Glad we took the plane to Uganda 10/10/18
This am I emailed the gorilla tour group to confirm pickup for tomorrow. She responded with, you didn’t pay so how will the safari continue? What??? I’ve been emailing you everyday for the last week and now you act like it’s not going to happen? She sent me a link so I could pay 5 min before we boarded the plane. Credit card submitted. We’ll see how all this plays out.
We arrived in Uganda early afternoon after a short hour + flight from Kilimanjaro airport. It’s green and lush and moist, a contrast to dusty Tanzania (it’s the end of the dry season there). A car picked us up from the airport to the short drive to the Entebbe Backpackers Campground. Here we’ll pay only $8 to camp on the nice grounds with a toilet and shower nearby. We saw a lot of military and UN presence here. There’s a special forces headquarters a block away and nice hotels in the area. We put our tent up quickly as we heard close thunder.
We arrived in Uganda early afternoon after a short hour + flight from Kilimanjaro airport. It’s green and lush and moist, a contrast to dusty Tanzania (it’s the end of the dry season there). A car picked us up from the airport to the short drive to the Entebbe Backpackers Campground. Here we’ll pay only $8 to camp on the nice grounds with a toilet and shower nearby. We saw a lot of military and UN presence here. There’s a special forces headquarters a block away and nice hotels in the area. We put our tent up quickly as we heard close thunder.
Crazy enough, we were going to take a bus from Arusha to Nairobi to Uganda. If we would have taken the bus, it would have been the day of or day after this disaster. I’m even more happy I pushed for the flight! We saved more than 30 hours on a bus... and avoided a potential fiery death
We took a walk to get some cash. I attempted to walk down a police check street to which the gun holding man waved me away. Surprisingly not a ton of people on the streets. We walked down a side street with shops. A guy invited us over to the food area where they were cooking chicken and other meats. The guys were battling for our attentions and money. Andy declined and we continued to a restaurant that appeared to be a fun spot. It was only 2:30 so we were the only ones there but they were open and willing to serve.
We ordered 2 beers. I got a common meal of plantains, chicken, cabbage, green beans, avocado. Andy jumped in right for the cow hoof. Eeewwww. Plus he got the short ribs. My meal was good, his hoof was a gelatinous nasty mess. The article said it would give him superhuman strength so we’ll see. I’m not a texture person but this has the consistency of a mucous plug (and it looked like it). We relaxed, played with the kittens, and soaked our first day in.
A soap opera was on and the mother asked her son’s suitor to show her the girl’s HIV report status. There were free condoms available outside the bathroom. Seems like it’s OK to talk about it which is good. We read if you are gay it’s better to stay out of Uganda and go to South Africa as it’s not tolerated here.
Tomorrow we leave for Biwindi and then the gorillas trek. Can’t wait for the next 4 days!