondering about prices this was at the Student Union of Makerere University. 

One day I took the boys on a walk to tour some king's tombs. The walk looked much closer on a map and all the street (on the path I plotted) looked developed. This was actually through a slum. It was during our first week or so in Kampala and I'd gone and gotten myself (boys with me of course) a map at a bookstore in the mall. Just finding out where to get a map was a process. Then the mall was an unnerving experience since the terrorist who had done the shootings in Kenya had crossed the boarder and the mall was a possible target so security was extra heightened and so on (side note many places had the mirrors on wheels to check under cars for bombs, checked people's bags and persons for .... guns?). On this walk people were looking at us like we just came off an UFO. I think because mzungus (anyone who is non African) don't walk, especially with children. We had a great guide at the tomb site who was so impressed (or concerned?) about us walking that he walked us down, afterwards, to the taxi stand and negotiated a taxi ride to our hotel with a driver who spoke zero English. 

This is the building that was directly across from our hotel. I always found it interesting how the top middle opening was set up like a living room. Often there were men sitting up there having tea or coffee. The top story is like a doll house and someone just took the front off so you could see inside.

I found a swimming pool near by the hotel for the kids to use. I was told by the staff at our hotel there was a hotel with a pool but they didn't know the name because it didn't have a name. It was an interesting experience getting there. Past garbage eating cows, a community water source, chickens, a 'restaurant' (women cooking on the ground and selling the food, I am sure that type of vending has a name), through these places lined with tin (like above), through a small door, along some container boxes (that was once we passed into 'Hotel' property where they were still building the actual hotel), past people digging the foundation of said hotel, past welders, walk over extension cords with bare wires that are twisted together to make them longer and then you reach the pool. The hotel did have a name but at that point I understood why they would say the hotel didn't have a name yet.

The hotel isn't open but this pool/deck area is open, as is the bar, small snack area and changing rooms. But there was a 'ditch' running around the edge of the pool where you could see wires and whatnot. They had big parties there too on the weekends and things. The manager talked to me a long time one day, he was really friendly. You'd have no idea of this from the road. I asked him how people knew to come for the weekend parties (or to reserve parties, the weekend before he said they had 700 people there), he said they advertised on the radio. On one of our visits there was a band doing photos shots. It was odd.

Swamp tour and forest walk

One weekend day, the kids and I went with two of Paul's classmates, (Joanne and Kathryn) on a swamp tour and forest walk (Paul stayed in Kampala to study with a classmate). It was a great day, so pretty, and very nice to get out of the city. We all really enjoyed it.

I love that O noticed right away how the top was off the motor and the boat driver had to use a string to start it each time.

I like this shot that L took. Fishermen fished along these little canals. I saw them catching cat fish and small fish.

The Shoebill is a fascinating bird. Read about them sometime. This was what we'd all hoped to see. They live in somewhat isolation and we only saw this one that day.

I find these beautiful.

Our funny and animated guide is holding up the lotus to show how LONG the stem was.

Hamerkop.

Along the forest walk

I loved seeing what the boys would notice (L took all these photos of the forest walk and actually of the swamp tour too). They are so curious and observant.

This is an example of the spider web with the 'dappling' that is designed to trick flying insects.

On the way back that day. A circumcision tent. The rest of the text is the word 'today'.

Miscellaneous

This is from the modern mall where the boys and I went to see a movie. Yes, the same mall that was questionable to attend. The window was open above and there was this nice jagged glass.

Arabic writing. I loved seeing these kinds of familiar chain foods with non-English text.

Jinja

Paul had his away class and travel time so the boys and I decided to go to Jinja (in Uganda) then from there is when we flew to Zanzibar (in Tanzania).

Street vendor selling chapati and THE ROLEX that O wouldn't eat (see the Street Food post to read his experience of this place). 

We went to a fancy 5 star hotel to swim and eat lunch. Here you see L playing with a gecko they caught. You may also be noticing the desiccated frog in the foreground. I found it in an odd location in the 'changing room'. Somehow it was hanging on the edge of a tall cabinet by a hair. We pondered how that could have happened.

I took a photos of the guy in the yellow shirt making us a rolex. As soon as I did the guy in the red said take one of me and started to roll out this chapati then wanted to see the photo. We stayed in a cool little guest house where we could cook our own food. I found a market to get fresh vegetables and I picked out what I waned from one vendor who then seemed really sick and her eyes were weeping and I became totally paranoid she had chlamydia of the eye. It is often transmitted eye to eye by flies and I was fixated on if it was on my hands then.

This is the tour of the fabric factory. Interesting but very very different tour than we'd thought we were getting. Again a time when the boys were extraordinarily patient and didn't complain. There were about 50 other school kids here.

Here is the edge of Lake Victoria and the Nile. It was pretty cool to stand there. This was a tiny island where the river started and the lake ended. Someone skillfully built a building that spanned it before this point. BUT the made the door on the side facing the water so you had to step out onto some stones then into the door. You couldn't not go in the store if you wanted to get to the end. 

We didn't need to urinate at the time. Paul has a better collection of directions of behavior in bathrooms than I do. I had wished for my camera for many a missed sign.

See how you must walk through the store to get to the end of island. It's build completely across it but with no door on this side. I am wondering the reason needing the extra challenge.

There was a big school group of kids visiting the park one of the adults with them asked the boys if one of their 'friends' could take a photo with them. This turned into about 20-30 of the school kids posing individually with them for photos. My boys shot me looks that let me know how totally uncomfortable they were but I don't think anyone else knew. 

Sri Lanka Photos

Just a few photos from Sri Lanka. To go with the December 23rd, Sri Lanka post.

You did see a lot of these guys!

Curd. A yogurt made from buffalo milk.

Rice and curry. I LOVED eating this so much. Really good food and VERY spicy. I ate rice and curry, or breakfast of noddle hoppers (cold, thin rice noodles) every meal. The boys liked it but it was a bit spicy for L.

 Look how big these cashews are! With fresh curry leaves.

One day L and I went for a bike ride and saw this guy.

 Really cool delivery truck.

 We took a day trip to Sigiriya rock fortress (ruin) on a big rock. Halfway up the rock are these amazing paintings.

 The lion gate to the uppermost part of the city.

 Typically you have a magnificent view...

 I decided I'd trade the view and take the rain rather than navigate these walkways full of tourists. They were kind of scary, you just had to not think about how reliable they may or may not be.

I love this picture of the boys with their dad. The white off in the distant (to Left of L) is a big, white Buddha.

This isn't a great photo but I am including it. This sauce/paste he is holding is amazing. Tomatoes, red onions, lime, salt, and chili. Sounds simple but it was so good. You eat it on top of roti, flat bread which differs depending on the country you are in. His roti were rice and coconut. Our guide's friend told me how to make it. We also sampled oil cakes from this man. He was so nice.

 My highlight. The Buddha statues.

Little clay dishes that are filled with coconut oil and a wick is set in lit for the Buddha.

Pool in the rain. We didn't know our first rain-free day wouldn't be the norm.

One of the hotel staff (bartender/waiter) who was dressed in traditional wear for our last nights' formal four-course meal.

Fishing down on the beach, north of Colombo.