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Reflections from My Mirror
Travelling to another country or region and encountering the people of those places, always comes with its own particularities and challenges. As a graduated anthropologist I’m supposed to be quite literate about “different cultures”. At least that is what I used to say when people asked me what it actually means to study Social and…
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The Secrets of Our Most Popular Ugandan Hiking Route
People people, it’s Owen again! I’m here to give you a personal take on our most popular trekking direction that goes through my home area. Five different walks and treks utilise it, can you imagine: the half-a-day Culture on the Crest, 1-day Islands of Miracles, 4-day Three Upland Lakes, and the much longer Ultimate Hike…
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Bella of Cyuza Island: Reaping the Fruits of Hard Work
The host of our online picnic on Lake Burera (see the video below) is Bélancille Twizerimana, and this is a little introduction to this amazing businesswoman, illustrated with Cyuza Island images … Bella is a former teacher and banker who entered the tourism industry through a bakery. Among other businesses, she runs two guest houses…
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Dawn at the Edge of the Region
26mm, 0.6s, f/8, ISO640 I may be colourblind, but I still love colourful photography. I have many close-ups from Mt Nyiragongo, and I’m sure I’ll share several of them with you, but this is probably my favourite photograph from the top. Taken just before dawn, it required a tripod, but I kept the shutter speed…
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King Kong vs. Gentle Gorilla
As the Godzilla vs. Kong movie opens globally tomorrow, let us investigate why people got gorillas so wrong initially, and how they started to realise the mistake. History of Gorilla Fantasies While Batwa “Pygmies” had coexisted with mountain gorillas in the rainforests of central Africa since time immemorial, the rest of the world took quite a bit longer.…
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How to Make Your Own Ugandan Rolex
A student at a Ugandan university was feeling kinda sick. He went to see a doctor who looked at him and asked: “How many rolexes per day”? “For breakfast, lunch and dinner,” said the student and the doctor had his diagnosis ready. Rolex derives its name from “rolled eggs”. Endemic to Uganda, it is a…
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To Fly or Not to Fly? Let’s Talk Responsible Tourism!
Ecotourism & Sustainable Tourism In recent years there has been — rightly so — a lot of attention devoted to ecotourism or sustainable tourism. While ecotourism clearly focuses on being ecological, or not harming the environment, the term sustainable tourism is a bit more encompassing. Sustainable seems to be the buzzword of the last decade;…
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What I Learned from Hikers on the Gorilla Highlands Trails
One must say that the world is changing! As a guide leading trekkers across our region for over 10 years, I have learned a lot and forgotten nothing culturally, economically and politically. Culturally, who can deny that girls in the Gorilla Highlands region are a source of wealth in the family? If you want to marry someone’s…
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Three Faces
25mm, 1/200s, f/6,3, ISO1250 My experiences with gorillas are probably reversed from those of most people’s. My first 20 hours or so in the presence of gorillas were all in DR Congo, in Virunga and Kahuzi-Biega national parks. I then had quite a bit of time with them in Uganda, followed by more DRC as…
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Picnic With Us on Lake Burera — Virtually or in Person
Aaaaaaaaand here we go again: the second and the even-better Picnic will take place on Cyuza Island, Lake Burera! Time: Saturday, 27 March 2021, 5-6pm Rwandan time which is: 8-9am in San Francisco11am-12pm in New York3-5pm in London4-6pm in Vienna6-7pm in Kampala Location: Lake Burera, Rwanda — and your Zoom screens (the link will be…
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How a Gracious Bird Taught Me a Lesson in Patience
Bunyonyi literally means ‘place of many little birds’, and everyone who has ever visited this lake in the southwest of Uganda, knows that that is not an exaggeration. From kingfishers who dive with their beaks straight down in the water, to the hamerkops waiting patiently on the riverbanks, to the gracious national pride of Uganda,…
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Weekly Companion – The One Minute One
After two 6-minute Weekly Companions and an instalment of 30+ minutes, this is a one-minute edition! Our experiments with the format may be over next week with a special edition devoted to responsible tourism. You may also like: Grand Vistas? Consider It Covered!Bella of Cyuza Island: Reaping the Fruits of Hard WorkExplore Rwanda With Expert…
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Cook With Me at the Lake Burera (Online) Picnic
Friends, I am sorry for introducing myself a bit late… I was your chef at the Monthly Online Picnic in Musanze, I loved doing that for you — so I am back to invite you to the next Picnic at Lake Burera on 27 March 2021! I will also be bringing in a nice new…
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Top of the World
24mm, f/13, 1/250s, ISO100 The purpose of travel photography is often not just to make people wish they were there, but to give them an opportunity to truly picture it. Having a landscape like this helps, of course, and those of you who read my previous posts might recognise a half-hearted adherence to the rule…
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My Commitment to Nabanga
Jambo sana! I am Amy Porter, a wildlife behavioural ecologist and conservation biologist with a special love of primates and birds. I am from the US (Pacific Northwest) but I have worked all over the world, and recently I spent four years studying Grauer’s gorillas and bonobos and working on community conservation projects in the…
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Kampala, Here I Come!
After my first month of exotic but basic living on the shores of Lake Bunyonyi I was ready for a deeper dive into Ugandan life. I’d occasionally visited the nearby town of Kabale for my supermarket needs or a change of environment, but I wanted to explore a bit. As someone who is used to…
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Weekly Companion — Online Picnic in Musanze
It was a massive relief to watch the Zoom recording of our first Online Picnic at Virunga Valley Academy. Previously I had little idea about how the event would look to somebody who wasn’t with us in Musanze but was taking it in through a screen. And … the concept worked!The Picnic was more than…
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Fresh News from Mgahinga Gorilla National Park
Hello, Planet Earth, My name is Moses Turinawe and I am the tourism warden of Uganda’s smallest park, Mgahinga Gorilla National Park. One of my duties is to inform the world about what Mgahinga offers, so it will be a pleasure to periodically update you on the Gorilla Highlands Experts platform. With my Rwandan colleague…
News & Stories Blog
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