Kampala and Entebbe

On our way back to Kampala there are places along the road where you can pull over and tons and tons of kids will run up to your car selling you meat on a stick, drinks, candy, fruit, etc. It's convenient and fun! 

The roads are packed in Kampala, lots of motorbikes 

At the local market in Entebbe

Ugandans love Obama for some reason

Enjoying a soda on Lake Victoria

Mmmmm fish (head and all!)

Blackie and I went the safe route with beef!

My new favorite fruit, passion fruit

Mustafas brother Blackie used to work at the zoo and he gave us a behind the scenes tour, it was amazing! We got to pet a rhino.

Hang out with a leopard

See the cubs

And go into the shoebill cage! In there if the shoebill bows to you, you must bow back. We felt silly bowing to a bird, but it's a lot better than getting pecked at!

We go to hold a boa, as you can see from my face, not my favorite.

Nathan likes snakes, he's crazy!

And then goodbye to our new friends Mustafa and Blackie. We love them and miss them so much!

This is the end to an amazing trip. I must say that Uganda is the coolest country I have ever travelled to and I can't wait to one day return!

Lake Mburo

After gorilla trekking we headed over to Lake Mburo. We had not seen zebras yet and were looking forward to seeing them there. 

Impala

Baby zebra, love how he's still brown

Zebras

Lake Mburo

Warthog

Us

The house we stayed in near the lake

Crested cranes

Nathan and I in our car

Impala

Waterbuck

Topi

Zebras

Next up the zoo!

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