Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Day 7: The book of the Jungle


                                                                                                                    23 May 2012
            Ladies and gentlemen, I am writing sitting on a little boat in the middle of the NILE RIVER!  Yep, the Nile.  Today we did the safari and now we are in little boats that took us to Murchison Falls.  I am speechless.  The peace of this river, the PERFECT weather, no one drop of cold and a beautiful refreshing breeze.  This is just incredible.
            The river is pretty wide, although for some reason I thought it was wider, I thought you would not be able to see the other side, but you clearly can. 

Among hippos, birds and fishermen
            I cannot believe I am here.  Here, in the same river where the Bible says that Moses was found, the longest river in the world, and probably the most known too, the one we learned about in primary school and saw in the atlases and never even imagined or dreamed of seeing in person….simply because, not only this, but the entire trip is beyond even my dreams.  When I stop to think that doing a safari in Africa is the dream of so many people, part of their bucket list, and here I am… having done it already!  During my first year of college, two days away from my 20th birthday, of entering another decade…. I’m getting goose bumps. 
            We saw SO many animals today, I tried to remember all of them, but I don’t think I got all of them… here is my best try:
            
Water buffalos – so many of them!! They were everywhere, and birds apparently love to just sit on them and chill and ride along!

Amiguitos!

Go to the Facebook page and watch the sequence of these buddies... pretty amazing how they  coexist.
    
Lions – Yep, TWO!  And one… eating a water buffalo!!

            
Pumbas!!! – They even sneaked into the hotel lawn!
Giraffes – Fr. Kizito’s favorite animal… by far.  Every time we saw one he would scream as if it was the first time, “Look! A giraffe! That’s my favorite animal!”

Las elegantes
            
Elephants – So, so wonderful! And Also friends with the birds!

Chau!
            
Oribi- The models of the jungle… they posed for the pictures… I am not kidding, look!

The jungle´s Next Top Models!
Posaban!!
            
The bird from the Ugandan flag – One of the most beautiful birds I have EVER seen!

Such beautiful birds!
Eran hermosos!
African Bald Eagles- which the tour guide enjoyed calling Bold eagle..  


            
Monkeys- there were not that many but we just saw some on our way to the falls, hanging on some trees and some other ones on the street!!
            
Hippopotamuses – SO much bigger than I had imagined!  If I had to chose to be one animal, a hippo would be the last.  They don’t do anything!  They just sit there, with a smile on their faces because of the natural way their mouth curves up and just stay there.   In a school of hippos, (or a group, I forget the name of it for hippos) there is always one loner.  The loner is the brave one, the one that fights with others and wins.  He is all scratched up and looks like he is suffering all alone, isolated from the group and bloody looking…. But apparently that´s “cool” in hippopotamus world.
But as the guide told us, apparently hippos are not the only ones that include loners.  The giraffes, once they are old, also leave and just wander off by themselves.

Agarrate Catalina!
            
Crocodiles: The scariest ones!  Why?  Well apart from the fact that they have huge teeth that could rip one of us apart in seconds and that they do not mind showing for 10 minutes straight and intimidating scales, they are so quick!  I could barely get a picture of them because they would either be hiding or, when they went to get in the water they would do it too fast!

I see you!
Te veo!
            
Whispering Acacia – a plant that ants live on and giraffes like to eat.
Quails – so beautiful but unfortunately too quick for my camera.
Waterbucks- very pretty little animals... they liked to hang out with the Ugandan birds.

….and more that I don´t remember…

                One of the best parts however, was the lion.  At the beginning it was far away from us, eating the waterbuck that it had killed.  But then, after about 20 minutes, it walked towards the road… and crossed it!!!!  It was behind us and I could not take a picture.. but it was crazy!!!!  The lion was crossing the street behind us!!! 
El paisaje... como para no querer ser un animal y vivir acá...
                I have no words to describe how beautiful this place is… the plants, the trees, the animals… it´s like living in a zoo!  And I mean that literally.  We were having lunch today and all of a sudden… pumbas on the lawn!  Yep, they were just walking along… AND we heard from the hotel people that the day before we arrived they found an elephant in the pool!  That one… is less believable, but I believe it anyways, it makes everything more fun. J
There are A LOT of really awesome pictures of the Safari, the boat trip on the Nile and the hotel on Facebook! Check them out!
Hay muchas más fotos del Safari, del hotel y del paseo por el Nilo en Facebook! Que lasdisfrtuen! J
-Magda

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