A couple wise women once told me, you are only going to regret the things you didn't do while traveling; don't let your budget keep you from certain experiences. Boy am I glad I listened to them (Hi Julie! Hi Brit!). I wish I could say with confidence that Brian and I will definitely be back in Africa. I want to believe that visiting magical place this isn't a once in a lifetime opportunity; however, no one knows what the future holds, and so I worked on convincing Brian that splurging on a Gorilla Trek was definitely worth it.
Rwanda is often referred to "The Land of 1000 Hills," however we quickly found out Rwandans have nicknamed it to "The Land of 1000 Smiles." This came as no surprise given how genuinely happy and helpful everyone is here.
We started the morning off with another 5:00am wake up call. Ouch. However, having gone to bed at the ripe hour of 8pm and still on our gorilla high, the alarm sounded a lot less like torture and more like a peaceful nudge. To be honest, Brian and I didn't even know we were doing a golden monkey trek until we arrived at the lodge. We also went on a hike up to Twin Lakes the day we arrived, I guess it was a two night three day package, but since the stars of the show were the gorillas, we didn't pay much attention to the rest. We really didn't know how anything would top what we had just experienced and in truth, the golden monkeys do not compare, but that's not to say it wasn't enjoyable. The day started off very similar with coffee and tea, and entertainment at Volcanoes National Park HQ. Unlike the gorillas, there isn't a limit to the size of your group for golden monkey treks. Thankfully the drive was an easy twenty minute ride back in the direction of our hotel. Tim told us we would be back at the lodge by noon at the latest. This was music to our ears since the day before we didn't return until close to 5pm, missing lunch all together (and we all know I don't enjoy missing meals).