We went to Uganda to go mountain gorilla trekking. There are about 600 or so of these mountain gorillas left in the world, all either in Uganda, Rwanda, or the Congo. It is illegal to have them in zoos. Of these 600 gorillas, there are only two families which can be visited by tourists, as it takes years for them to get used to humans being around. And on those days, each family can be visited only once, by a maximum of 6 people, and for a maximum of 1 hour. So, its a great privilege to be one of those people.

We saw both families on successive days. It was an 11 hour drive from Entebbe, Uganda to Bwindi National Forest, where we stayed in a nice permanent camp. You get up early, and walk about 1 mile to where you start hiking into the rainforest to try and find them. Of course there is a guide and an assistant, but there are no paths. The guide carries a machete, and makes the path as you go. The vegetation is such that it grows back very quickly. It was hot, and the climbing was tough on each day. You have to use your hands a lot, which is a little nerve wrecking, as you're not really sure of what you want to touch. LOTS of biting ants which you have to watch out for. On each day, one of the guides had to personally assist my mother up and down the hills.

On the first day, it only took 1 hour before we found the gorillas. Since the guides go up each day, they know where they saw the gorillas the day before. And since gorillas travel by ground, and are very heavy, the guides go to where they were last spotted, and then track them from there. There is a 95% chance of finding the gorillas each day. But the tension before hand is amazing. The build up of excitement is overwhelming. You know you've found them when the smell in the air becomes very ...different. Everyone gets very quiet, but giddy with anticipation. And then you see them, and it is unreal. You just sit down and watch for an hour. The first family was around 12 gorillas, including the silverback, and some of them were no more than 15 feet away. The silverback will look at you occassionally to make sure that you are cool, but for the most part they pay no attention. The babies, however, seem to be aware of your existence, and put on a show of climbing and swinging from the trees, and often falling off.

The second day took 4 hours to find the gorillas, and this time they were not as close, but we still got a great view of them. Unfortunately, the silverback of this group had died just a few days earlier...there were 6 in this group. We saw them in a clearing in the bushes, where they were feeding, probably about 100 feet away. Again, we spent about one hour with them, before making the hike back.

In the afternoons and evenings, you can take walks around the forest, where you can find different monkeys, or walk around the village and farms meeting the children of the area, who love to say "hello".

After gorilla trekking, we drove to another forest where there are chimpanzees. We spent 2-3 hours walking through the forest looking for them, but never did see them. Since they travel through the trees, its very hard to track them, and there is only a 25% chance of seeing them. We did, however, see many other monkeys, birds, and insects, so it was worth it.

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