Hi all, here are some links to the latest picture albums
Murchison Falls National Park
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2105955&l=5f861&id=2606069
Mt. Elgon - Pt. 1
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2105944&l=6d251&id=2606069
Mt. Elgon - Pt. 2
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2105953&l=a5ab8&id=2606069
Ramogi
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2105954&l=ff111&id=2606069
Kampala
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2105958&l=54faf&id=2606069
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Mbale, Ramogi, and Jinja
Hi all, hope everyone's doing fine. So I'm going to backtrack a little in time to my trip from Kampala to Mbale, before I did the Mt. Elgon climb. I can't remember if I mentioned this in an earlier post, but even if I did, it's worth going over again. The Kampala bus park/station/field of chaos is the craziest thing I've seen of its kind in Africa. It's one big fenced in area with one exit and one entry. Inside are several hundred minibuses in no discernible order of any kind. All the buses look the same, so you can ask someone where a bus to Mbale is and they'll point across a sea of buses that all look the same, and all you can do is try to not cry and hope to eventually get on the right one. Once you do find the right bus you'll be on it at least an hour just trying to get out. There are no lanes for buses to go on to get out, so it takes yelling, honking, and mostly enormous amounts of time waiting just to get out of the bus park. After this you have another hour of going through the horrible Kampala traffic to get out of the city before you can start moving at reasonable speed to your destination. Since all the drivers are nuts and once they have an open road they go 140km/hour, so very quickly you almost wish you were stuck in traffic going 1km/hour, but at least not going to die in a high speed collision.
Alright, so I'm going to Mbale and I see another mzungu on my minibus. The mzungu, Wes, turns out to be a peacecorp volunteer based just a few kilometers outside of Mbale, and I heard all sorts of interesting things about his health projects, Uganda, and just life as a volunteer in general. That night he was meeting some other volunteers in Mbale for someone's bday, and he invited me to join them all. His group of peacecorp folks were very nice, and I had a great time hanging out with them that night. They came in from all over the country and I might go visit some others around Kampala in a few days.
After the Mt. Elgon hike I pretty much passed out, but the next day I went an hour north of Mbale to Sipi falls, which I had heard amazing things about for several weeks now. One person even told me they thought it was the prettiest place in Uganda. Well it ain't. It's a very pretty falls, but I had just done a three day hike with some of the most amazing scenery I had ever seen. So I was not overly impressed, and I've seen some pretty amazing waterfalls in my life, including on this trip, so while it's a nice place, it's quite overhyped.
Still, there was a nice place to get pancakes overlooking the falls so I spent half a day reading, eating, and resting my sore body from the hike. The other reason I went over there was because this was the exit point for Nico, the guy I met halfway through the hike. We planned to meet there to figure out rafting on the nile a few days later. Met up with him and we set up the rafting for yesterday.
Before the rafting I made a quick visit to a small village called Ramogi. A group from the synagogue I grew up in Portland had volunteered in this village several months ago building a school building for the village. The town is just outside of Tororo, very close to the Kenyan border, and about an hour from Mbale. I went to the office of the group that organized the project in Tororo and introduced myself. The director was very happy to see me, and immediately had two of his workers take me out to the site in their truck. I saw the building they worked on, and the village in general, but most of the people were outside the village at a local soccer/football match. Still, there were a group of schoolgirls that came up to me almost right away and asked to sing for me. So I got a very nice mini-concert from the very nice group of kids, and every person I met in the village was very kind. The area is poor, and its drier than the west of the country and the area immediately surrounding Mt. Elgon. Still, they have some decent agriculture going on and they have a plan to have tourists visit the area and profit a little from that. You can see Mt. Elgon in the distance and its a pretty area in general. So I had a quick visit, but it was nice to see the site, and afterwards I headed to west for the rafting trip the following day.
The rafting takes place on the Victoria Nile, just north of Jinja, one of Uganda's larger cities. There are a few dams on the outskirts of the city that provide most of the electricity for the country. They're building another, which will flood most of the rapids I went on yesterday, so that'll be a shame. The rafting is considered to be some of the best in the world with four class five rapids, and the day was a blast. We flipped our raft a few times, I jumped in a few others, and had a great time. We were a pretty small group, only five of us, but good folks. Nico, from Mt. Elgon, myself, two older volunteers from the UK, and an american who is working as a pilot for NGO workers in Goma, DRC.
Today I was considering heading back in the direction of Mbale to visit the Ugandan Jews. I don't know the entire story, but there is a group of several hundred Jews living just outside of Mbale. They're completely Ugandan, but some time ago adopted Judaism, and while they're not recognized by the rabbinate in Israel, they practice the religion. I was too tired to get on a bus again today, but maybe next Friday or Saturday I'll make it out there. So instead of going there I went fishing today on the nile. The rafting hostel has some fishing poles and I spent my morning doing that, and caught a grand total of zero fish. Still, it was a nice time. I think I'll go take a nap now, and tomorrow lazily make my way back to Kampala. Tengo algunas cosas to take care of on Monday, and than I don't know what I'll do. There's no lack of things to do in Uganda, but I just have to decide.
On Monday or maybe even Sunday evening I'll be posting pictures from Murchison Falls and Mt. Elgon(which are really good) and I'll have those links on the blog. Hope everyone is having a nice weekend, and I'll post again soon. I need to write about the boda-boda(motorcycle taxi) drivers, who provide me with a constant source of entertainment. Anyways, que les vaya bien. B
Alright, so I'm going to Mbale and I see another mzungu on my minibus. The mzungu, Wes, turns out to be a peacecorp volunteer based just a few kilometers outside of Mbale, and I heard all sorts of interesting things about his health projects, Uganda, and just life as a volunteer in general. That night he was meeting some other volunteers in Mbale for someone's bday, and he invited me to join them all. His group of peacecorp folks were very nice, and I had a great time hanging out with them that night. They came in from all over the country and I might go visit some others around Kampala in a few days.
After the Mt. Elgon hike I pretty much passed out, but the next day I went an hour north of Mbale to Sipi falls, which I had heard amazing things about for several weeks now. One person even told me they thought it was the prettiest place in Uganda. Well it ain't. It's a very pretty falls, but I had just done a three day hike with some of the most amazing scenery I had ever seen. So I was not overly impressed, and I've seen some pretty amazing waterfalls in my life, including on this trip, so while it's a nice place, it's quite overhyped.
Still, there was a nice place to get pancakes overlooking the falls so I spent half a day reading, eating, and resting my sore body from the hike. The other reason I went over there was because this was the exit point for Nico, the guy I met halfway through the hike. We planned to meet there to figure out rafting on the nile a few days later. Met up with him and we set up the rafting for yesterday.
Before the rafting I made a quick visit to a small village called Ramogi. A group from the synagogue I grew up in Portland had volunteered in this village several months ago building a school building for the village. The town is just outside of Tororo, very close to the Kenyan border, and about an hour from Mbale. I went to the office of the group that organized the project in Tororo and introduced myself. The director was very happy to see me, and immediately had two of his workers take me out to the site in their truck. I saw the building they worked on, and the village in general, but most of the people were outside the village at a local soccer/football match. Still, there were a group of schoolgirls that came up to me almost right away and asked to sing for me. So I got a very nice mini-concert from the very nice group of kids, and every person I met in the village was very kind. The area is poor, and its drier than the west of the country and the area immediately surrounding Mt. Elgon. Still, they have some decent agriculture going on and they have a plan to have tourists visit the area and profit a little from that. You can see Mt. Elgon in the distance and its a pretty area in general. So I had a quick visit, but it was nice to see the site, and afterwards I headed to west for the rafting trip the following day.
The rafting takes place on the Victoria Nile, just north of Jinja, one of Uganda's larger cities. There are a few dams on the outskirts of the city that provide most of the electricity for the country. They're building another, which will flood most of the rapids I went on yesterday, so that'll be a shame. The rafting is considered to be some of the best in the world with four class five rapids, and the day was a blast. We flipped our raft a few times, I jumped in a few others, and had a great time. We were a pretty small group, only five of us, but good folks. Nico, from Mt. Elgon, myself, two older volunteers from the UK, and an american who is working as a pilot for NGO workers in Goma, DRC.
Today I was considering heading back in the direction of Mbale to visit the Ugandan Jews. I don't know the entire story, but there is a group of several hundred Jews living just outside of Mbale. They're completely Ugandan, but some time ago adopted Judaism, and while they're not recognized by the rabbinate in Israel, they practice the religion. I was too tired to get on a bus again today, but maybe next Friday or Saturday I'll make it out there. So instead of going there I went fishing today on the nile. The rafting hostel has some fishing poles and I spent my morning doing that, and caught a grand total of zero fish. Still, it was a nice time. I think I'll go take a nap now, and tomorrow lazily make my way back to Kampala. Tengo algunas cosas to take care of on Monday, and than I don't know what I'll do. There's no lack of things to do in Uganda, but I just have to decide.
On Monday or maybe even Sunday evening I'll be posting pictures from Murchison Falls and Mt. Elgon(which are really good) and I'll have those links on the blog. Hope everyone is having a nice weekend, and I'll post again soon. I need to write about the boda-boda(motorcycle taxi) drivers, who provide me with a constant source of entertainment. Anyways, que les vaya bien. B
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Mt. Elgon
On the second day of my hike two of the armed rangers shot and killed a poacher right in front of me. Got your attention? Well, you'll have to read until Day 2 to find out what happened.
First, a little background. Mt. Elgon is the 8th highest peak in Africa making it the Mt. Manaslu or Mt. Fridtjof Nansen of Africa. Its located on the eastern border of Uganda, the mountain is shared with Kenya, which has about half of it. The peak is in Uganda, though. It has the largest base of any freestanding volcano in the world, and is thought to have been much higher than Kilimanjaro. About 20 million years ago it erupted leaving an enormous caldera, which the park service in Uganda claims is the largest in the world. Even if its not, and I don't really trust the Ugandan authorities on this, it's pretty big. There are several different hiking routes and I chose one that is supposed to be done in five days, but looking at the route it was pretty clear to me it could be done in four. After a little haggling with the park rangers they agreed to let me do it in four and arranged the guides and rangers. The next day I started the hike and...
Day 1:
The hike started at about 2000 meters and since I got a late start we decided only to go to the first camp which is about 11k from the park entrance, but has a good 1000 meter elevation gain. I passed through really beautiful, almost temperate rainforest looking, forest initially before passing through the bamboo forest range, which is at a higher elevation. We reached the campsite, Tutum cave, which was very, very pretty. The campsite is an enormous cave with a waterfall going over in front of the cave. Horsetail falls like, but the cave is bigger while the falls is smaller than at horsetail. The other cool thing about the cave is it has thousands and thousands of bats that at dusk all flew out to go have dinner. Well, I set up my tent in the cave, and went to sleep eventually only to be woken up by the guards. They said they heard something in the cave, and there had been reports of a leopard living in the cave not too long ago. So...I moved out of the area I was in to be next to the guards and the fire they had going constantly throughout the night. No leopard sightings that night, and I'm not convinced there was one, but I guess it was best I moved the tent.
Day 2:
Since we started late on the first day and only got to the first campsite we had a really long day head of us on the second. We had to cover about 43k alltoghether to get to the camp which is the base for going to the summit. Still in the bamboo forest we started walking further up the mountain, but eventually leveled off in an area above the forest. The vegetation started getting pretty weird and its a vegetation zone that only exists on alpine mountains in Africa. Eventually, probably another week, I'll get pictures uploaded and you can see it there. So...I'm not going to try to describe it, but its really, really, really cool looking stuff. There were a few tough climbs, but for the most part it was fairly level ground.
The hike was beautiful, and it was an otherwise uneventful day until we reached an area where the landscape opened up and you could descend down to Kenya if you wanted, and the vegetation was less dense. All of a sudden we see this guy run only about 15 meters in front of us, and the two rangers take off after him. He was a poacher, and while many apparently have guns, it was very clear to me, that he only had a machete on him. The rangers yelled at him to stop or they would shoot (that's what they translated to me later). He didn't stop, and they started shooting. They missed him badly at first, but after a minute they hit him a few times and he went down. I was pretty upset over the whole thing primarily because they never tried to shoot low and his legs, stopping him, but not necessarily killing him. I had taken along some Israeli army bandages and had a lot of first aid stuff in my pack. I ran over to see if he was still alive and if it was possible to do anything, but one of the bullets got him in the head, and he was clearly dead. Don't worry, I put on latex gloves first, but I checked for a pulse, and there was none.
I was pissed at the rangers for not shooting low, but they than claimed they saw two other poachers in the distance, but running away from us. I never saw the other two, but irregardless, it seemed a little dangerous to stay there. We had another two hours of light, and it was another hour to our camp. We were also in an exposed area, and we'd be easy targets if the poacher's friends decided to come back and attack us. Basically, after contacting the park headquarters we ran across the open area to the other side of the valley to where there was thick vegetation and than made our way quickly to the camp. First a side note - the whole hike we were moving very quickly, but I was sure my guides could do faster. I saw how much faster they could do on the way back to our camp after the shooting. After just a few minutes one of them was almost a kilometer ahead of me, and I was blown away by how much faster the local folks are than mzungus like myself who are in pretty good shape.
That night a few more park rangers came to the camp as a precaution, and the next morning they went out to get the body. Poaching is apparently not a huge problem in the area, but I wouldn't have known it from my hike. The poachers will kill anything, but buffalo is the most lucrative animal. Its illegal to serve it, but apparently some high end hotels will buy it illegally for clientelle that want buffalo meat. After being assured that the hike to the summit was far away from the areas where poachers go I decided to go on with the hike.
Day 3:
Very late, the previous night, a mzungu and his guide and ranger entourage also arrived from a different route to summit the following day. So all of us made out for the summit, called Wagagai, which is 4,321 meters. The other mzungu, Nico from London, is a very cool guy, and it was a nice hike to the summit. While it was still cold, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and we spent a bit of time up there. At that point Nico and his crew continued the way I had come from the previous day, despite the poaching incident, and my crew and I summitted what is called Jackson's peak. While a few hundred meters lower than Wagagai it is a more impressive peak and I thought the view was better as well. From both summits you can see well into the Kenyan side and its just a gorgeous afro-alpine caldera landscape all around. Again, you'll see it in pictures eventually so I won't try to describe it too much.
We got back to the camp where we spent the night around noon. After a quick lunch we started going down the mountain to a camp not too far from the park boundary. We reached that camp earlier than expected and at that point it made sense just to head all the way to the bottom. So what was supposed to be an easy day, compared to the distance covered in Day 2, turned into a 40k day as well, but I made it back to Mbale, the largest town in the area, by night.
The hike down the mountain was similar to the hike up, even though its a different area of the mountain. Bamboo forest leads into temperate looking forest, and its all very, very pretty. The last section of the hike goes through a rural agricultural area that encompasses the base of the mountain. Its the prettiest farm, rural area I've seen in Africa. Lots of coffee, bananas, lettuce, maize, beans, nicely kept homes, streams going throughout the area, and I was blown away. That part was almost my favorite of the entire hike, but the weird high alpine vegetation was the best.
That was my hike, which was one of the best I've ever done, and incredibly memorable, even if not always for the best reasons. Oh, if you're curious what will happen on the whole legal side of the poaching incident. In short, nothing. An investigation will happen, but from what I was told since the guy was a poacher it doesn't matter that he wasn't armed or that the rangers never tried to shoot low. He's a poacher, and he deserves to die is the basic mindset around the whole thing.
I'm going to be in the Mbale area for the next few days, primarily resting my sore body, and on Friday I plan on rafting in the Nile river with Nico, the guy I met on the Elgon hike. The rafting leaves from a town just an hour east of Kampala, called Jinja, and the rafting is supposed to some of the best in the world, and only the Zambezi, below Victoria Falls, is supposed to better in Africa.
That's all for now, although this has to be one of my longest posts. Hope everyone is doing well, and have fun.
tchau, B
First, a little background. Mt. Elgon is the 8th highest peak in Africa making it the Mt. Manaslu or Mt. Fridtjof Nansen of Africa. Its located on the eastern border of Uganda, the mountain is shared with Kenya, which has about half of it. The peak is in Uganda, though. It has the largest base of any freestanding volcano in the world, and is thought to have been much higher than Kilimanjaro. About 20 million years ago it erupted leaving an enormous caldera, which the park service in Uganda claims is the largest in the world. Even if its not, and I don't really trust the Ugandan authorities on this, it's pretty big. There are several different hiking routes and I chose one that is supposed to be done in five days, but looking at the route it was pretty clear to me it could be done in four. After a little haggling with the park rangers they agreed to let me do it in four and arranged the guides and rangers. The next day I started the hike and...
Day 1:
The hike started at about 2000 meters and since I got a late start we decided only to go to the first camp which is about 11k from the park entrance, but has a good 1000 meter elevation gain. I passed through really beautiful, almost temperate rainforest looking, forest initially before passing through the bamboo forest range, which is at a higher elevation. We reached the campsite, Tutum cave, which was very, very pretty. The campsite is an enormous cave with a waterfall going over in front of the cave. Horsetail falls like, but the cave is bigger while the falls is smaller than at horsetail. The other cool thing about the cave is it has thousands and thousands of bats that at dusk all flew out to go have dinner. Well, I set up my tent in the cave, and went to sleep eventually only to be woken up by the guards. They said they heard something in the cave, and there had been reports of a leopard living in the cave not too long ago. So...I moved out of the area I was in to be next to the guards and the fire they had going constantly throughout the night. No leopard sightings that night, and I'm not convinced there was one, but I guess it was best I moved the tent.
Day 2:
Since we started late on the first day and only got to the first campsite we had a really long day head of us on the second. We had to cover about 43k alltoghether to get to the camp which is the base for going to the summit. Still in the bamboo forest we started walking further up the mountain, but eventually leveled off in an area above the forest. The vegetation started getting pretty weird and its a vegetation zone that only exists on alpine mountains in Africa. Eventually, probably another week, I'll get pictures uploaded and you can see it there. So...I'm not going to try to describe it, but its really, really, really cool looking stuff. There were a few tough climbs, but for the most part it was fairly level ground.
The hike was beautiful, and it was an otherwise uneventful day until we reached an area where the landscape opened up and you could descend down to Kenya if you wanted, and the vegetation was less dense. All of a sudden we see this guy run only about 15 meters in front of us, and the two rangers take off after him. He was a poacher, and while many apparently have guns, it was very clear to me, that he only had a machete on him. The rangers yelled at him to stop or they would shoot (that's what they translated to me later). He didn't stop, and they started shooting. They missed him badly at first, but after a minute they hit him a few times and he went down. I was pretty upset over the whole thing primarily because they never tried to shoot low and his legs, stopping him, but not necessarily killing him. I had taken along some Israeli army bandages and had a lot of first aid stuff in my pack. I ran over to see if he was still alive and if it was possible to do anything, but one of the bullets got him in the head, and he was clearly dead. Don't worry, I put on latex gloves first, but I checked for a pulse, and there was none.
I was pissed at the rangers for not shooting low, but they than claimed they saw two other poachers in the distance, but running away from us. I never saw the other two, but irregardless, it seemed a little dangerous to stay there. We had another two hours of light, and it was another hour to our camp. We were also in an exposed area, and we'd be easy targets if the poacher's friends decided to come back and attack us. Basically, after contacting the park headquarters we ran across the open area to the other side of the valley to where there was thick vegetation and than made our way quickly to the camp. First a side note - the whole hike we were moving very quickly, but I was sure my guides could do faster. I saw how much faster they could do on the way back to our camp after the shooting. After just a few minutes one of them was almost a kilometer ahead of me, and I was blown away by how much faster the local folks are than mzungus like myself who are in pretty good shape.
That night a few more park rangers came to the camp as a precaution, and the next morning they went out to get the body. Poaching is apparently not a huge problem in the area, but I wouldn't have known it from my hike. The poachers will kill anything, but buffalo is the most lucrative animal. Its illegal to serve it, but apparently some high end hotels will buy it illegally for clientelle that want buffalo meat. After being assured that the hike to the summit was far away from the areas where poachers go I decided to go on with the hike.
Day 3:
Very late, the previous night, a mzungu and his guide and ranger entourage also arrived from a different route to summit the following day. So all of us made out for the summit, called Wagagai, which is 4,321 meters. The other mzungu, Nico from London, is a very cool guy, and it was a nice hike to the summit. While it was still cold, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and we spent a bit of time up there. At that point Nico and his crew continued the way I had come from the previous day, despite the poaching incident, and my crew and I summitted what is called Jackson's peak. While a few hundred meters lower than Wagagai it is a more impressive peak and I thought the view was better as well. From both summits you can see well into the Kenyan side and its just a gorgeous afro-alpine caldera landscape all around. Again, you'll see it in pictures eventually so I won't try to describe it too much.
We got back to the camp where we spent the night around noon. After a quick lunch we started going down the mountain to a camp not too far from the park boundary. We reached that camp earlier than expected and at that point it made sense just to head all the way to the bottom. So what was supposed to be an easy day, compared to the distance covered in Day 2, turned into a 40k day as well, but I made it back to Mbale, the largest town in the area, by night.
The hike down the mountain was similar to the hike up, even though its a different area of the mountain. Bamboo forest leads into temperate looking forest, and its all very, very pretty. The last section of the hike goes through a rural agricultural area that encompasses the base of the mountain. Its the prettiest farm, rural area I've seen in Africa. Lots of coffee, bananas, lettuce, maize, beans, nicely kept homes, streams going throughout the area, and I was blown away. That part was almost my favorite of the entire hike, but the weird high alpine vegetation was the best.
That was my hike, which was one of the best I've ever done, and incredibly memorable, even if not always for the best reasons. Oh, if you're curious what will happen on the whole legal side of the poaching incident. In short, nothing. An investigation will happen, but from what I was told since the guy was a poacher it doesn't matter that he wasn't armed or that the rangers never tried to shoot low. He's a poacher, and he deserves to die is the basic mindset around the whole thing.
I'm going to be in the Mbale area for the next few days, primarily resting my sore body, and on Friday I plan on rafting in the Nile river with Nico, the guy I met on the Elgon hike. The rafting leaves from a town just an hour east of Kampala, called Jinja, and the rafting is supposed to some of the best in the world, and only the Zambezi, below Victoria Falls, is supposed to better in Africa.
That's all for now, although this has to be one of my longest posts. Hope everyone is doing well, and have fun.
tchau, B
Delayed Murchison Falls, Pt. 2
I forgot to tell y'all about the most interesting thing that happened at Murchison Falls. During the second night, around 4am, the other guy in my tent woke up trying to tell me there was something outside the tent. The campsite we were in has something of tame resident family of warthogs that eat grass and if you leave food in the open get at it too. Half asleep I told him it was probably the warthogs and they'd go away. To this he responded "Ben, I think it's a whole lot bigger than a warthog". Well, we opened up the fly to the tent and about a half meter away from us was a pretty large sized hippo just munching away on the grass outside the tent. Fully awake now, I closed up the tent and we just waited for a good hour before the hippo moved on. Hippos kill more people than any other mammal in Africa, but unless you disturb it they won't harm you. So it was a little intense having this several ton mammoth animal a meter away from us for an hour, but pretty cool at the same time.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Murchison Falls and Kampala
Hi all, hope everyone's doing well. First off, congrats to the Celtics on beating the Lakers. I'm just happy to see the Lakers lose. Second, I read an article that kind of upset me by an espn.com columnist. He wrote that Tiger Woods winning the US Open saved sports. I'm sorry, but wealthy white men do not realize that most people on this planet or even in the US don't care too much about golf, if at all, and as amazing an athlete as Tiger Woods is, he cannot save sports. Its amazing to me how much golfers think the sport is infinitely more popular than it is or will ever be. I wasn't aware that sports needed saving, but even if it did or does a golfer or golf will not save it. Ok...back to Africa.
I got back from my trip to Murchison Falls National Park, which was very nice. I was with a group of 16 mzungus, and there were several very nice folks there, which made it a very pleasant trip. Like I wrote before the park marks the northernmost extension of the western rift valley and lies at the northern tip of Lake Albert where the Victoria Nile empties into the lake from the east, and the Albert Nile starts out of the northern end of the lake. It was my first time seeing the Nile, so that was cool, although I will see it again in a week or so, I think. The park is named after a waterfall where the Nile is pushed into a narrow gorge creating a very impressive falls. There are also a gazillion animals, and I did a game drive yesterday that was amazing.
The first thing our group did was a boat trip up the Nile to the base of Murchison Falls, and along the way you see elephants, crocs, buffalo, etc... Similar to the boat trip I did in Queen Elizabeth NP, but this time there was a waterfall at the end of it. Than in the afternoon we went on the game drive across the savannah landscape of the Victoria Nile delta as it empties into Lake Albert. Saw lots o' animals, but the coolest were giraffes. I don't know what it is about them, but I loved seeing the giraffes. The following morning we drove to the top of Murchison Falls where you can actually see a second impressive fall that is not visible from the boat trip. When I post the pictures, maybe tomorrow, y'all can see what I'm talking about.
So that was the trip the park. Three days, and really only the three sections to it, but it was very nice, and I'm glad to have now seen pretty much the entire western rift valley from Lake Malawi to Lake Albert. Tomorrow I'm going east of Kampala to a town called Mbale, which is the base to climb Mt. Elgon. Mt. Elgon is one of volcanoes of the eastern rift valley, and has the widest base of any volcano in the world, indicating that it was at one point taller than Kilimanjaro, but today it tops out at around 4300 meters. I'm really, really looking forward to this hike, which should last around 4 days. The plantlife up near the summit is supposed to be really unique.
Before the trip to Murchison I was in Kampala for several days, and had a pretty good time. There's not much to see sightseeing wise, but its a bit city that offers a bit to do. I went to the world cup qualifying match between Uganda and Angola, in which I expected Angola to win easily, but it was Uganda who beat Angola 3-1. The atmosphere was great, although the stadium was only half full, which was a little disappointing to see. There was a street arts festival I went to one day too that was various booths of artists as well as a few projects the public could participate in the closed off section of the street it took place on. It was put on by the German embassy, and at least half the people there were German. Their embassy paid for a very nice get together for the german expat population of Kampala. I saw a percussion show, relaxed,and read a bit too. The latest book I've read is also one of the best, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. It takes place over several decades, primarily in the Belgian Congo and later Zaire. Its a fictitious story, but the historical events that occur were true. Its an amazing book, and I could go on for quite a while about it, but I think y'all should just read it and see for yourselves.
Entonces...I hope everyone is doing well, and I'll post again probably in another week when I'm down from Mt. Elgon.
tchau, B
I got back from my trip to Murchison Falls National Park, which was very nice. I was with a group of 16 mzungus, and there were several very nice folks there, which made it a very pleasant trip. Like I wrote before the park marks the northernmost extension of the western rift valley and lies at the northern tip of Lake Albert where the Victoria Nile empties into the lake from the east, and the Albert Nile starts out of the northern end of the lake. It was my first time seeing the Nile, so that was cool, although I will see it again in a week or so, I think. The park is named after a waterfall where the Nile is pushed into a narrow gorge creating a very impressive falls. There are also a gazillion animals, and I did a game drive yesterday that was amazing.
The first thing our group did was a boat trip up the Nile to the base of Murchison Falls, and along the way you see elephants, crocs, buffalo, etc... Similar to the boat trip I did in Queen Elizabeth NP, but this time there was a waterfall at the end of it. Than in the afternoon we went on the game drive across the savannah landscape of the Victoria Nile delta as it empties into Lake Albert. Saw lots o' animals, but the coolest were giraffes. I don't know what it is about them, but I loved seeing the giraffes. The following morning we drove to the top of Murchison Falls where you can actually see a second impressive fall that is not visible from the boat trip. When I post the pictures, maybe tomorrow, y'all can see what I'm talking about.
So that was the trip the park. Three days, and really only the three sections to it, but it was very nice, and I'm glad to have now seen pretty much the entire western rift valley from Lake Malawi to Lake Albert. Tomorrow I'm going east of Kampala to a town called Mbale, which is the base to climb Mt. Elgon. Mt. Elgon is one of volcanoes of the eastern rift valley, and has the widest base of any volcano in the world, indicating that it was at one point taller than Kilimanjaro, but today it tops out at around 4300 meters. I'm really, really looking forward to this hike, which should last around 4 days. The plantlife up near the summit is supposed to be really unique.
Before the trip to Murchison I was in Kampala for several days, and had a pretty good time. There's not much to see sightseeing wise, but its a bit city that offers a bit to do. I went to the world cup qualifying match between Uganda and Angola, in which I expected Angola to win easily, but it was Uganda who beat Angola 3-1. The atmosphere was great, although the stadium was only half full, which was a little disappointing to see. There was a street arts festival I went to one day too that was various booths of artists as well as a few projects the public could participate in the closed off section of the street it took place on. It was put on by the German embassy, and at least half the people there were German. Their embassy paid for a very nice get together for the german expat population of Kampala. I saw a percussion show, relaxed,and read a bit too. The latest book I've read is also one of the best, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. It takes place over several decades, primarily in the Belgian Congo and later Zaire. Its a fictitious story, but the historical events that occur were true. Its an amazing book, and I could go on for quite a while about it, but I think y'all should just read it and see for yourselves.
Entonces...I hope everyone is doing well, and I'll post again probably in another week when I'm down from Mt. Elgon.
tchau, B
Friday, June 13, 2008
Picture Links
I added a link to the blog if anyone wants to view it. Its a website with good links to websites about the East African Rift Valley for anyone interested.
...and here are quite a few picture albums I've just uploaded
Burundi
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2104007&l=ebf7f&id=2606069
Rwanda
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2102342&l=b6edf&id=2606069
Lake Bunyoni
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2104009&l=6ca40&id=2606069
Semiliki
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2104013&l=1ec04&id=2606069
QENP
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2104014&l=a54df&id=2606069
Kasenda Crater Lakes and Kibale Forest NP
...and here are quite a few picture albums I've just uploaded
Burundi
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2104007&l=ebf7f&id=2606069
Rwanda
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2102342&l=b6edf&id=2606069
Lake Bunyoni
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2104009&l=6ca40&id=2606069
Semiliki
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2104013&l=1ec04&id=2606069
QENP
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2104014&l=a54df&id=2606069
Kasenda Crater Lakes and Kibale Forest NP
Chimps hate me no more
Hi all, I'm writing this post from Kampala, the capital of Uganda. I haven't been in Kampala more than a few hours, so I have nothing to write about the city as of yet, but I did have a nice last few days in western Uganda and I finally saw some chimpanzees.
After coming back to Fort Portal from Queen Elizabeth park I went just a few kilometers south of Fort Portal to an area known as the Kasenda crater lakes area. There are several dozen small crater lakes formed during the whole western rift valley geological upheavel madness that created pretty much everything else I've seen on this trip since Lake Malawi. I stayed at a nice reserve overlooking one of the lakes, and from there I did a few days hikes. I went to some nice waterfalls, walked through banana plantations, saw lots and lots of lakes, and walked a ton. In the three days I was in this area I probably walked no less than 20k a day. In general, ever since arriving in Uganda I've been walking an enormous amount, and I'm in very good shape now because of it. However, I'm a bit tired, and I'm going to do very little physical activity, comparitively, over the next few days in Kampala and the region. Y'all can see the pictures of the region in the albums, which are currently uploading and should be done shortly.
The lakes area is right next to another national park, called Kibale forest, that has chimpanzees. After having failed on three attempts to see them I decided to give it one last chance. So yesterday morning very early I got to the park and went out, not optimistically, trying to see these damned animals. Well I did see them, and I saw a ton of them. The guide said we saw more chimps than anything other group he's taken out in the last several months. He estimates we saw around 40-50, and we were chasing after them too. First, we heard them as they were screaming to eachother about locations of food, supposedly. After following the screams for half an hour we finally came across the group. We found the dominant male of the group, which is why we saw so many, because he travels with an entourage. They were moving all over the place, so over the next two hours we almost ran trying to stay with them. They stopped at times to do nothing, or climb trees to eat fruits or do nothing up in the trees, but mostly they moved. So it was very tiring, but well, well worth it and I can say I finally saw a chimp in the wild.
Almost as memorable as seeing chimps and hiking through beautiful areas full of lakes and waterfalls, was watching the Euro 2008 games in the nearby town to the lake reserve where I was staying. The town, called Rwaihamba, has market days on Monday and Thursday. Por lo tanto, the people of this village must be a lost tribe of Israel and still have the tradition of market days on those specific days due to the reading of the Torah. I found no proof of this while I was there, but I'm probably right. Anyways, there is a liquor made from fermented banana juice here in Uganda and its vile. The alcohol percentage is upwards of 75-80% and its just awful. The folks watching the game were drinking lots of it and they were absolutely out of control. Really, really drunk folks, and while it was lots of fun to watch with them, I feel for their families after the game when they went home. I had a shot, but it's so vile you can't have more than that.
So I'm in Kampala now, and I'll be here until Wednesday when I go northwest to Murchison Falls National Park. The park lies on the northern edge of Lake Albert, which is the northern end of the Western Rift Valley. The Western Rift Valley goes from Lake Albert to Lake Malawi, and I have done all of it except this section, so it will be quite cool to get there. The park is named after some apparently impressive falls, where the Nile goes through a tight gorge. The falls are the main attraction, along with the lake, but there's lots of animals too in the area. I'm going on an organized trip, the first time I'll be doing that, but there's a hostel in Kampala that does it cheaper than you could on your own. So I'll be there for three days with seven other people, and it should be a really nice time.
In the meantime I'm just going to do some errand type stuff and see Kampala over the next few days. Tomorrow is a world cup qualifier between Uganda and Angola, so I'll definitily go to that too. Angola is a much better team than Uganda, so I'm not sure it will be the best atmosphere, as Angola should win, but who knows. I might go to Entebbe too for a day. Well that's all for this post. I'll probably write again after Murchison Falls in a week from now. Picture links will go up shortly for everything since Burundi until now, and the map is updated too.
ate mais, B
After coming back to Fort Portal from Queen Elizabeth park I went just a few kilometers south of Fort Portal to an area known as the Kasenda crater lakes area. There are several dozen small crater lakes formed during the whole western rift valley geological upheavel madness that created pretty much everything else I've seen on this trip since Lake Malawi. I stayed at a nice reserve overlooking one of the lakes, and from there I did a few days hikes. I went to some nice waterfalls, walked through banana plantations, saw lots and lots of lakes, and walked a ton. In the three days I was in this area I probably walked no less than 20k a day. In general, ever since arriving in Uganda I've been walking an enormous amount, and I'm in very good shape now because of it. However, I'm a bit tired, and I'm going to do very little physical activity, comparitively, over the next few days in Kampala and the region. Y'all can see the pictures of the region in the albums, which are currently uploading and should be done shortly.
The lakes area is right next to another national park, called Kibale forest, that has chimpanzees. After having failed on three attempts to see them I decided to give it one last chance. So yesterday morning very early I got to the park and went out, not optimistically, trying to see these damned animals. Well I did see them, and I saw a ton of them. The guide said we saw more chimps than anything other group he's taken out in the last several months. He estimates we saw around 40-50, and we were chasing after them too. First, we heard them as they were screaming to eachother about locations of food, supposedly. After following the screams for half an hour we finally came across the group. We found the dominant male of the group, which is why we saw so many, because he travels with an entourage. They were moving all over the place, so over the next two hours we almost ran trying to stay with them. They stopped at times to do nothing, or climb trees to eat fruits or do nothing up in the trees, but mostly they moved. So it was very tiring, but well, well worth it and I can say I finally saw a chimp in the wild.
Almost as memorable as seeing chimps and hiking through beautiful areas full of lakes and waterfalls, was watching the Euro 2008 games in the nearby town to the lake reserve where I was staying. The town, called Rwaihamba, has market days on Monday and Thursday. Por lo tanto, the people of this village must be a lost tribe of Israel and still have the tradition of market days on those specific days due to the reading of the Torah. I found no proof of this while I was there, but I'm probably right. Anyways, there is a liquor made from fermented banana juice here in Uganda and its vile. The alcohol percentage is upwards of 75-80% and its just awful. The folks watching the game were drinking lots of it and they were absolutely out of control. Really, really drunk folks, and while it was lots of fun to watch with them, I feel for their families after the game when they went home. I had a shot, but it's so vile you can't have more than that.
So I'm in Kampala now, and I'll be here until Wednesday when I go northwest to Murchison Falls National Park. The park lies on the northern edge of Lake Albert, which is the northern end of the Western Rift Valley. The Western Rift Valley goes from Lake Albert to Lake Malawi, and I have done all of it except this section, so it will be quite cool to get there. The park is named after some apparently impressive falls, where the Nile goes through a tight gorge. The falls are the main attraction, along with the lake, but there's lots of animals too in the area. I'm going on an organized trip, the first time I'll be doing that, but there's a hostel in Kampala that does it cheaper than you could on your own. So I'll be there for three days with seven other people, and it should be a really nice time.
In the meantime I'm just going to do some errand type stuff and see Kampala over the next few days. Tomorrow is a world cup qualifier between Uganda and Angola, so I'll definitily go to that too. Angola is a much better team than Uganda, so I'm not sure it will be the best atmosphere, as Angola should win, but who knows. I might go to Entebbe too for a day. Well that's all for this post. I'll probably write again after Murchison Falls in a week from now. Picture links will go up shortly for everything since Burundi until now, and the map is updated too.
ate mais, B
Monday, June 9, 2008
Chimps hate me, Pt. 2
I forgot to write about two things relating to Semiliki NP in the last entry.
1. In December there was an outbreak of the ebola virus in the area. I didn't find this out until I was already there, and you can imagine how comforting this was to discover. It's contained, apparently, but if my internal organs start hemorrhaging than I will not hesitate to seek medical attention.
2. The Semiliki area is home to one of Uganda's two groups of pygmies. The other group is around the Rwanda, DRC, Uganda border area, and while they're ethnically similar, the two groups are apparently quite different culturally. The group I visited are basically part of a Congolese group in its easternmost extension. I'd heard that its quite weird, somewhat depressing to visit them, but I was in the area and my curiosity got the best of me. I had not wanted to visit them because I think visiting them is kind of like treating them as freaks, and you have to pay, and I don't like the idea of having to pay to see someone. Paying, in my opinion, adds to the feeling that you're at a circus show. In the end my curiosity got the best of me, and supposedly the money does help the communities.
So, the visit was short, and while I don't regret it, I don't think it was meaningful in any sort of way. They all want you to buy their handicrafts, and if you pay even more they'll do a dance for you. The pygmies are small, but not dwarf small, you'll see in my pictures when I post them. Traditionally they lived in the rainforest and hunted the animals, but since the creation of the national park they've been kicked off this land and forced into a govt. built village. Until an agreement was made that gave a certain percentage of park revenue to the community there was quite a bit of tension as you can imagine. Today they are allowed to hunt again in the forest, although not the chimps, elephants, or buffalo. The King of the village showed me his home and his stash of opium, which he was quite proud to show me. They are also allowed to legally grow marijuana, and smoking it is part of their cultural traditions. Not sure about opium, but I doubt they smoke it legally, but I sincerely doubt there's any enforcement of the law in this community. All they wanted was for me to give them money, so after a little bit of walking around I decided it was enough and headed out. The pygmies are discriminated against, often robbed by neighboring communities, their women are often sexually assaulted by neighboring communities' men. In fact the large number of rapes, and subsequent pregnancies in some cases has meant that genetically the pygmies are becoming more and more mixed with non-pygmies, with implications regarding the future of the community. It's small in any case, no more than a few hundred. So their situation is not great, and they'll probably continue to struggle in a last of ways for the foreseeable future.
ate logo, B
1. In December there was an outbreak of the ebola virus in the area. I didn't find this out until I was already there, and you can imagine how comforting this was to discover. It's contained, apparently, but if my internal organs start hemorrhaging than I will not hesitate to seek medical attention.
2. The Semiliki area is home to one of Uganda's two groups of pygmies. The other group is around the Rwanda, DRC, Uganda border area, and while they're ethnically similar, the two groups are apparently quite different culturally. The group I visited are basically part of a Congolese group in its easternmost extension. I'd heard that its quite weird, somewhat depressing to visit them, but I was in the area and my curiosity got the best of me. I had not wanted to visit them because I think visiting them is kind of like treating them as freaks, and you have to pay, and I don't like the idea of having to pay to see someone. Paying, in my opinion, adds to the feeling that you're at a circus show. In the end my curiosity got the best of me, and supposedly the money does help the communities.
So, the visit was short, and while I don't regret it, I don't think it was meaningful in any sort of way. They all want you to buy their handicrafts, and if you pay even more they'll do a dance for you. The pygmies are small, but not dwarf small, you'll see in my pictures when I post them. Traditionally they lived in the rainforest and hunted the animals, but since the creation of the national park they've been kicked off this land and forced into a govt. built village. Until an agreement was made that gave a certain percentage of park revenue to the community there was quite a bit of tension as you can imagine. Today they are allowed to hunt again in the forest, although not the chimps, elephants, or buffalo. The King of the village showed me his home and his stash of opium, which he was quite proud to show me. They are also allowed to legally grow marijuana, and smoking it is part of their cultural traditions. Not sure about opium, but I doubt they smoke it legally, but I sincerely doubt there's any enforcement of the law in this community. All they wanted was for me to give them money, so after a little bit of walking around I decided it was enough and headed out. The pygmies are discriminated against, often robbed by neighboring communities, their women are often sexually assaulted by neighboring communities' men. In fact the large number of rapes, and subsequent pregnancies in some cases has meant that genetically the pygmies are becoming more and more mixed with non-pygmies, with implications regarding the future of the community. It's small in any case, no more than a few hundred. So their situation is not great, and they'll probably continue to struggle in a last of ways for the foreseeable future.
ate logo, B
Chimpanzees hate me
Hi all, hope everyone's doing well. I'm writing again from Fort Portal, in western Uganda. I've spent the last several days visiting a few national parks in the area. First off, I hate speed bumps. As my parents will attest, I've said for years that if I was ever dictator of the world the first thing I would do is outlaw speed bumps. Uganda is speed bump crazy. You get sets of five in a row, separated by only a foot, and than sometimes they add an enormous one that makes you come to a complete stop. They're everywhere, and I detest them with an exceptionally strong passion. The other thing I'd like to complain about to start out this post is how dangerous the minibus drivers are. On my way back to Fort Portal from one of the national parks I felt so unsafe that I just tapped on the ceiling, the signal to stop and let someone out, in the middle of nowhere about 30k away from Fort Portal. I really thought I might die if I stayed in the bus, and although it took me over an hour before I was able to stop someone to take me to Fort Portal, it was well worth it.
Having said my piece on the drivers and speed bumps I would like to state that I think if Herzl had visited Uganda (did he? I really have no clue, but I'm assuming he didn't) he would not have turned it to down as a Jewish homeland. The country is beautiful, has huge amounts of water, and has really friendly people. Having said that its neighbors, Sudan, DRC, and Rwanda, amongst others are maybe not that good of a trade off from Israel's current ones, and I'm not sure how friendly the Ugandans would be if they lived in a Jewish state. Regardless, I've only been here for a week and half, but the country has made a strong impression on me already.
So, the first national park I visited is called Semiliki NP, and it encompasses the only true tropical rainforest in Uganda, which is also the easternmost stretch of the Congo rainforest. It's technically part of the Ituri rainforest, but that rainforest is just an extension of the Congo. The park is between the Semiliki river, which is also the border with the DRC, and the Rwenzori mountains in the east, which can reach 5k meters in height. The views going there are amazing, and there are some cool geysers and hot springs in the park. It's too hot to go in the water, upwards of 100 celcius, but you can get right to the edge. I just went hiking there for a long day, and although there are forest elephants, forest buffalo, chimps, lions, leopards, etc... I didn't see a thing. It's not expected that anyone on a casual hike will as the foliage is pretty dense.
After Semiliki I spent two days at Queen Elizabeth National Park, which is a few hours south of Fort Portal. It's a savannah landscape, and one of the best places to see animals in Uganda. On the drive into the park I saw buffalo, a big group of elephants, and other antelope, small game stuff. The park is bordered also by the Rwenzori mountains, and through the middle of the park are Lake Edward and George, connected by the Kazinga channel. Lake Edward is also the border with DRC in this area, and where the Semiliki river starts. The channel between the two lakes is where you can take a boat trip to see the gazillions of buffalo, hippos, crocs, birds and other small game along the shore. I also saw a few elephants and a hyeena. It's cool to see these animals, but I still prefer plants. At night in the park its pretty cool though because you hear the hippos going nuts and other birds, and there's just a ton of noise in general. The next day I tried again to see chimps in a small gorge in the park where there is a habituated group. Again, I spent hours going through the forest, but saw no chimps. The guide thinks they had left the gorge and went on to the savannah to find fruit. I seem to be particularly bad at seeing chimpanzees. I've got some good pictures, and when I get to Kampala I'll upload them to some albums.
Before I head to Kampala I'm going to spend a few days in an area with some crater lakes, which is supposed to be nice. The hiking is supposed to be great, and you just wander from lake to lake and pass villages on the way. My favorite hikes are the ones where you just wander through rural areas with small farms and villages, and where the kids love to come out and see the mzungu. So it should be some nice hikes around the lakes, and I'll probably stick around there until the end of the week when I'll head east to Kampala.
The place I'm staying at in Fort Portal is really an NGO helping AIDS orphans and children with AIDS, and they run the hostel to support the organization. The women in charge is originally from Maui, and has been exceptionally nice to me. She's given me all sorts of advice and helped me get to these parks without paying a fortune. She also has this amazing library, and I've been reading quite a bit. She had another Elechi Amadi book, The Great Ponds, which is very good. He's a Nigerian author who I randomly bought one of his books in Zambia and really enjoyed it. I also read Chinua Achebe's Anthills on the Savannah, which is excellent. I ready his most famous book Things Fall Apart in high school, which is very, very good. I read The Hours, which is an amazing book, and when I get back to Israel I'll have to get the movie on DVD, and finally I read a book called We wish to inform you that tomorrow you will be killed with you families. It's a book about the Rwandan genocide, and its very difficult to read, but its very, very, very well written. I highly recommend it if you want to learn about the genocide. He also goes into the aftermath of the genocide as it affected the DRC, which is the part of the story that nobody really knows a thing about. I would try to finish a different book tonight before I leave the place, but there are two really good soccer matches on tonight in the Euro 2008 tournament.
Well, I'll post again once I'm in Kampala, when I hope to have links to picture albums available as well.
tchau, B
Having said my piece on the drivers and speed bumps I would like to state that I think if Herzl had visited Uganda (did he? I really have no clue, but I'm assuming he didn't) he would not have turned it to down as a Jewish homeland. The country is beautiful, has huge amounts of water, and has really friendly people. Having said that its neighbors, Sudan, DRC, and Rwanda, amongst others are maybe not that good of a trade off from Israel's current ones, and I'm not sure how friendly the Ugandans would be if they lived in a Jewish state. Regardless, I've only been here for a week and half, but the country has made a strong impression on me already.
So, the first national park I visited is called Semiliki NP, and it encompasses the only true tropical rainforest in Uganda, which is also the easternmost stretch of the Congo rainforest. It's technically part of the Ituri rainforest, but that rainforest is just an extension of the Congo. The park is between the Semiliki river, which is also the border with the DRC, and the Rwenzori mountains in the east, which can reach 5k meters in height. The views going there are amazing, and there are some cool geysers and hot springs in the park. It's too hot to go in the water, upwards of 100 celcius, but you can get right to the edge. I just went hiking there for a long day, and although there are forest elephants, forest buffalo, chimps, lions, leopards, etc... I didn't see a thing. It's not expected that anyone on a casual hike will as the foliage is pretty dense.
After Semiliki I spent two days at Queen Elizabeth National Park, which is a few hours south of Fort Portal. It's a savannah landscape, and one of the best places to see animals in Uganda. On the drive into the park I saw buffalo, a big group of elephants, and other antelope, small game stuff. The park is bordered also by the Rwenzori mountains, and through the middle of the park are Lake Edward and George, connected by the Kazinga channel. Lake Edward is also the border with DRC in this area, and where the Semiliki river starts. The channel between the two lakes is where you can take a boat trip to see the gazillions of buffalo, hippos, crocs, birds and other small game along the shore. I also saw a few elephants and a hyeena. It's cool to see these animals, but I still prefer plants. At night in the park its pretty cool though because you hear the hippos going nuts and other birds, and there's just a ton of noise in general. The next day I tried again to see chimps in a small gorge in the park where there is a habituated group. Again, I spent hours going through the forest, but saw no chimps. The guide thinks they had left the gorge and went on to the savannah to find fruit. I seem to be particularly bad at seeing chimpanzees. I've got some good pictures, and when I get to Kampala I'll upload them to some albums.
Before I head to Kampala I'm going to spend a few days in an area with some crater lakes, which is supposed to be nice. The hiking is supposed to be great, and you just wander from lake to lake and pass villages on the way. My favorite hikes are the ones where you just wander through rural areas with small farms and villages, and where the kids love to come out and see the mzungu. So it should be some nice hikes around the lakes, and I'll probably stick around there until the end of the week when I'll head east to Kampala.
The place I'm staying at in Fort Portal is really an NGO helping AIDS orphans and children with AIDS, and they run the hostel to support the organization. The women in charge is originally from Maui, and has been exceptionally nice to me. She's given me all sorts of advice and helped me get to these parks without paying a fortune. She also has this amazing library, and I've been reading quite a bit. She had another Elechi Amadi book, The Great Ponds, which is very good. He's a Nigerian author who I randomly bought one of his books in Zambia and really enjoyed it. I also read Chinua Achebe's Anthills on the Savannah, which is excellent. I ready his most famous book Things Fall Apart in high school, which is very, very good. I read The Hours, which is an amazing book, and when I get back to Israel I'll have to get the movie on DVD, and finally I read a book called We wish to inform you that tomorrow you will be killed with you families. It's a book about the Rwandan genocide, and its very difficult to read, but its very, very, very well written. I highly recommend it if you want to learn about the genocide. He also goes into the aftermath of the genocide as it affected the DRC, which is the part of the story that nobody really knows a thing about. I would try to finish a different book tonight before I leave the place, but there are two really good soccer matches on tonight in the Euro 2008 tournament.
Well, I'll post again once I'm in Kampala, when I hope to have links to picture albums available as well.
tchau, B
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Health Spa in Uganda
I'm writing from Fort Portal in western Uganda. For the first time on this trip I'm in the Northern Hemisphere too. After Kigali I went to a beautiful lake just over the border in Uganda called Lake Bunyoni. I had heard about this place from other folks even in Mozambique, and its reputation is well deserved. It was formed when a volcano rose up, blocked a river, and the flooded valleys now form the lake. Because its basically a damned river there are lots of inlets and its shape is quite weird. There are dozen or so islands in the lake too, and I stayed several days on one of them.
I stayed on Nature's Prime Island and I basically was in a de facto health spa for three days. The food is super healthy and very good. Other than chicken, its vegetarian, and even the rice is brown rice. Lots of vegetables, fruits, and I ate really well. Since they had almost no guests they put me in their nice cabins for the price of the tents, so I had this great queen size bed with a hard mattress. It's probably the best bed I've slept on since I've been here, and my back greatly appreciated it. Today's bus ride has taken away any of those benefits, I'm sure, but for a few days it was nice. There's basically nothing to do on the lake, but you can take out dugout canoes as long as you want, and there's great hiking. There's no real forest, everything is developed farmland, but you can walk between farms and villages as much as you want. The hikes are tough, as they go up and down valleys, but the views are spectacular. So I went hiking and canoeing for three days and got some really good workouts out of it. The canoeing is really not easy for someone not used to it, because these are not fiberglass stable canoes most of us are used to. It takes all your stomach muscle power just to stay balanced, and its a good challenge. I did a little canoeing while on lake malawi, which has even less stable canoes, and also in Zambia, so I'm starting to get the hang of these things now. So for three days I ate super healthy, slept on a great mattress, and hiked and canoed all day. Outside of having a masseuse I don't know what else a health spa would have. Lake Bunyoni is considerably cheaper than a spa too, so I think I got a good deal out of it. I had some of the best days of my trip on the lake, and I'm pretty sure I'll come back for a few more days before I leave as well.
I also met a few cool folks on the lake, include one guy who is an aid worker for CARE International in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). I basically heard some of the most disturbing things a human being could ever imagine, and got rid of any desire I might have had to the Congo. The whole area I'm in now borders the DRC and its stunning, and the parks on the Congolese side are massive and not visited at all. But, there's no way I'm going over there now. It's a shame, because the tourism potential in that country is really strong, and maybe one day they'll see a good amount of folks.
So, the place I'm in now is a good base to see the surrounding national parks. The whole region is marked by huge volcanoes and mountains, many of which are over 15k feet and snow covered. There are tons of animals, hot springs, cloud forests, and great hiking. Tomorrow the owner of the hostel I'm staying at is going to help me organize visiting the various parks over the next week+ without paying the rich mzungu prices. It should be some of the coolest stuff I see on the trip.
One thing I will not be able to see are the mountain gorillas, which occupy four parks in the world. Two are in Uganda, one in Rwanda, and one in DRC. Interestingly enough I've seen advertisements for the park in Rwanda saying they have half of the gorillas left, and each park in Uganda also claims to have half the population left. The one in the Congo probably says something similar, leaving a few mathematical problems to be resolved somewhere. To see the gorillas you have to get a permit, which cost 500 dollars. The demand is extraordinary, and there's a waiting list to get a permit. They could double the price and still get plenty of folks. In general, Africa is catered to very rich tourists. Part of this is due to a lack of basic infrastructure. Its not easy to get from place to place due to horrible roads, bad public transportation, and a lack of mid priced accommodation. So people spend huge amounts of money to be driven around in private jeeps and stay at really, really high end lodges in remote places. This is why it costs 80 dollars to be in Mahale Mountain park for every 24 hours, and in general seeing wildlife becomes a very costly experience. Until the general infrastructure improves many places in Africa will probably continue to go in the direction of high end tourism only. It's unfortunate, but not surprising.
Internet is not that fast, and I understand only Kampala and that area has fast internet, so it'll probably be another week or two weeks before I post pictures, but you'll get plenty at that point. Hope everyone's doing well, and I'll try to write again soon.
tchau, B
I stayed on Nature's Prime Island and I basically was in a de facto health spa for three days. The food is super healthy and very good. Other than chicken, its vegetarian, and even the rice is brown rice. Lots of vegetables, fruits, and I ate really well. Since they had almost no guests they put me in their nice cabins for the price of the tents, so I had this great queen size bed with a hard mattress. It's probably the best bed I've slept on since I've been here, and my back greatly appreciated it. Today's bus ride has taken away any of those benefits, I'm sure, but for a few days it was nice. There's basically nothing to do on the lake, but you can take out dugout canoes as long as you want, and there's great hiking. There's no real forest, everything is developed farmland, but you can walk between farms and villages as much as you want. The hikes are tough, as they go up and down valleys, but the views are spectacular. So I went hiking and canoeing for three days and got some really good workouts out of it. The canoeing is really not easy for someone not used to it, because these are not fiberglass stable canoes most of us are used to. It takes all your stomach muscle power just to stay balanced, and its a good challenge. I did a little canoeing while on lake malawi, which has even less stable canoes, and also in Zambia, so I'm starting to get the hang of these things now. So for three days I ate super healthy, slept on a great mattress, and hiked and canoed all day. Outside of having a masseuse I don't know what else a health spa would have. Lake Bunyoni is considerably cheaper than a spa too, so I think I got a good deal out of it. I had some of the best days of my trip on the lake, and I'm pretty sure I'll come back for a few more days before I leave as well.
I also met a few cool folks on the lake, include one guy who is an aid worker for CARE International in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). I basically heard some of the most disturbing things a human being could ever imagine, and got rid of any desire I might have had to the Congo. The whole area I'm in now borders the DRC and its stunning, and the parks on the Congolese side are massive and not visited at all. But, there's no way I'm going over there now. It's a shame, because the tourism potential in that country is really strong, and maybe one day they'll see a good amount of folks.
So, the place I'm in now is a good base to see the surrounding national parks. The whole region is marked by huge volcanoes and mountains, many of which are over 15k feet and snow covered. There are tons of animals, hot springs, cloud forests, and great hiking. Tomorrow the owner of the hostel I'm staying at is going to help me organize visiting the various parks over the next week+ without paying the rich mzungu prices. It should be some of the coolest stuff I see on the trip.
One thing I will not be able to see are the mountain gorillas, which occupy four parks in the world. Two are in Uganda, one in Rwanda, and one in DRC. Interestingly enough I've seen advertisements for the park in Rwanda saying they have half of the gorillas left, and each park in Uganda also claims to have half the population left. The one in the Congo probably says something similar, leaving a few mathematical problems to be resolved somewhere. To see the gorillas you have to get a permit, which cost 500 dollars. The demand is extraordinary, and there's a waiting list to get a permit. They could double the price and still get plenty of folks. In general, Africa is catered to very rich tourists. Part of this is due to a lack of basic infrastructure. Its not easy to get from place to place due to horrible roads, bad public transportation, and a lack of mid priced accommodation. So people spend huge amounts of money to be driven around in private jeeps and stay at really, really high end lodges in remote places. This is why it costs 80 dollars to be in Mahale Mountain park for every 24 hours, and in general seeing wildlife becomes a very costly experience. Until the general infrastructure improves many places in Africa will probably continue to go in the direction of high end tourism only. It's unfortunate, but not surprising.
Internet is not that fast, and I understand only Kampala and that area has fast internet, so it'll probably be another week or two weeks before I post pictures, but you'll get plenty at that point. Hope everyone's doing well, and I'll try to write again soon.
tchau, B
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Mazal Tov!
Today is Ela Gruber's first birthday, and I want to wish her a very happy birthday.
a big birthday hug, Ben
a big birthday hug, Ben
Rwanda
Hi all, hope everyone is well. Happy birthday to Shara, Shani, and Andi. Also, Jodie, you're an absolute angel for the videos you made. Thank you so much for doing it, and thanks to everyone in them as well.
Also, if you notice in the top right of the blog is a link to a google map. I've made a map showing my route so far with a few placemarks for some notable locations. The link stays the same, and I'll update it with each blog post, at least in theory.
So, its late here in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, and the nice rececptionist at my hostel is letting me use their internet for free right now. She's currently fascinated watching Fear Factor dubbed in French. I've spent the last week here in Rwanda, and I've had a very good time, but I haven't been blown away as I have been in other places. When you see places like Lake Tanganyika, Lake Malawi, remote corners of Zambia, its tough to be super impressed with everything you see. Having said that Rwanda is a very pretty country, and its history and its present are very interesting too.
I took a bus from Bujumbura straight to Kigali and planned on staying a few days in teh capital, but decided to leave for Lake Kivu the next day. Before leaving for the lake I went to the Kigali Memorial Center, which is the main memorial center for the Rwandan genocide. Its a very well done memorial and museum and very moving. There's a section on genocides in other parts of the world that was very well done too.
I'm not going to go into any details of the genocide, but there is one thing I found fascinating about the aftermath. There were more than half a million prisoners, its a country of just over 9 million, after the genocide. That's clearly too much for the court systems to handle. An international court was set up in Tanzania and it prosecuted the top people responsible for the genocide. What was set up for the rest is quite interesting. The traditional village court is called a Gacaca, pronounced gachacha. It means grassy area, and its basically a tribal elder sitting in an open grassy area, listening to all sides and making his decision. The government decided to let the Gacaca deal with the vast majority of the cases, and they're still going on today, 14 years after the genocide, although they're mostly done at this point. What happens is the prisoner goes before the Gacaca, any surviving victim tells the elder what happened. The prisoner has a chance to defend himself, but mostly they admit to what they did and repent. The elder than decides a punishment, which can range from building someone a house, a monetary settlement, and jail time. However, since there are just too many prisoners for the Rwandan jail system to take, most people don't go to jail.
The system is considered revolutionary as a way of applying traditional justice systems to a national western system. Prisoners can appeal the gacaca sentence to the main system if they choose. Since the village elder is so well respected, it is a way for the victims, Tutsis, to feel that they can continue to live in that village, and that a form of justice has taken place. Its crucial for any kind of reconciliation in the country, and remarkably, reconciliation in Rwanda is considered a success. The country is rebuilding in an impressive fashion from the disaster the country was in after the genocide. There is construction going on everywhere, although most of it is in the capital, and they have a pretty progressive government that is investing heavily into education.
I learned all of this from the memorial center, and meeting my new Rwandan friend Burt. At the lake, while waiting to use the internet, I met Michelle, an American on her honeymoon with her Rwandan husband, Burt. After talking to them for a while they invited me the next day to one of his friends weddings and afterwards to a coffee plantation, which I told them I was interested in seeing while in Rwanda. They're the nicest people, and the next day we went off to this wedding. I went to what's called a State ceremony, which is the official legal ceremony, and the equivalent of going to city hall in the US. Each Thursday you can go to your village justice center, and a govt. member presides over the ceremony. Both the husband and wife have to have one hand on the flag, one hand in the air, towards God, and recite some official vow. If they screw up they have to start over. A few of the people had to start over several times inciting huge laughs from the crowd. Initially, I felt very uncomfortable being there, but it was clear pretty quickly it was more than ok for me to be there, and it was quite an experience. Most people, after the state ceremony, have a traditional wedding ceremony and if they're christian, which most folks are, they have a church ceremony as well.
Lake Kivu is very pretty, quite forested, and I had a nice few days swimming and enjoying the lake. I spent a few days in a town called Kibuye, where I met Michelle and Burt, and than moved up to the more famous resort town of Gisenyi for a day. Gisenyi is full of huge villas, and is quite a bit more developed than Kibuye. It also borders the Congolese city of Goma, which has suffered quite a bit. It was the scene of a lot of fighting in the Congolese war of the past decade, and a few years ago a volcano exploded covering half the town in lava. That same volcano could easily cover Gisenyi too. Lake Kivu is also interesting in that it has a lot of methane coming out of it. People have died when huge amounts came out, and people basically died of CO2 poisoning while swimming in the lake. Its a risk, but not a big one. There is a methane power plant in the lake, the only kind in the world, which converts the methane in the lake into energy.
Well, I came back to Kigali today and went this evening to the Hotel de Milles Collines for a jazz concert. This hotel is better known as Hotel Rwanda, and it was pretty cool to see it. When I was interning at the Carter Center I met Paul Rusesabagina, the person Hotel Rwanda is based on that Don Cheadle played, and so it was fitting that I would finally see the actual hotel. The concert was quite a dissapointment. It was actually just some cover band playing more blues rock than anything jazz. They did one cover of Take 5, but outside that it was blues rock, and not very good either. The place was pretty empty and most people there were older mzungus(white folks), so not quite what I expected.
Tomorrow I go to Uganda, specifically to Lake Bunyoni. Even in Mozambique I heard from other travellers about this lake, and its supposedly one of the most beautiful anywhere. I could stay there a few days, maybe a few weeks. I'll get there and figure it out, and besides getting to the lake I have no other plans. Its just over the border from Rwanda, so I only have a few hours on a bus.
Hope everyone is doing well, and I'll try to write again soon.
ate mais, B
Also, if you notice in the top right of the blog is a link to a google map. I've made a map showing my route so far with a few placemarks for some notable locations. The link stays the same, and I'll update it with each blog post, at least in theory.
So, its late here in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, and the nice rececptionist at my hostel is letting me use their internet for free right now. She's currently fascinated watching Fear Factor dubbed in French. I've spent the last week here in Rwanda, and I've had a very good time, but I haven't been blown away as I have been in other places. When you see places like Lake Tanganyika, Lake Malawi, remote corners of Zambia, its tough to be super impressed with everything you see. Having said that Rwanda is a very pretty country, and its history and its present are very interesting too.
I took a bus from Bujumbura straight to Kigali and planned on staying a few days in teh capital, but decided to leave for Lake Kivu the next day. Before leaving for the lake I went to the Kigali Memorial Center, which is the main memorial center for the Rwandan genocide. Its a very well done memorial and museum and very moving. There's a section on genocides in other parts of the world that was very well done too.
I'm not going to go into any details of the genocide, but there is one thing I found fascinating about the aftermath. There were more than half a million prisoners, its a country of just over 9 million, after the genocide. That's clearly too much for the court systems to handle. An international court was set up in Tanzania and it prosecuted the top people responsible for the genocide. What was set up for the rest is quite interesting. The traditional village court is called a Gacaca, pronounced gachacha. It means grassy area, and its basically a tribal elder sitting in an open grassy area, listening to all sides and making his decision. The government decided to let the Gacaca deal with the vast majority of the cases, and they're still going on today, 14 years after the genocide, although they're mostly done at this point. What happens is the prisoner goes before the Gacaca, any surviving victim tells the elder what happened. The prisoner has a chance to defend himself, but mostly they admit to what they did and repent. The elder than decides a punishment, which can range from building someone a house, a monetary settlement, and jail time. However, since there are just too many prisoners for the Rwandan jail system to take, most people don't go to jail.
The system is considered revolutionary as a way of applying traditional justice systems to a national western system. Prisoners can appeal the gacaca sentence to the main system if they choose. Since the village elder is so well respected, it is a way for the victims, Tutsis, to feel that they can continue to live in that village, and that a form of justice has taken place. Its crucial for any kind of reconciliation in the country, and remarkably, reconciliation in Rwanda is considered a success. The country is rebuilding in an impressive fashion from the disaster the country was in after the genocide. There is construction going on everywhere, although most of it is in the capital, and they have a pretty progressive government that is investing heavily into education.
I learned all of this from the memorial center, and meeting my new Rwandan friend Burt. At the lake, while waiting to use the internet, I met Michelle, an American on her honeymoon with her Rwandan husband, Burt. After talking to them for a while they invited me the next day to one of his friends weddings and afterwards to a coffee plantation, which I told them I was interested in seeing while in Rwanda. They're the nicest people, and the next day we went off to this wedding. I went to what's called a State ceremony, which is the official legal ceremony, and the equivalent of going to city hall in the US. Each Thursday you can go to your village justice center, and a govt. member presides over the ceremony. Both the husband and wife have to have one hand on the flag, one hand in the air, towards God, and recite some official vow. If they screw up they have to start over. A few of the people had to start over several times inciting huge laughs from the crowd. Initially, I felt very uncomfortable being there, but it was clear pretty quickly it was more than ok for me to be there, and it was quite an experience. Most people, after the state ceremony, have a traditional wedding ceremony and if they're christian, which most folks are, they have a church ceremony as well.
Lake Kivu is very pretty, quite forested, and I had a nice few days swimming and enjoying the lake. I spent a few days in a town called Kibuye, where I met Michelle and Burt, and than moved up to the more famous resort town of Gisenyi for a day. Gisenyi is full of huge villas, and is quite a bit more developed than Kibuye. It also borders the Congolese city of Goma, which has suffered quite a bit. It was the scene of a lot of fighting in the Congolese war of the past decade, and a few years ago a volcano exploded covering half the town in lava. That same volcano could easily cover Gisenyi too. Lake Kivu is also interesting in that it has a lot of methane coming out of it. People have died when huge amounts came out, and people basically died of CO2 poisoning while swimming in the lake. Its a risk, but not a big one. There is a methane power plant in the lake, the only kind in the world, which converts the methane in the lake into energy.
Well, I came back to Kigali today and went this evening to the Hotel de Milles Collines for a jazz concert. This hotel is better known as Hotel Rwanda, and it was pretty cool to see it. When I was interning at the Carter Center I met Paul Rusesabagina, the person Hotel Rwanda is based on that Don Cheadle played, and so it was fitting that I would finally see the actual hotel. The concert was quite a dissapointment. It was actually just some cover band playing more blues rock than anything jazz. They did one cover of Take 5, but outside that it was blues rock, and not very good either. The place was pretty empty and most people there were older mzungus(white folks), so not quite what I expected.
Tomorrow I go to Uganda, specifically to Lake Bunyoni. Even in Mozambique I heard from other travellers about this lake, and its supposedly one of the most beautiful anywhere. I could stay there a few days, maybe a few weeks. I'll get there and figure it out, and besides getting to the lake I have no other plans. Its just over the border from Rwanda, so I only have a few hours on a bus.
Hope everyone is doing well, and I'll try to write again soon.
ate mais, B
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