This is my first ever post, and to celebrate I’ve decided to share my favorite travel adventure to date, trekking through the thick  jungle in Rwanda to spend time with some of our closest living relatives, Mountain Gorillas! It was truly one of the most amazing things I have ever done, or expect to do in my lifetime. We spent two days hiking through the Volcanoes National Park, and were able to visit with two separate gorilla families. On day one we visited the Amahoro Group, “Amahoro” means peace.  This was a challenging hike with lots of mud, rain  and stinging nettles but when we finally arrived at the clearing  where our first silverback gorilla sat, all of our challenges were forgotten! Not because we were mesmerized, more like scared! We seemed to be surrounded and uninvited guests at the gorilla party. But once our apprehension wore off, we spent the next hour completely taken by these beautiful animals.

Day two was a completely different experience, some would say better, I just say different! The hike was a breeze in comparison to day one. We visited with the Hirwya Group. “Hirwya” means luck, named for the cute little twin babies born into this family. The littles were so active, wresting, tumbling, climbing and playing with grandpa, a HUGE silverback! I kept forgetting these were gorillas and not little humans. Anyway, I could go on forever about the gorillas, but since I’m really using this blog as just a place to share my travel photos, I will stop typing and upload some pics!