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