So, last night we decided that we were going to try a little know trek in the Virunga Mountains. This trek is to see the Golden Monkeys. Fun. This trek is a fraction of the cost of the gorilla trek. Of course with no foresight at all we had to wake up at 5:15am to make our 6am transport to the ORPTN headquarters in Kinigi. We hired our friend Bosco to drive us.
Even before our eyes opened (which took most of the morning) we had tea, bread, water and we were on our way. We signed in for the monkey trek which was lead by a friend named Francis. Francis was the genocide survivor we interviewed. You know the one, the time when Kuntz screwed up the sound on the camera..
Anywho...
We were prepped by Francis and started our drive to the trail head. We went on what we call the Muzungu Parade. 4 SUV's and 1 VW bus (ours) on the roads to the trail head with Rwandans trying to go their work and yelling Muzungu, Muzungu.... Ick.
Once to the end of the road we hiked for about 25 minutes to the start of the park. We waited for another 30 minutes before we started in the park (the monkeys were lost). We spent that time working on our Kinyarwanda and making uncomfortable chit chat with the brits in our group (We counted 1 scarf, 3 walking sticks, 4 fanny packs and 3 cameras & lenses that were way too big...)
Francis told us to get ready to go. We geared up for a grueling 4 hour hike to see the elusive Golden Monkeys.....
7 minutes later we came across the monkeys. The GM's (as they will now be referred to) were super cool and active. Once you thought you got a good spot for a photo it was gone. Only to have another on jumping on the limbs behind you. We spent a little over an hour shooting photos and video of the GM (see above) and just watching. Fun.
Once our time was over we hiked a different way to the vehicles. There was one point where the obnoxious brit lady had a chameleon on her arm, her boyfriends arm, her friends arm, the other guys arm and she was shooting rolls and rolls of film all the time yelling.. "look a the chameleon on your arm!" or "Look at the chameleon on my arm!" (She was on brit with the scarf BTW)
We went and talked to local kids.
Once back to Ruhengeri we had lunch with our friend Bosco and walked to his home to greet his family one last time before we leave. We chatted with the family for about an hour (We each held the baby Samuel), shot photos and held the kids' attention with the video camera!
BTW-So seriously, Kuntz filmed for about 15 minutes-some of the cutest Rwandan kids posing for the camera, doing cute things-and he realized he did not push the Record button. LOL.
Bosco gave us a heart felt thank you to us and mostly to the BSM JH community for its "Caring to me and my family".
We left Bosco aty 3:20pm because we had to meet Francis at 3:30 to conduct a second interview about Rwandan history, the genocide, gacaca and his experiences (Do we call it a second interview if the first one had no sound?!)
Anyway, Francis spent about 2 hours talking about the above topics stopping a few times to chase huge birds away that were sqwaking so loud that we could not hear Francis and when a huge dynamite explosion shook the earth and deafened us (Francis assured us that it was dynamite from a road they were trying to put through the mountains).
We truly appreciate Francis and his honest interview. A few times he was visibly shaken when talking about the fact that he never found out what happened to his father and 2 of his brothers.
We made our way to the BG, the Swede Bjorn (seriously) had a kinyarwanda/english guide so we brought it to get copies (not for us because we are fluent but for other people).
After we picked up the language guide we jumped on moto-taxis and headed to the caberet that we first had brochette with our friend Justin. This place had the best brochette in all of Ruhengeri and maybe in all of Rwanda.
We were greeted warmly by Justin. (Justin if you remember is the former director of the national park where the gorilla treks are). Justin had invited a friend of his who was a businessman in Ruhengeri (his name was Justin) who sold fish from Uganda. Does well I think.
We chatted about our families, Rwanda, and our trip next summer.
Once done we took motos back to our guest house and were met by an American named Steven. Stevie (as I like to call him) is a millionaire wiz kid who sold a company at age 26 and is now traveling the world. We had Fantas and Cokes with him across the road from the guest house (I say road because very few paved streets exist in Rwanda).
Afterwards we went back, packed and went to sleep.
We are going to miss Ruhengeri.
Amahoro.
Kuntz and Cave
Even before our eyes opened (which took most of the morning) we had tea, bread, water and we were on our way. We signed in for the monkey trek which was lead by a friend named Francis. Francis was the genocide survivor we interviewed. You know the one, the time when Kuntz screwed up the sound on the camera..
Anywho...
We were prepped by Francis and started our drive to the trail head. We went on what we call the Muzungu Parade. 4 SUV's and 1 VW bus (ours) on the roads to the trail head with Rwandans trying to go their work and yelling Muzungu, Muzungu.... Ick.
Once to the end of the road we hiked for about 25 minutes to the start of the park. We waited for another 30 minutes before we started in the park (the monkeys were lost). We spent that time working on our Kinyarwanda and making uncomfortable chit chat with the brits in our group (We counted 1 scarf, 3 walking sticks, 4 fanny packs and 3 cameras & lenses that were way too big...)
Francis told us to get ready to go. We geared up for a grueling 4 hour hike to see the elusive Golden Monkeys.....
7 minutes later we came across the monkeys. The GM's (as they will now be referred to) were super cool and active. Once you thought you got a good spot for a photo it was gone. Only to have another on jumping on the limbs behind you. We spent a little over an hour shooting photos and video of the GM (see above) and just watching. Fun.
Once our time was over we hiked a different way to the vehicles. There was one point where the obnoxious brit lady had a chameleon on her arm, her boyfriends arm, her friends arm, the other guys arm and she was shooting rolls and rolls of film all the time yelling.. "look a the chameleon on your arm!" or "Look at the chameleon on my arm!" (She was on brit with the scarf BTW)
We went and talked to local kids.
Once back to Ruhengeri we had lunch with our friend Bosco and walked to his home to greet his family one last time before we leave. We chatted with the family for about an hour (We each held the baby Samuel), shot photos and held the kids' attention with the video camera!
BTW-So seriously, Kuntz filmed for about 15 minutes-some of the cutest Rwandan kids posing for the camera, doing cute things-and he realized he did not push the Record button. LOL.
Bosco gave us a heart felt thank you to us and mostly to the BSM JH community for its "Caring to me and my family".
We left Bosco aty 3:20pm because we had to meet Francis at 3:30 to conduct a second interview about Rwandan history, the genocide, gacaca and his experiences (Do we call it a second interview if the first one had no sound?!)
Anyway, Francis spent about 2 hours talking about the above topics stopping a few times to chase huge birds away that were sqwaking so loud that we could not hear Francis and when a huge dynamite explosion shook the earth and deafened us (Francis assured us that it was dynamite from a road they were trying to put through the mountains).
We truly appreciate Francis and his honest interview. A few times he was visibly shaken when talking about the fact that he never found out what happened to his father and 2 of his brothers.
We made our way to the BG, the Swede Bjorn (seriously) had a kinyarwanda/english guide so we brought it to get copies (not for us because we are fluent but for other people).
After we picked up the language guide we jumped on moto-taxis and headed to the caberet that we first had brochette with our friend Justin. This place had the best brochette in all of Ruhengeri and maybe in all of Rwanda.
We were greeted warmly by Justin. (Justin if you remember is the former director of the national park where the gorilla treks are). Justin had invited a friend of his who was a businessman in Ruhengeri (his name was Justin) who sold fish from Uganda. Does well I think.
We chatted about our families, Rwanda, and our trip next summer.
Once done we took motos back to our guest house and were met by an American named Steven. Stevie (as I like to call him) is a millionaire wiz kid who sold a company at age 26 and is now traveling the world. We had Fantas and Cokes with him across the road from the guest house (I say road because very few paved streets exist in Rwanda).
Afterwards we went back, packed and went to sleep.
We are going to miss Ruhengeri.
Amahoro.
Kuntz and Cave
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