Rwanda, The Magical Destination

 9/23/2022 -  Golden Monkey Trek   Approximately 260 golden monkeys exist in the forest and, unfortunately for the nearby farmers, helping themselves to free potatoes in their potato fields. I love their chunky cheeks and long tails. Many moms had babies underneath, clinging to mom's haunches for dear life. Obviously, they were very used to humans.

  9/22/2022 -  G orilla Mountain Lodge    The highlight of our trip is nearing now that we arrived at the Gorilla Mountain Lodge.  Great statue on the grounds with the volcano in the background. My cabin, number 6, was appropriately named “Cuckoo.” The aftermath of Seven miles of hiking Miraculous cleaning by the lodge staff! Cool bamboo sculpture outside the Kinigi Trekking Station  in Parc Nacional des Volcans entry. What a relief we all tested negative for COVID on 9/17 and 9/21, especially after paying serious money for this trip - only to miss seeing the gorillas and golden monkeys in the wild. For me, this was scarier than anything else on the agenda.  We had to wear masks during our visits with the gorilla family and the golden monkeys to avoid infecting them. My group made the more strenuous 7-mile loop to observe the Titus family. Thank goodness we had porters to carry our backpacks and water. My porter, Jaqueline, was the only female porter assigned to our two groups. I trave

So many birds, so little time to ID them all... African Darter (above and below) African Sacred Ibis         Black-chested Snake-Eagle (above and below) Spur-Winged Lapwing   Wattled Lapwing   Egyptian Geese Malachite Kingfisher Great Cormorants Lilac-breasted Roller Hadada Ibis Water Thick-knee Grey-backed fiscal (above and below) Long-crested Eagle (above and below) Bare-faced go-away-bird (above and below) Fish Eagle (above and below) Goliath Heron White-bellied Bustard Pied Kingfishers (above and below)