Phase two of the vacay

For the second part of our trip we went to Central Africa in search of endangered mountain gorillas.  We flew into Kigali, Rwanda and spent some time checking out the city.  It's a lot nicer than we anticipated.  We were picked up by the two guys in the photo below, Emmanuel, our guide and David our driver.  They are both from the DRC or Congo.  They were both so nice and went out of their way to make sure things were going okay.  We sang gospel songs together and everyone would explode into applause after every song was finished.  Apart from the singing if there was a soundtrack to our lives for this portion of our journey, it would have to be African reggae.  Yes, windows down, sunnies on and reggae beats bouncin' as we rolled through the African streets and countryside. We checked out the genocide memorial museum which was informative and sad.  We also went by the Mille Collines, the hotel that was used in hotel Rwanda as a refuge for people trying to survive the genocidal massacres that were taking place in 1994.  It was also cute because Emmanuel and David wanted to show off a new store that resembled a small wal-mart.  We  do like looking around in foreign grocery stores so it was actually kinda fun.

Next we travelled on to Uganda which is where we were  supposed to go on our gorilla treck but our guides neglected to get the permits ahead of time (this was the theme for this segment of the trip).  We stayed in a town called Kisoro and there, we visited a pygmy village.  I was a little skeptical about such a visit.  Usually these kind of things are pre-set, milk the tourist type events that feel canned and pre-packaged.  Our experience was totally unplanned and felt authentic.  As we walked on the path into their "village" we acquired a large following of the dirtiest/ cutest little kids in the world.  One little guy grabbed my finger with his tiny hand and we walked down the path together.  We  got to the center and we encountered their parents, who were drunk as hell.  It was sad to see, the kids looked to be raising themselves.  We all danced together and they sang songs.  The kids were the best part our experience though.  They had never seen a video camera or a digital camera.  They laughed and giggled as we did an impromptu photo shoot and showed them the results on our cameras screens.  We basically wanted to pack these little cuties into our suitcase and take them with us.  It was a memorable experience that we shall not soon forget.

Muscle shots are always a kid pleaser

 Instead of Uganda we headed off to the jungles of the Congo to find our elusive primate companions.  I've always wanted to go to the Congo so it was a fortuitous turn of events.  Central Africa doesn't have a lot of tourist infrastructure so you have to be flexible.  Because of this, it feels raw and unexplored.  We set out on our journey with two rangers with AK's, a tracker and the only dude who spoke a little English.

After hiking a few hours through the densest jungle I've ever been in, we finally caught our first glimpse or the Mawpua family.  Because gorillas share a great deal of our genetic make-up you have to put on masks so as not to transfer diseases.  You can also, only stay with the family for an hour so as not to disturb them too much.  The Mawpua family has two silverbacks, 8 females and a baby.

Above is a close up of a silverback eating some spiky vegetation.

Right after we saw them, this female comes up within a few feet of me and starts staring me down.  Now I'm used to aggressive women but this black beauty was intimidating.  The following three photos are of her approach.  I just kept shooting, as she got closer and closer.  Finally, she settled on a log and I got the heck out of dodge.

A little later another female came up to me and then beat on her chest as a sign of intimidation.  It was really cool.  The rangers would tell us to move back and try their best to get between us and the gorillas as they approached.  They would also grunt at the gorillas to try and get them to settle down and move away.  Please ask Candice to do her best gorilla sound the next time you see her, she's really good at it.

So that was it, a magical thing to do for sure.  Now onto Zanzibar....

Bon Voyage

Vacations never last long enough - we can't skip around Paris at midnight while munching on pastries, or scuba dive in the Indian Ocean in perfect turquoise waters, or watch lions nap lazily under a tree while their latest kill sits 10 feet away, endlessly everyday. Who knows, those things might become mundane if they happened all the time?

Not a chance!

We just returned from a most stellar holiday abroad. Because we took hundreds of photos we'll post them chronologically in multiple blogs - so as not to overwhelm. In order to fly to Africa, you fly through Europe, so we broke up the trip by staying in Paris for two days and London for one. We hadn't been back to Paris since our honeymoon (8 + years ago) and found we loved it even more than we remembered. Despite the reputation the French were nothing but warm to us, not even just polite but outright friendly. A ton was crammed into those two days - we walked a lot, went to the Louvre, the Decorative Arts Museum, waited in line at the catacombs - but left in order to make our lunch reservation at Guy Savoy's L'Atelier, and much more. A fabulous time was had by all!

We arrived in the evening the first day and took to the streets, hence the mood lighting. Matt clearly has a real love for Petit Dejeuner, it's quite dear to his heart.
While this moment was happening the music from Amelie was playing in the background, literally.


Our sweet, contemporary hotel located in Bastille
Pledging his love to the boar. He managed to find every boar in the Louvre - a divine mission really.
delicious + hip + traditional meets modern = L'Atelier

embracing the column, he's not partial - be it corinthian, doric, or ionic he's in love
I was a little chilly and grabbed Matt's coat on my way out the door - hence the over sized get-up and obvious bravado.

Then we took the train to London - where we stayed at St. Martin's Lane, a sister hotel of Philippe Starck's Clift hotel in San Fran (with the giant chairs that we posted a picture of a couple of blogs ago). Killer location and such a beautiful hotel. We maximized our one day in London by cruising to the Tower of London for several hours, having dinner at this adorable Chinese restaurant located in the bowels of the earth - really (we only saw the store front, and we kept going down and down and down to where there was this extensive beautiful restaurant behind a small facade). We then topped the night off by getting lost on our way to see Peter Pan in the park (it was a HUGE park!!).

All three of the above were taken in the lobby of our hipster hotel. The first being my fav, very Alice in Wonderland.
Ahhh, room service at midnight - a fabulous idea consisting of mexican donuts, pineapple cake, and ice cold milk
Matt and the beef eater comparing guns at the Tower of London. We had just finished attending a Henry VIII exhibit titled dressed to kill, highlighting his armor. It was super well done, and really engaging. We're in line here to see the crown jewels.
I'm a little tall for the space. Fat guy in a little coat.
We took the beef eater tour that was really interesting! In this very square many people had been beheaded. They kept political and religious prisoners here.