Gorillas!!!

If you read the first post then you know how excited I was for this part of the trip. I LOVE animals and I was beyond thrilled to have the opportunity to see an extremely rare animal in its natural habitat. Despite having a fever the previous night (not confirmed with thermometer but at this point I can usually tell), I was not sure if hiking to see gorillas would be feasible. After deliberation and speaking with Emma I decided I was well enough to hike and I didn't want to put off the trek. So at 7:15am we headed to the base of mount Muhavora (the big volcano in all of my photos). I met the two guides and the one other tourist on the trip (a 22 year old South African guy who was on break after finishing college) and we began to walk. We had to cross through village fields and climb over a wall and then we were on these tiny dirt "trails" making our way through a rainforest. After 1.5 hours of getting cut up by thorns and pointy leaves I was told we were near the trackers and to get my camera out. I was pretty cranky at this point but Once I rounded the corner and saw a GIANT silverback male I forgot about the fact that my arms looked like I had an encounter with an angry cat. The first gorilla was pretty obscured by the trees but then we saw a 6 year old female who came very close to us. Her name was Machete and she was quite a character. She sort of seemed to recline against trees and pose for photos. Then when we moved along to the next gorilla she would follow us quite closely. I took a selfie standing several feet in front of her and then I heard a roar and some chest pounding and turned around to see her only 2 feet from my face. OY! The guides explained this was her way of playing. I still was not so sure about the proximity. We saw two more silverback males (this family group has 5 males! This is rare, they usually fight so it is pretty cool). Then there was a mom and her 2 year old baby and because she liked the human attention, Machete came over and played with her little brother. Great photo op. After the hour was up and on the hike back I still could not believe what I had just had the privilege to experience. There are only several hundred mountain gorillas left in the world, they can only live in the wild and efforts to have them mate or live in captivity have been unsuccessful. But getting to hang out with these gentle giants in their home for a day was so amazing/terrifying/awe inspiring.