Navita in Rwanda: Monkey Business

Nyungwe Forest National Park was a test in endurance, patience, and for my roommate Sierra a test in how long she could go without getting sick =/ The trip began last Friday when four of us made the 5 hour trek to the Southwestern part of Rwanda after work. We arrived pretty late in the evening only to find several men outside our guesthouse who only spoke Swahili. After a very confusing 10 minutes we found some friends who had already arrived and finally made it to our rooms and passed out.

The next day we drove through the absolutely beautiful tea fields and started on our first hike- the waterfall hike. The main attraction for hiking in Nyungwe is the very cool different types of monkeys - there are thirteen different species and in the 4 hours we spent hiking to the waterfall and back we didn't see a single one! We stayed positive though and decided to take one more hike that day....and still had no luck =( Apparently the monkeys were being shy.

Nyungwe Forest


Mailman girls - Andi, Kate and I at the waterfall

Evidence of me hiking in a rainforest

Tea fields near our guesthouse

Luckily we befriended a girl named Mercedes while hiking who informed us that the Colobus monkey troupe was making their way closer to the hiking trail and we would hopefully be able to catch them in the morning! (On a side note, Mercedes graduated from Northwestern as well in '06 - such a small world!)

So we woke up VERY early and set out to find the monkeys. The hike didn't seem too bad until we met up with the monkey tracker and he steered us off the trail, literally into the bush. As many of you know I generally don't go hiking or do much physical activity at all. The fact that I don't own a pair of sneakers is a testament to my lack of physical exercise. Luckily, I wasn't alone in this and Katty was my kindred spirit in our total lack of preparation for this type of a hike. However, we made it through and I'm proud to say I was able to hike in very inappropriate shoes without slipping and falling or getting left behind. And we found the monkeys!!! There were hundreds of monkeys in the trees all around us and it was definitely worth getting pieces of leaves and twigs stuck in my hair and having sore calf muscles for the next 2 days =)