From Entebbe to Kisoro

One early morning, the taxi picked us up at 5 AM to take a flight over Victoria Lake to Kisoro.

The flight turned out to be an old Cessna with room for 11 people. What we didn't account for was that we could only have a total of 30 kg including hand luggage. We had 57.... A number of dollars later, we were

The flight was supposed to take just over an hour, so when we landed on a gravel runway, we thought we had arrived and got off. We were on our way to a waiting car when the pilot came after us and said that we would fly for another quarter of an hour. We were not there yet.

Upon arriving in Kisoro, we faced a 1.5-hour car ride on increasingly worse roads up the mountains. We passed through the village of Kisoro and then up the mountain to our destination, Gorilla Leisure Lodge. It turned out we were the only guests there.

Gorilla Leisure Lodge is a new lodge, only three years old. We were given our own large lodge with a patio. We were advised to always close the doors due to curious monkeys.

After checking in, we received an arm and hand massage. Then it was time for a walk to the nearest village, Batwa.

Batwa can be translated to pygmies. The village got its name because those who first lived there were a jungle tribe of pygmies who were driven out by the government. The government forced them out of where they lived in order to bring tourists to see the gorillas. The tribe received no compensation, no land, and was forced to learn to live by farming the land. In the jungle, they had everything they needed: food, housing, medicinal herbs, etc.

Now, all of a sudden, they had to understand the value of money, grow food, and try to survive.

In the pictures you see a wooden bed in a brick hut, where 9 people sleep. In another hut lived 14. When the children grow up, they are thrown out and have to live as you see in a small shelter.

There is a school in the village that can accommodate 257 children. There is also a 'pharmacy' that had a few simple pain tablets and some band-aids.

After the visit to the village, it was finally time for lunch, which was so good. We were quite hungry since we hadn't eaten breakfast. Our guide informed us that tomorrow we would be picked up at 7:30 AM for gorilla tracking.