Golden Monkeys to Kigali

This morning we were up early again… this time to trek Golden Monkeys.  Yesterday our gorilla guides said this will be a baby hike… we were looking forward to a nice easy hike.  Well it wasn’t as steep, but it was even more muddy… there were times that I was sure my foot was going to come straight out of my hiking boot!

We found the monkeys after about an hour… wow these guys are fast… and constantly busy.  They were in the trees when we found them, the babies and toddlers were playing in the trees, jumping from branch to branch.  They are absolutely adorable!  Getting pictures of them was no easy task… constantly on the move and when they did settle down a branch with leaves was often blocking our view of them… but not to worry, just be patient, they will eventually eat what was blocking the picture.  It is incredible how much these little guys eat… (ok, they are pretty picky eaters and only want the young leaves on the bamboo shoots.

 

 

 

 

After trekking Golden Monkeys, we went back to the house we have been staying, showered and had a very nice lunch before it was time for us to check out… (it was 2:00 before we left the property) It started raining while we were sitting on the porch having lunch.  Since the house overlooks a golf course …and Kim really wanted to play the course… she decided to hit golf balls off the back lawn in the pouring rain.  Thunder and lightning wasn’t going to stop her…

 

 

We had a 3-hour drive from Volcanoes National Park to Kigali… and it was an eventful ride.  The infrastructure in Rwanda is quite incredible, paved roads with solar street lights, concrete drainage ditches, people spraying crops for bugs.  So, half way through our ride, we heard a very strange noise coming from the engine of the vehicle… Davis pulled over immediately, opened to hood and came back to get a tool out of the car.  Went back to start fiddling with whatever was wrong…  We happened to be in a small village, now the locals are starting to move toward us walking very close to the vehicle.  Davis goes to one of the locals and asks for something… the guy comes back with a knife… Davis then tells us the problem is with the AC belt… he cuts the belt off and gets back in the car and we are off.  But wait a minute… the AC belt!!! You mean this vehicle has AC and we haven’t been using it!  Davis laughed and said he uses it in the dry season when the roads are dusty. 

Next we see someone being pulled over by the Rwanda police… they just step out onto the road and wave drivers over to the side of the road…  It was a spend trap just like we have in the US.  We drive into Kigali, wow it is a very big, busy city!  We get to our hotel, the Kigali Serena Hotel and approach the guard post.  Guards come out search the vehicle, lift hood, check under carriage with mirrors and then let us through.  Davis tells us to go into the lobby and our bags will be brought to us… Ok, off we go… through metal detectors and baggage scanners before were are allowed to enter hotel.  Last week Kigali hosted the World Economic Summit and the dignitaries stayed at our hotel… is this level of security left over from that meeting… No… it appears to be standard protocol.

Kigali... big capital city of Rwanda...

 

The Kigali Serena Hotel is a very nice hotel… so nice that we had to dig our Dubai dinner clothes out from the bottom of our bags for dinner at the hotel.

Fun facts:

• Volcanoes National Park is shared by three countries (Uganda, Rwanda and the Congo)