We continue to have trouble with Jet Lag, getting sleepy at the wrong time, waking up in the middle of the night and staying awake for hours or waking up too early and being unable to fall back to sleep. We find this so surprising as we have not had so much trouble in the past. I think it is a sign of our advancing years! Fortunately we had a relatively late start, leaving Kigali at 0930 heading to the Volcano National Park which is a park where Gorillas and Elephants reside.
It was a short-ish trip, about 70 kms, but it took us 2.5 hours to make the trip. The road is winding as it follows valleys and climbs hills. Also, getting through Kigali in a large safari jeep was no small feat! Added to all of this were the pedestrians who lined the road on both sides making their way through the streets in the city and to and from work sites in the country. It was amazing to see the women carrying loads balanced on their heads, men with construction materials on their heads and balanced on bicycles. I even saw one man carrying an empty coffin on his head! Even small children were lugging produce to market this way. I saw several people riding side saddle on the back of bicycles...and later learned that these are push-bike-taxis! They ride uphill empty and bring fares downhill! Ingeneous! We also saw the terracing and cooperative efforts to produce food and products with manual labour.
At lunch we arrived at the Gorilla View Lodge...which is a hotel with 20 or so cottages surrounding a main lodge. It is basic accomodations, but very cozy. It is also colder as it is at a much higher elevation. We were forced to turn on theheat in the evening as the temps dropped into the low teens. The hotel is nestled in an area surrounded by 5 volcanoes and near the border with Uganda. It is very picturesque.
We had a free afternoon. so we opted for a trip to a local village centre which deserves its own blog, which follows.
We had a quiet night...warmed by a fire in our cottage to keep us warm!
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