Uganda: Where everybody knows your name

After arriving back in Nairobi, we ran some errands . . . had our groceries stolen . . . and hopped on a night bus to Kampala. The border crossing was standard. We arrived late at night. Because there were no toilets, we all ended up peeing on the side of the road.

In Kampala, we stayed at Backpackers. It was a cool hostel, but almost no one was there. The first day we just tried to get our bearings, track down a gorilla permit, and enjoy the food which was a vast improvement over Kenya. Kampala wasn’t a very interesting city. The pollution was so thick you could see it. The city is supposed to be pretty safe—the most dangerous thing we did was take motor-taxis. Those things are crazy. We did find a decent book store and a mall with a theater. We watched Inception, but it was not as good as I had hoped after hearing all the reviews.

Our adventure in Uganda really started when we made our way to Kisoro. We struck out on quick permits from the Kampala office, but thanks to a tip in our book, we thought to call the Uganda Wildlife Association in Kisoro. It is a bit further away, but we were told it was the prettiest part of Uganda and that permits were much easier to obtain there. We lucked out to get a permit for the day after we arrived.

Kisoro was a great place to spend a few days in. The town itself is very small. There is really only one main road that is just a few blocks long. That road is filled with women walking with bundles of bananas, baskets, sticks, and many other heavy items on their heads. There are also bicycles weighed down with bananas or bamboo.

We quickly became regulars at Coffee Masters, which has the best yogurt I’ve ever tasted and a black tea that closely resembles chai tea, and the Golden Monkey, which has Mexican food among other tasty fare and an ankle-biting puppy. It also brought us food in a mostly timely manner, which is uncommon here. One night (at another hostel), we waited two hours for a veggie burger.

Throughout Africa, white people are referred to as Mzungos. In Uganda more than in any of the other countries we visited, everywhere we went we heard “Hello Mzungo,” “How are you Mzungo?”, “Where are you going Mzungo?”. Even after someone asked us our names, they continued to refer to us a Mzungo.

The day after arriving in Kisoro, we headed to the Bwindi National Park, which is aptly known as the Impenetrable Forest. The drive there was breathtaking. We drove over a mountain descending into a misty valley and lake. The hills were all divided up into green squares by the farmers. The hike in the forest was also pretty breathtaking, but for an entirely different reason. At first we were just hiking along a pretty gradual trail through the rainforest. Then our guide got a call from the gorilla tracker telling him where the gorillas were that day. Next thing I know, we are walking over the side of the mountain, bushwhacking our way straight down into the valley, trying not to impale yourself on your walking stick, which you have planted into the ground to prevent you from falling all the way down the mountain.

(Photo by Regina)
But, at the end of it, we were literally within feet of nine gorillas, the Mayashi family. It was unbelievable to be so close to them. I was surprised by how uninterested in us they seemed to be. The groups have been habituated enough that they are used to seeing humans as non-threatening. They just went about doing their thing until one of the rangers stepped too close. Then the silverback male would charge at the ranger to show its dominance, the ranger crouched down and looked at the ground to show his submission, and the gorillas just kept doing their thing. They would move a couple hundred feet and we would follow them. They were truly beautiful creatures. It is really sad to know that their extinction is imminent. Their habitat, which exists only in Uganda, Rwanda, and DRC is disappearing rapidly.

After an hour, we had to leave. I thought that there must be a more sensible route to get back to the top of the valley. I was wrong. We went straight back up the mountain the way we had climbed down. There were places where real climbing was necessary and places where I had rangers both pushing and pulling me up steeply graded mountainside. I didn’t know whether I was happier to see the gorillas or the top of that trail. 

We stuck around the next day for Regina to do a hike, but there was an insane lightening tour that prevented her from going. Instead, we did a shorter hike to an overlook of the town. There are several mud houses on the mountain overlooking the village. It was neat to walk among them. It was also a better vantage point for the huge volcanoes that surround Kisoro.

(Photo by Regina)