Ramón Kristian Arellano

Aaaah! What an experience! At the time of writing I'm back home in Norway, but looking back on that last part of my trip to Uganda makes me smile. I can't believe I stood three meters away from mountain gorillas! Yes, the same mountain gorillas you've seen on Discovery Channel, the ones that are almost extinct, with only 700 of them left on the entire planet. Did you see "Gorillas in the Mist"? Remember Diane Fossey? Well that's what we did, same thing, same place. Joakim, Silje, Tobias, Beate and I were escorted by four armed guards (!) and guided through Bwindi Impenetrable Forest until we met a family of Gorillas called Rushegura. They are so peaceful these creatures, but even the little grunting we heard from the leader, also called the silver back, is enough to make the hairs stand on your arms.

There are lots of rules to follow, like don't cough or sneeze, don't stare into the silver back's eyes, don't stand inside a group of gorillas, and don't make any sudden moves or noises. We definitely broke the one saying don't stand inside a group. We didn't mean to, but suddenly we had gorillas all around. Small baby gorillas rolling around, a mother laying in a naturally made hammock in a tree, the silverback eating some leaves from a bush. I'm most impressed we didn't brake the one about sudden moves or noises, because at one point we were attacked by wasps. I was stung twice in the head. This only made the experience greater. It feels right to have to go through a little pain to deserve spending time with mountain gorillas.

I have a couple of great photos from this fantastic experience (I should, I took over a hundred), and I'm pleased to say that pictures from the entire trip can now be found in My Photo Gallery.

Thank you Joakim and Silje for giving me the opportunity to get to know Uganda!