Today was our first full day in Uganda (well our first time seeing any sort of day since we arrived so late at night). We woke up and showered and then had some delicious pancakes for breakfast before hitting the road. I also got to use Dr. Giordani's internet card for a minute to send a quick email to my family to tell them I arrived. We packed some things for a few days out doing safari like things and then set out for some non-work related fun.
We drove through a lot of towns that definitely look very different than anything you would ever see in the US. People walking everywhere and nothing looks super organized, but it was cool. We saw a lot of goats and cows and people selling fruits and stuff too. Not a great description, I know. The driving here is also kind of crazy. The rules seem to only sort of apply. I would not want to be a driver here, but luckily we have two awesome drivers getting us around everywhere. We drove for about four hours until we got to Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary where we are staying for the night. We had a yummy lunch (I had chicken and potatoes) and then had some relaxing time in our rooms. Somehow I have managed to already get a half dozen mosquito bites (two of which are on my face), so I took our resting time to put on more (keyword, more, i already had a bunch on). No one else has gotten nearly as many yet, so aren't I lucky.
After a quick accidental nap (I was sooo tired) we left to go rhino tracking! A guide takes you out though the bush to where the rhinos are that day so you can see them. Each rhino has a guard to protect them so they are easy to find since the rangers can use radios and whistle to find each other. We found a group of four white rhinos and they were amazing. You can get fairly close and they are just the coolest creatures. We learned also that where and black rhinos have nothing to do with coloring. When the white people asked the natives what the animal was called the natives used the local word for wide, which sounded like white and that's what they became known as. The black rhino was named simply to differentiate it from the white rhino. Anyways, we followed this group of four rhinos for a while and got a ton of awesome pictures. There were two males about 3 and a half years out named Obama (his mama was from Disney's Animal Kingdom so they named his after out president) and Augstus, the female 13 year old was Bella, and her calf was 1 and a half and named Donna. So amazing. On the way back from seeing them we saw some bushbucks and some small deer like things called Duiker. When we got back we saw an awesome crowned heron too, which is the national bird of Uganda. So beautiful.
After rhino trekking we hung out for a bit and then had delicious dinner and got super fresh mango and pineapple for dessert. It gets dark fairly early here, so we went back to our rooms and got ready for bed around 9pm and now were going to sleep soon, this time under a mosquito net.
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| Awesome rhino |
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| Crossing the street all together |
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| So close! |
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