Golden Monkies and middle seats

August 14, 2024

Today was another early day -645am pick up to go to the golden monkeys. The property has a guard house (every one of the hotels/guest houses Ive seen in this country have a security guard or guard house) and he must have been snoozing this morning because my driver had to honk to get in like three times.

I loaded up my stuff and we headed out to the same place as yesterday for the briefing. The gorillas groups are smaller, so today we had about 15 people in our group to see the monkeys. The monkeys are not as overwhelmed by humans as the gorillas can be, so the groups can be larger.

Thankfully we had a different trail head to drive to today, so the “African massage” wasnt nearly as long or rough. I didnt need a porter today because the hike wasnt nearly as long and I only was taking my phone along with me today – nothing else. Other people needed porters, they had large packs or were not as stable on their feet.

Our guide stopped a few times to talk about the farming, the potatoes and the daisies. We got to this large field and boom – there were monkeys!! They were there trying to find seeds or small potatoes they could snack on.

The monkeys have reddish/golden hair and they are all over the field. The longer we are there the more come down the mountain to get snacks. They just keep on coming! We only get one hour with them, like the gorillas, because this is the only place in the world these monkeys exist. Instead of the males running the packs, the females run them. The men are run off when they are older “teenagers” and have little bachelor packs until mating season, at which they are let in if the female allows.

The monkeys are very active, they have such little personalities. They chase each other, they climb trees. One of the guides led a few of us over to another field to watch a couple of them in the trees. It was really fun to see the excitement when a monkey would find a snack!

After our hour with the monkeys we walked back to town and my driver and I headed out. We went back to take some pictures by the bamboo gorillas. It is this huge field that has made a family of gorillas made of bamboo – it also has a lion and giraffe.

After the pictures it was off to Kigali. It’s about a two and a half hour drive from the mountains. My driver pulled over to the same place he bought me the bananas and bought me a pineapple. he wanted me to take it with me, but I dont think he understood how hard it would be to travel with a pineapple OR the fact that you couldnt actually travel with a pineapple. So on the way back into the city he stopped at a place he knew the owner and had her cut up the pineapple for me so I could enjoy it. It was one of the best pineapples Ive ever had.

After the pineapple tasting, he continued to drive me around town until we got to this little cafe in the middle of a neighborhood. He wanted me to check it out because he thought it would be a great place to relax before my flight. It was super cool, super chill and outside. I didnt want to spend like eight hours there though, so I got a table, had lunch and wrote for a bit before my driver came back to get me around 245pm. He talked me into waiting until about 4pm to go to the airport.

Let me tell you, I made the wrong decision. In order to get into the airport to even drop me off we both had to get out of the car, walk through a metal detector and have the dogs sniff all my belongings. JUST FOR A DROP OFF. When we got to the airport it was almost 6pm – I figured I would go in and sit until the bag drop was open. And wouldnt you know it, they wont even let me into the airport until 2ish hours before my flight.

I had to sit outside at a cafe while I waited to get into the aiport to bag drop. I worked on my blog, watched Gilmore Girls and wrote in my journal. I had to kill almost five hours at the darn cafe. It was brutal, because its warm here, and then started raining (I was under cover of the roof) which made it extra super duper humid outside on top of the heat.

When I was finally allowed into the building I checked my bags and headed through security. I knew I had to ask a security guard for my drone back so I booked it to security where I passed through (with water even though it said no water) easily. I immediately asked my drone back with my paperwork. They told me to wait and about 30 minutes later I had my drone back! Thank goodness!!

Next stop – the lounge! I had Googled (because I assumed I could relax in the lounge instead of the airport itself) the aiport to see if they had a lounge. Well, because Rwanda is super not reliable with internet and cellular service – the credit card machine was not working. They let me go in and said that they would find me later with the machine to try again. It was nice to be in the lounge – I got snacks and water (always water, always so thirsty). After about an hour they came in with the machine again and it didnt work again! So I got a free lounge stay – thank goodness!

It was time to board my plane and I was very excited. A nice little three hour flight NORTH to Ethiopia where I have a four hour layover….

When I landed in Addis Ababa I made my way to the gate area and it was pretty empty so I grabbed a nice row of chairs and took a nap! When I woke up the whole gate area was packed. They basically have like six gates and one large waiting area. But there is ZERO organization to the mayhem of when they call the flight to board.

I was so excited because there is no one sitting in the middle seat for my row, or so I thought. There was no one assigned that seat, but someone boarded who knew the guy on the aisle seat so he just SAT DOWN in the middle seat. And then he went on to man spread. So – it was a long five hour flight. But he moved once so I took my space back. At least when I land here, I only have four flights left.