Queen Elizabeth and Bwindi

The sunrise the next morning was unreal, you could look at the sun and it wouldn't hurt your eyes!

 Hyena 

A shop in the middle of the park

Birds nest

A shot of the whole tree with all the birds nests

Now to Bwindi, how cool is this picture? It almost looks like islands on water but it really is mountains over the fog.

The next morning we got up early to go gorilla trekking! I had been working at the Smithsonian Zoo with the gorillas and this was part of the main reason we chose Uganda to travel to, to see the gorillas. I have fallen in love with these gentle giants. Did you know that although they are the largest primate they do not eat any meat?

So these are the mountain gorillas, there are only about 800 of them left. As a hint from the name, they live in the mountains. I knew it would be a hard hike to find them but I had no idea it would be as hard as it was. The forest is called the impenetrable forest for a reason. The trees are so close together that you sometimes either have to squeeze through them or crawl under bushes. Our guide was in front with a machete trying to clear somewhat of a path for us. These mountains had a very steep incline and falling while going up or down was inevitable. All around us there was stinging nettle that made you itch like crazy and it stung of course. But having to go through all of that to see the gorillas made it even more worth it to see these amazing animals.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the first gorilla. He was so close to us.

This girl was literally an arms length away from me. 

A silverback, hint to why they are called silverback

My favorite picture of the whole trip

 Although it was the hardest hike either of us have ever been on it was one of the best days of my life!

Kibale

The next morning we woke up early to go chimp trekking. The hike was easy and short. The group we tracked was about 120 but we also saw about 20, all ages and all sizes. It was amazing, we were only about 7 feet away from them!

We were about 7 feet from this guy when he started to get upset, watch the video!! Chimp Charging video (skip to one minute)

Chimp Charging video

I got ants in my pants literally on this hike!

After chimp trekking we were off to Queen Elizabeth Park. We stopped to get our favorite baby sweet bananas.

First time in the southern hemisphere!

At our next hotel our shower was outside and I am pretty sure we could be seen from anywhere!

Mustafas family lives near Queen Elizabeth and we were able to meet them! We met his two year old son Isaac and his wife Lausa. It was so much fun! We love them.

They cut up some jack fruit for us to eat, it was delicious!

Although these two didn't speak the same language they had loads of fun together. 

Lausa and I

Goodbye Ape Friends

Friday was my last day at the zoo and it was a sad day. These apes really have become my friends, and they are the best kind of friends to have. 

Mandara

Baracka

Nathan got to come see behind the scenes. He had to wear a face mask because he had not been TB tested, but thank goodness he was wearing that mask! After I was done feeding some of the gorillas and we were walking away, Baracka came running, picked up a handful of hay and poop and chucked it at Nathan at about 50 mph (and I am not even being sarcastic!!)

Feeding Baracka

Kibibi, or I like to call her Biebster

Feeding Kwame

Feeding Kojo

Bonnie

Feeding Kyle

Being able to work at this zoo was such an amazing opportunity and I hope I can work with primates again soon!

Life Lately

Nothing too exciting is happening here lately but I though I would give a little update on our lives! Nathan and I have officially booked our trip to Uganda! We will be going for two weeks in the beginning of June. I can't think of a better place to spend my 23rd birthday. We are going to go gorilla trekking (the main reason we are going), white water rafting, and many other fun adventures. We cannot wait! Here is a little update from some iphone pictures:

My sweet sweet Nathan bought me flowers after a long week of work

A lot has been going on at the zoo. This girl here, Kibibi, is now separated from her best friend Kojo. We have a silverback gorilla named Baracka, three females, and two other males named Kojo and Kwame. In the wild once the males have reached an age where they are no longer babies but are not silverbacks yet they go off on their own and create a bachelor troop with other males. Our two males, Kojo and Kwame, are now at the point so we have started our own bachelor troop at the zoo with the two males. It's sad to see the separation but it has to happen.

Nathan and I went to the Bulls vs. Wizards game where the Bulls lost :( Boo.

It snowed here!

I come home to dinner cooked everyday. Am I the luckiest girl in the world or what?! Here Nathan made me my favorite Slovak dish, halusky.

I am officially a Virginian. Weird.

Life is good. And if anyone wants a vacation to a fun city please come visit us!

Orangutans

Well everything at the zoo has been going great! This last week I was with the orangutans. Although I do love the orangutans, I love the gorillas more. Orangutans are just not as nice as gorillas! For example, the orangutans like to spit water on people they do not know. I had been warned and was trying to be extra cautious. Every time they would make a dash for their water hole to get a big mouthful of water I would make a run for it, then they would chase me till I was out of sight.  Some of the keepers told me that is the exact reaction they want to get to I just have to let them spit on me and not react or this little game will never end... So I only got a total of two mouthfuls spat on me. It actually really wasn't that bad, orangutans are really clean animals. Orangutans are also really smart, quite a bit smarter than gorillas. There was some research being done about their ability to count. A researcher would go to each orangutan and put a screen up to them and there would be three rectangles.  One rectangle would have a lot of dots, then one would have two dots and the last one would have one dot. The orangutan then would put them in order from most to least and would get a grape if they got it correct. They are so smart!! I found myself over by the gorillas after work though, I just love them.

My mom sent me a video clip of two brother gorillas that had been separated for two years. This is a picture of their reunion. Isn't this the cutest thing you have ever seen?

Primate Aide Keeper Job

Okay, I am not trying to sound cool or awesome or anything, but this is the best job EVER! So yes, I do clean up primate poop but the rest of the stuff I get to do and see outweighs the poop cleaning! First thing I do when I get there is feed them. The gorillas are inside in their cages so I go outside and spread some fruits, vegetables and bamboo shoots. Then I come inside, we open the doors and they all run outside to eat. There are six gorillas, three boys and three girls.  Baracka is 20 years old, male and the dominant male in the family. He is what they call a silverback.  Then there is Kwarme, he is 12, and Kojo, he is 10.  Then there is Mandara, she is 30 years old and has given birth to all the gorillas except for Baracka (she was a surrogate mother to Baracka since his birth). There is another girl and she is 18 years old (I cannot remember her name!) and a 3 year old girl name Kibibi which means "little lady" in Swahili. She is in the picture below, she is about the size of a human three year old and oh so adorable! So while they are outside eating I go inside and clean their cages.  Take the old hay out, hose it down and put some new hay in. They love coming in to their clean cages. They check it out to make sure it's clean enough and roll around in the hay.  Once they are all inside I go back outside and spread some popcorn around (no butter or salt). It's a treat to them. Then they go back outside to eat and play again. Then the zoo keeper and I go outside and answer the publics questions about gorillas. In the afternoons we do some enrichment activities like playing on iPads and computer, playing with sheets (they love wearing them on their heads!) and play with other different toys. These animals are so smart and so lovable.

 PRIMATE DRAMA

These animals are so much like humans it is crazy. In the wild male gorillas will live with their troop till they are about fourteen years old, at this point they go on their own and form a bachelor troop with other male gorillas around their age. After a couple years they will go find some females and start their own troops. So we have Baracka who is the dominant male of the family. Kwarme is 12 years old and is starting to distance himself from the troop.  When we call them in for breakfast/lunch/dinner, Kwarme will come in on the little bridge connecting the the inside cages but will stop there and not go farther. After a minute he will go back outside and will meet us at the other door, so we will let him in at the other door. He doesn't want to do what Baracka does, he's too cool for that! Now on the other side of the Ape House we have the orangutans. Kyle has a major crush on Bonnie and will not let Bonnie out of his sight. He will even literally hold on to her hair. It is very hard for the zoo keepers to separate them. At one point they finally got Bonnie away from Kyle.  Keko has really been wanting to hang out with Bonnie and finally got his chance. After Bonnie hung out with Keko, Kyle came back and was mad at Bonnie for hanging out with Keko and Keko was jealous of Kyle hanging out with Bonnie all the time! They are too funny and I love them too much.