Rwanda - Volcanoe National Park & Musanze

The biggest tourist attraction in Rwanda is the mountain gorillas in the Volcanoes National Park. Diane Fossey (i.e. Sigourney Weaver in the movie 'Gorillas in the Mist') did her research and was eventually killed here.

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Seeing the mountain gorilla costs a fortune - $500 per person. Also, for the protection of the gorillas, only a limited number of people (about 35) are allowed per day and only one hour is given with the gorillas. It is a very well set up operation - they call it gorilla 'trekking', but the park rangers had actually located the gorillas in the morning before we got to the park. We were divided into groups of eight and each group was assigned a guide and couple military men for protection. The gorilla group we saw was only 45 minutes hike into the mountain.

Look at this face!:

The big gorilla that the young gorilla is sitting on is the silverback - a gorilla group generally consists of the dominant male silverback, 3-4 female gorilla and the young gorillas:

Female gorillas sitting together:

Mom gorilla holding a two week old baby gorilla:

We stayed in the nearby town of Musanze for the gorilla trekking. We were walking around the town when we passed this church holding an outdoor concert:

We watched the concert while little kids watched us - we entertained them by taking photos and showing it to them on the screen. Here are some of the kids that weren't too shy to pose for a picture: Walking to the bus station: