Gorilas en la niebla

Una amiga de la escuela, Molly, estudiante de doctorado en mi departamento y capitana de nuestro equipo de futbol, esta desde finales de enero en Ruanda, trabajando en un proyecto para su tesis sobre epidemiologia de la tuberculosis. Ademas de dedicar mucho tiempo a su proyecto, parece que ha conseguido escaparse a ver gorilas de las montannas. Os dejo aqui el email que nos envio junto con alguna de sus fotos. Impresionante!

"I went to see the gorillas on Saturday and I wanted to forward some pictures. It was amazing. There are only 700 mountain gorillas left in the world and around half of them are in Rwanda. We had originally been hoping to see the Susa family, which is by far the largest family (38 gorillas); however they were over 9 hours away from the base by foot so we ended up seeing a smaller and newer family called the Hirwa (= luck in Kinyarwanda). There were 10 gorillas in the family including one silver back (male over 16 years) and three babies. Mountain gorillas can live to be 45 years (which is also the life expectancy for humans in Rwanda).

It was a 2 hour hike to reach them, and our guide was bushwhacking with his machete for about half of it. There are 7 visitable families in Rwanda and each family can be visited by 8 people a day for up to an hour. The general rule is that you cannot get closer than 7 meters; however, if the gorillas approach you it's okay. Just as we were about to leave, the huge silverback starting walking right toward us - it is so massive, I think we were all a little uneasy. He literally came
within three feet of us - the close-up picture attached was not taken with any zoom. He just stood there looking at us for a good five minutes. Our guide was saying that it was a special experience even for him because it is very rare to come so close, particularly to the silverback.

Definitely something to put on the list! "