January 4: Here are photos of our helpers on the mountain gorilla trek in Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park. They were indeed helpful, and our modest payments and tips to them (in addition to the much larger park permit fees) were a useful addition to the local economy.
Chief guide
Assistant guide, with rifle to protect against Cape buffalo
Guide in training. She had just completed her college course,
and this was her first practical trek. The poles are the walking sticks lent to us by the porters.
Trackers, who start early in the morning to locate the gorilla group and
radio its location back to the guides
Porters, local villagers whom we hired to carry our backpacks, steady us on tricky paths, and haul us up steep rocky steps. We would have real trouble on this trek without them.
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