Silverback

This was the second silverback in an unusual setting with two silverback males in one family. This one seemed pretty benign. Watched him eat and grunt for quite a while.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Here he comes!

OMG what a day! The most challenging hike I have personally ever taken. Met up with Amahoro family (means peace) after two hour hike through ungodly mountainous jungle. I am sure I will recover in time. Meet gahinga in this photo - a strapping , young black back who from the photo you can see is cocking his right hand to knock me backwards to the ground. Think he was venting his spleen towards one of the babies on me. Or on the other hand he may have been threatened by my obvious power. No matter - he pounded his chest, charged and knocked me to the ground. Rolled one of the trackers downhill. Unfortunately this was the least painful part of the day. Mike
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

In Kigali

First night at a little hotel with little soaps but hot water! Picked up our gorilla permits. That only took one hour. Apparently planning 11 months in advance made it harder for them - not easier.
Visited the genocide memorial museum. Very powerful. Our guides family was killed (he was out of the country) and his father and younger brother were identified and buried there.
Then two hour drive up to the mountains. Beautiful countryside even though overcast and still drizzly. Just had lunch and are now going to see the Twin Lakes.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Rwanda

Well after delayed flights and tight connections we got here. Unfortunately one bag didn't make it. Fortunately we packed everything we need in carry ons. Checked in to our hotel. Met with our guide. Was raining when we landed...could be a muddy trek.
Stay tuned.

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Rejoice with us for we have found a camera!

Yes, Michael found a camera. I know nothing. I want to know nothing. But we have a camera. So we celebrated 2 hours later with drinks in the bar here at the Ritz. Drinks which are, surprisingly, cheaper than drinks at Cap Juluca in Anguilla. And then we had a lovely dinner at the Denny's around the corner. Yup, that's us…even when we stay at the Ritz, we dine at Denny's. Want to join us for a Grand Slam for breakfast?

 

Seriously, now, do not despair. The blogs should get a lot more interesting after this. After all, in a little over 36 hours we are in the mountains in the Land of a Thousand Hills. That will be even better than the Ritz.

As far as San Juan

Well, not everything goes smoothly. But I guess everything happens for a reason. First of all, sorry to be misleading. There are no issues with our actual travel, yet. We were only supposed to get as far as San Juan today. The problem is that we sprung for the Ritz Carlton overnight with visions of sipping drinks by the pool eagerly anticipating our travels but I am here in the room and Michael is at Best Buy.
Luckily, and this is the everything happens for a reason part, he got a hankering to take some photos of me down on the beach last night. And had it not been for that, he might not have realized that his fancy Nikon camera was malfunctioning until we were in Rwanda trying to get that perfrect gorilla picture. This way he knew last night. Still not a lot of help since Nikon phone support couldn't solve the problem but at least we had the layover here in Puerto Rico and some hope of getting a new camera body tonight. (There would have been NO chance of that happening had we been leaving straight through from Anguilla to Africa.) Even so I'd be feeling much more comfortable if our bazillion calls to Costco, Walmart, and Best Buy and even a professional photographer in San Juan last night and this morning had been more positively informative, but we are hoping that some of the issue was lost in translation and that in person Michael will be more successful in finding what he needs.
Fingers crossed.

What are the odds?

Here we are having drinks down by the beach and talking about how in one week we will be sleeping in the mountains of Rwanda with visions of gorillas dancing in our heads and what do we find on cnn.com tonight but a video about……yes…..gorilla trekking in Rwanda.

 

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2009/09/06/mckenzie.rwanda.gorilla.cnn