I'm crossing the Indian Ocean en route to Africa. If I had a boat, I'd sail. But, I don't. Happily, every island has an airport. With a bit of bargain-hunting on the web, I've found an economical way to hop from island to island across almost 8000 km of ocean. Read on and I'll tell you a little bit about what's on the far side of the world.

• Population: ~20 million
• Religion: 70% Buddhist, 13% Hindu, 10% Muslim, 7% Christian
• Area: A little bigger than West Virginia
• History: Thousands of years of maritime traffic passed through its ports
• Known for: A diverse and multicultural country; cinnamon, rubber, tea, spices and elephants

The old fortress town of Galle hasn't changed much since the Dutch East India Company built a fort here in 1663. Its massive walls saved the old town from the tsunami of 2004.

Nearby Unawatuna Beach was a tranquil escape from traffic and tourists eight years ago. Now, it's wall-to-wall hotels, with a continuous strip of beach chairs and bars in front. Oops! There went one of Asia's loveliest hide-aways. Time to search for a new place to disappear to.

• Population: 400,000
• Religion: 100% Sunni Muslim
• Area: 26 atolls, less total area than the US Virgin Islands
• History: Inhabited by seafarers for 2500 years, became an Islamic sultanate in the 12th century
• Known for: White beaches, blue water, and fishing

Tourism is big here. Emirates, British Airways, Air China, JAL and Korean Air (to name a few) deliver more than a million tourists a year to the Maldives. Tourists come here for fun in the sun, for which they pay $500 or more per day for all-inclusive plans at exclusive island resorts. The result of this much money and this many people coming into such a small country has been to overwhelm the economy and the natural environment. Not much thought has been given to the long-term consequences of traffic, pollution and garbage disposal. Meanwhile, the lines at the gas stations are very long.

At least there was good public transit between the islands. I hopped from island to island by ferry. The ferries were inexpensive, a good way to meet the locals, and a pleasant way to see lots of blue water.

So, what does one do on a tiny island made entirely of sand, with a few palm trees. You go to the beach. You swim in beautiful water. The snorkeling and diving are pretty good, too ... although I've seen more colorful reefs and bigger fish populations in Indonesia. The Maldives have been a victim of coral bleaching due to rising water temperatures in the ocean. Besides snorkeling and diving, there's also sailing and kite surfing.

Since this country is 100% Muslim, you can't buy alcohol here, unless you're staying in one of the expensive resorts. At public beaches, you'll see Maldivian women swimming and snorkeling fully covered. For westerners, Maafushi has a segregated beach, fenced-off from view so the locals don't have to see tourists in bikinis and Speedos. After a few days on the beach with the tourists, it's time to move on.

• Population: 92,000
• Religion: 76% Catholic, 10% Protestant, 2% Hindu
• Area: 115 islands, total area 50% larger than the Maldives
• History: Uninhabited until the 18th century
• Known for: Golden beaches, blue water, giant turtles and unusual coconuts

Still, the cost of living here is high because almost everything is imported. The Seychelles are famous for luxurious resorts that cater to folks with more money than time. I avoided the resort scene by staying at an AirBnB apartment near Beau Vallon beach. I got around on public buses instead of taxis.

The second is the peculiar Coco de Mer. It's a coconut whose shape reminded the early European sailors of their loved ones back home.

• Population: 1.3 million
• Religion: 52% Hindu, 31% Christian, Muslim 15%
• Area: A little smaller than Rhode Island
• History: Visited by the Arabs (975), mapped by the Portuguese (1507), colonized by the Dutch (1638), inhabited by the French (1715), captured by the British (1810), and proclaimed independence (1968)
• Known for: Its strategic location, sugar, rum, textiles, and French-Indian cuisine
• National animal: The Dodo (last seen in 1662)

If Mauritius isn't someplace that comes up in daily conversations, it's easy to see why. When was the last time Mauritius made international headlines? Mauritius has no earthquakes, volcanoes, famines, coup attempts, mass murders, refugee problems or environmental disasters. The last time there was a war here was 1810, when the French navy briefly got the upper hand on the Royal British Navy. At the end of their conflict, the French and the British settled their terms amicably, with the result that Mauritians speak French and drive on the left side of the road. (Mauritians also speak English and Creole.) Before coming here, I told a friend that I was going to visit Mauritius. He asked me "Mauritius who?"

Mauritians spend their time fishing, swimming, running their businesses, raising their families, and eating really good food − whose recipes are a mixture of French and Indian cuisines.

"Mauritius was made first and then Heaven, Heaven being copied after Mauritius." − Mark Twain, 1896
"Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens." − Talking Heads, 1979

The Mahébourg Lagoon, as seen from the top of Lion Mountain

If you look carefully in the photo above, you might see a lone catamaran sailing across the lagoon. Better yet, here's a zoomed-in image to the left. Anyone up for a sail this afternoon?

Mauritians and visitors from around the world enjoy this tranquil paradise. Yet tourism isn't the only industry here. Mauritians tend to be well-educated and well-traveled. Textiles, import/export, financial services, property development, healthcare, renewable energy, and IT are some of the growing industries here. If you've purchased any products from Ralph Lauren, Pierre Cardin, or Lacoste, there's a good chance they were made in Mauritius.

Having a car makes it easy to visit some of the world's most beautiful beaches. Did you know that Mauritius has won World's Leading Honeymoon Destination for the past four years?

I spent an afternoon at La Vanille Nature Park learning about Mauritius' endemic species. Although several unique birds and reptiles were made extinct within the first century of Mauritius' discovery by Europeans, Mauritius Wildlife Foundation has done an admirable job preserving those that are still alive.

The Dodo had a less fortunate fate. Legend says that the curious Dodo, having never seen humans before, trotted down to the beach to greet the first Europeans who arrived here. The sailors were hungry. In less than a century, Europeans ate every single Dodo.

I like Mauritius. This is the antipode of southern California. There's lots to see and do here. Mauritius is much less expensive than the Maldives or the Seychelles.

I bought a one-way ticket here and I don't have an onward ticket to anywhere. So, I might stay here for a while. Incidentally, the immigration laws for Mauritius are fairly relaxed compared to other countries. If you're over 50 and have an income of $40k/year, you can qualify for a retirement visa. After three years, you can become a permanent resident. Something to think about, if you want to get as far away from the USA as possible ....

Mauritius is a delicious mixture of French, British, Indian and East African cultures. (Mauritian baguettes are as good as those in Paris.) Its rich history includes pirates, slave rebellions and naval battles. Its lush national parks are full of wildlife and waterfalls. Its beautiful beaches are protected by a barrier reef that surrounds the island, which means no sharks. Its shopping malls and capital city (Port Louis) have everything that you might need. The unhurried and friendly Mauritians are très sympathique. And Mauritius isn't expensive.

I climbed this peak and was careful not to meet the same fate. Today, it's a climber's paradise, with a great view to reward one at the summit.

Mauritius has an artistic tradition of building miniature scale-model ships, carved in exquisite detail. I learned that this tradition evolved from the fact that the early settlers in Mauritius sometimes had to wait a year or two for supply ships to return from their home country. It's also possible that the Mauritian settlers wanted to remind themselves of the differences between British and French warships.

Thanks to its excellent school system, Mauritius has a 90% adult literacy rate. It's a pleasure to visit someplace where almost everyone speaks three languages and has something interesting to talk about.

There are also elements of Mauritius that are exotic to westerners. 60% of the population are Hindu, and are descended from indentured servants brought from India. There are temples everywhere. Parts of Mauritius feel like India.

Some of the plants are pretty exotic, too. The guides at the botanical garden will warn you that, if you fall into this pond of giant water lilies, you'll drown. Barbs on the undersides of these giant lily pads will hold you underwater. Your decomposed body will provide nourishment for the next generation of lilies.

Rodriques could be nominated as one the "ends of the earth". It's in the middle of the Indian Ocean and a long way from anywhere. The prevailing trade winds made it difficult for ships to sail here. So, Rodrigues was never a sugar producer, nor was it actively colonized. It's a little easier to get here now. There are two flights a day from Mauritius.

The 40,000 inhabitants of Rodrigues don't see a lot of visitors. Life here is the way it was 30 years ago on Mauritius. Everyone knows each other. No one locks their doors. At dinner time, everyone eats together. For someone who travels alone like me, it's a nice change to have dinner companions.

• Mahébourg: Auberge Le Saladier, hosted by Younoos & Jill
• La Gaulette: AirBnB apartments, owned by Trish & Kev
• St François, Rodrigues: Guest House Chez Ronald & Arlette, who is a wonderful cook

• Population: 850,000
• Religion: 81% Christian, 11% Hindu, Muslim 2%
• Area: A little bigger than Mauritius
• History: Visited by the Portuguese (1507), claimed by the French (1638), occupied by the British (1810-1815), became an overseas départment of France (1946)

Mauritius has rolling farmland, forested valleys, large towns throughout the island, extinct volcanoes, and sandy beaches all around. Réunion has an active volcano, a few coastal towns, quaint hamlets in the interior, and rocky shores (mostly). You can think of Réunion as a French Hawaii of the Indian Ocean.

While Mauritius is an independent nation, Réunion is part of the European Union, i.e. France. The French spoken in Réunion is easier to understand than in Mauritius. Réunion feels like a little piece of France that somehow broke off of Europe and sailed away into a deep blue sea.

Piton des Neiges dominates the northern half of Réunion. At 3071 meters, it's the highest point in the Indian Ocean. When this volcano stopped erupting 20,000 years ago, its sides collapsed, creating three deep canyons, or cirques.

Piton de la Fournaise, on the southeastern end of the island, is one of the world's most active volcanoes, with more than 150 eruptions in the past 300 years. These eruptions have created lava flows extending down to the coast, and a shoreline of basalt cliffs and boulders.

The result of both recent and on-going geologic activity is a dramatic landscape with towering peaks, deep valleys, lava caves, waterfalls and vistas. Every day that I was there, I either climbed a peak or swam in the pool at the bottom of a waterfall. Some days, I did both.

Réunion is not as perfect for swimming as Mauritius is. The coastline is beautiful to look at, but only the west coast is sandy. Also, there are few offshore barrier reefs to keep the sharks away.

I spent most of my time in the interior of Réunion, where charming villages are perched on the slopes of the volcanoes. The homes, the gardens, the cafés and the boulangeries drift in and out of the mist. It rains enough in Réunion to fill everyone's gardens with flowers.

Réunion's active volcano, La Fournaise, is its biggest attraction. There's a road to the rim of the collapsed caldera. From there, trails follow along the rim, from which you can gaze across a gigantic lava-filled crater 8 kms in diameter.

It's pretty impressive to see such a huge volcano on such a tiny island.

La Fournaise erupts every couple of years. By chance, it erupted while I was there. Yes! Naturally, I had to go see it close up. A 6 km hike along the caldera's ramparts took me out to the viewpoint where I was able to safely view hot, liquid rock spewing out of the volcano's vent and forming a cone. There were lots of other folks there, too, to see this remarkable display of nature's power.

Are you curious to know why the volcanoes in Mauritius are extinct, and the volcano in Réunion is currently active? It's because there's an upper-mantle hotspot beneath the floor of the Indian Ocean. A few million years ago, this hotspot was underneath Mauritius, and produced volcanoes there. Then, because of the north-eastward movement of the floor of the Indian Ocean, the hotspot moved 200 kms southwest from Mauritius to Réunion. Now, Réunion sits on top of the hotspot which produces the magma for La Fournaise.

A similar hotspot together with seafloor motion is what created the Hawaiian Island chain. Perhaps someday, a new island will form southwest of Réunion.

The drive into Cirque Cilaos involves about 400 hairpin turns as the road climbs up and down the almost vertical walls of this valley.

Cirque Mafate is remarkable for the fact that the relief is so extreme that no one has ever built a road into the valley, and probably never will. Villages in Mafate are only accessible by foot, or by helicopter (used to deliver critical supplies and emergency services).

To get there, I had to descend more than 1000 meters, along a steep and narrow trail. Sections of the trail are posted with warnings not to stop to rest because of the risk of falling rocks.

Hiking down, the scenery is breathtaking. The air is perfectly clean and fresh. At the bottom of the cirque, the only sounds are the birds, the waterfalls − and the occasional rock fall. I spent a night at a guest house with a hot shower and a home-cooked dinner made from locally grown meats, fruits and veggies. Even the rum was home-made. Wow, truly a magical and beautiful place!

Like Mauritius, Réunion is someplace I'd like to come back to. There are many more trails to hike here when I return. Maybe La Fournaise will erupt for me again, too.

I found an excellent guest house (Hotel Niaouly) on the top of the hill in the old city. At the Hotel Niaouly, I was introduced to a travel agent named Justin (justindecouverte@gmail.com) and his brother Samy (samzafzozefa@gmail.com), who offered to be my guide to Madagascar's best parks and countryside. When they told me that car + driver would cost €30/day, I didn't even think of renting a car or trying to take public transportation.

So, after spending just 36 hours in Tana, I left town with Samy for what turned out to be an exhilarating 2000 km roadtrip.

The Malagasy people divide themselves into 18 tribes, each of which has its own dialect, clothing, foods and traditions. Samy, my guide and driver, was from the Betsileo tribe in the southern highlands. Since our plan was to drive Route Nationale 7 from Tana (in the middle of Madagascar) to Toliara (on the southwest coast), Samy was the perfect guide because our route took us right through his territory. Samy knew all the best guest houses, restaurants, park guides and ... policemen. The police in Madagascar tend to extract money from people they don't know, so it's good to have a local guide.

If you'd like to experience Betsileo hospitality and you find yourself in Fianarantsoa, I highly recommend staying Chez Julienne et Patrick.

Walking to the market to go shopping

One reason that they're so friendly and open may be because Madagascar doesn't see a lot of tourists. Madagascar gets 1/100 as many international tourists as Thailand or Greece.

Rickshaw driver waiting for passengers

Madagascar is a poor country. 2/3 of the population live on less than $1/day. The infrastructure is limited. Industry is primitive. Madagascar is so poor that they don't have garbage beside the highways. Empty plastic bottles are used for carrying water or storing liquids. Aluminium cans are considered valuable. Everything is recycled.

In two weeks, I never saw an aluminium can beside the road. If there were any, they were picked up right away and taken to the nearest back-yard aluminium smelting and casting operation. Shown below are four guys casting a 60-litre aluminium pot using a sand mold. I watched the whole process, which took 30 minutes. They start with a sample of what they want to cast. They pack sand around it. Then, they carefully remove the pot from the sand mold. After reassembling the sand mold, they pour liquid aluminium (at ~700°C) into their mold. I was stunned to see them working without gloves or shoes as red hot liquid metal splashed here and there. The pot will be sold in the market for about $20.

Samy and I often had to stop on the highway to make way for herds of zébu moving to and from the markets.

Today, the Betsileo tribe produces 2 or 3 crops of rice every year.

Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot. 90% of its plant and animal species are endemic, that is, they're found nowhere else on Earth. In particular, Madagascar has 103 species and subspecies of lemur. These rare creatures are what most tourists come here to see. Many of these lemurs have become so used to seeing tourists with cameras that they pose for their pictures.

On the southwest coast, I went for a sail in a traditional pirogue, made from a hollowed-out tree trunk. It has one lightweight outrigger for stability. It was a totally home-made affair. I was impressed by how fast and stable it was on the open water.

My final errand in Madagascar was to visit a witch doctor to see if he had any ideas about how to solve America's problem. Click here to see a video of his solution.*

After two weeks in this exotic island nation, I've learned a lot about a people and a place that I knew nothing about before I came here. Many people opened their homes and shared their lives with me. To all the Malagasy who helped me along my journey, I say MISAOTRA TUPUKU (thank you)!

Cyclone Enawo was a different story. A storm like this would be called a hurricane if it were in the Caribbean, or a typhoon if it were in Japan. But because it's in the southern hemisphere, it spins clockwise. So, it's called a cyclone. Cyclones are just as destructive as hurricanes or typhoons. This one flooded northern Madagascar, washed away a few villages, and closed the airport in Antananarivo for two days. I was glad to have had someplace safe and dry (with cold beer) to wait out the cyclone, but the storm shortened my time in the Comoro Islands.

• Islands of the Moon: Comoro comes from the Arabic word qumr meaning "the moon". An ancient legend says these islands are where the moon hides once a month at new moon.
• The Perfume Islands: The Comoros produce vanilla, cloves, jasmine and most of the world's Ylang-Ylang essence for the perfume industry.
• Cloud Coup Coup: Since becoming an independent nation in 1975, the Comoros have had 20 coups or coup attempts. The last coup was in 2011.
• The Forgotten Islands: After the opening of the Suez Canal, few ships had any reason to stop here, and the Comoros lost their strategic value. These islands are still forgotten. They get so few US and European tourists (~3000/yr) that there are no major guidebooks about these islands.

Mayotte is different from the other Comoro Islands because, when the other three islands voted for independence in 1974, Mayotte voted to remain part of France. Mayotte was promoted to being a French department in 2011, which makes it part of the European Union. Although the infrastructure and services on Mayotte are basic, they're more developed than on the other Comoro Islands.

Mayotte is actually two islands about 2km apart. The airport is on the smaller of the two islands. After landing, you take a shared taxi to Dzaoudzi, where you can catch a ferry to Mamoudzou, on the main island. Dzaoudzi and Mamoudzou are Mayotte's two largest towns. I enjoyed saying the names of these towns.

At the tourist bureau, I was referred to a great place to stay: Le Jardin Maoré, with one of the best beaches in the Indian Ocean ... and maybe in the world.

• There are two offshore reefs. The outer reef is 8-10 km offshore. It creates a large, calm lagoon, free of big waves and sharks. The inner reef is about 150 meters offshore, and is very accessible for snorkeling.
• Both reefs are healthy. They haven't been over-fished or bleached by warming ocean waters. The coral is colorful and varied, and teeming with tropical fish. The snorkeling and diving are excellent − comparable to what I saw last year in Indonesia. One day, I spent four hours in the water, diving and snorkeling.
• The lagoon is full of Green and Hawksbill Turtles. On an average dive, I saw 10 of them, sometimes in groups. They're protected, not hunted. They're used to seeing humans and being photographed. They don't swim away when approached. Sometimes, curious turtles swam right up next to me.
• The beach is long, wide and clean. There's no garbage or litter on the beach or in the water. At night, the beach is totally safe.
• The dive shop is professional. The bar and restaurant are delightful. The bungalows are 20 meters from the high water line.
• While most tropical beaches are lined with palm trees, this beach is different. It's lined with gigantic baobab trees.
• The baobab trees are full of lemurs. That's really different.

I stepped away from my breakfast to get another cup of coffee and returned to find this one finishing my yoghurt.

From Mayotte, I continued west to the next island in the Comoro chain.

Note: Although the ferries are modern, fast, clean, air-conditioned and smooth even on rough water, the in-port services suffer from typical African bureaucracy and inefficiency. Your ferry might not leave the dock until 3 hours after its scheduled departure time.

I learned all about their families, jobs, traditions, religions (most Comorians are Muslim), and political views. I was surprised and pleased by how open and welcoming everyone was.

On arrival in Anjouan, the friendly immigration officer noted that he and I share the same birthday. I paid €30 for a Comorian visa that even has a color photo of me on it. Why is it that the poorest, most isolated countries always have the most impressive visas?

In the middle of the island is an active volcano, Mt. Karthala (2361m). Its eruption in 2005 caused the evacuation of 30,000 residents. There are lava flows on all sides of the island all the way to the shore, as evidence of previous eruptions. The coastline consists mostly of basalt boulders, with occasional beaches of golden sand.

Because of the cyclone, I spent only one night in Anjouan, one night in Grand Comore, and I missed getting to the island of Mohéli entirely. In spite of my brief visit to these islands, I liked the Comoros and hope that I can return some day. A place that gets so few visitors, that is so unknown to tourists, is hard to find these days.

• When people don't know much about something or someplace, they tend to be afraid of it, often for no good reason. Before coming to the Comoros, people who had never been here before warned me about this country. They said that it's very African and dangerous. They reminded me that this is an Islamic country. These concerns are entirely unfounded.
• The fewer tourists someplace has, the friendlier and more welcoming the people will be.

Of all the countries I've visited in the past nine years, the Comoros − excluding Mayotte − are the most undiscovered places I've seen yet.

Although all of the animals are wild, they've never been hunted. They don't react when they see a slow-moving vehicle. So, it's easy to get close to the animals to observe and photograph them.

The main goal of most safaris is to see the Big Five. These are the five animals considered the most dangerous to hunt: Lion, elephant, leopard, buffalo and rhinoceros. With luck and a good driver, you might see them all in a week as I did.

All the photos here were taken with a Nikon Coolpix S7000 or with an iPhone SE. The fact that these photos are as good as they are is because they were shot at close range.

Weighing up to 8,000 pounds, a hippopotamus can gallop 18 mph and are known to upset boats for no reason and bite the passengers with their huge, sharp teeth. Hippos kill 500+ people annually in Africa.

The buffalo, known as "the Black Death" kills 200+ people per year in Africa.

These are two good reasons why you must not get out of your safari van while you're inside a Kenyan game park.

Due to poaching, there are only a couple thousand black rhinos alive today. The white rhino exists in larger numbers, but in only a few of Africa's wildlife reserves.

Although it's not official policy, the rangers at some of Kenya's parks shoot and kill poachers. The poacher's body is left where it falls. Lions and hyenas dispose of the evidence by morning. In this way, the park rangers prevent wealthy Chinese from bribing judges to allow the poachers to go free.

I was very lucky to see seven rhinos one morning in Lake Nakuru National Park.

Curiously, March is low-season for tourism in Kenya. Consequently, it's easy to find accommodations and prices are lower. In the parks, there's less traffic because there are fewer safari vans seeking the same animals.

• Tsavo East National Park
• Tsavo West National Park
• Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary
• Amboseli National Park
• Masai Mara National Reserve
• Lake Nakuru National Park

• Zomeni Lion Hill Lodge, where you can view herds of animals in the Tsavo plains below
• Saravo Salt Lick Game Lodge, where elephants and other animals come to drink at the water hole next to the bar
• Sentrim Amboseli Lodge, with elegant safari tents and a spectacular view of Mt. Kilimanjaro

For my second safari, I joined two Germans, two Iranians, one Turk, one Japanese and another American for a budget adventure involving tents and picnics. The sorts of folks who sign up for this type of trip are often lots of fun. This was a great way to make new friends.

For my third safari, I went alone with my own driver, negotiating accommodations and park visits as we went.

If you have any interest in Kenya, I can recommend one particularly good driver/guide: Nazir Kahn (nasskahn@yahoo.com). You'll ride in a comfortable Landcruiser and stay at the best luxury safari lodges.

Travel in the Congo can be problematic in terms of visas, transport, and political stability. On the other hand, Rwanda and Uganda are easy destinations thanks to good tourist services and the East African Tourist Visa, which allows free travel for 90 days thru Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda for $100. Half of the gorillas live in Uganda, so that's where I decided to visit them.

Visiting these gorillas was a lifelong dream, even more than seeing lions, leopards, elephants and rhinos. I had hoped to organize a group tour to share transportation and guide fees. When I couldn't get anyone to join me, I ended up "winging it". Traveling independently through Uganda and Rwanda turned out to be the way to go.

I traveled by public buses, local taxis, motorcycles, and even hitch-hiking. I stayed in guest houses and people's homes. I saw lots of things that most tourists don't see, met wonderful people, and saved a bundle of money. (One tour company quoted me $6000 for a two week Uganda-Rwanda safari. My 16-day jungle adventure cost me about $1600, including everything.)

I had no idea what to expect in Uganda. All I knew was what I remembered from the 70's about Idi Amin and his repressive regime. I was pleasantly surprised. Kampala, in contrast to Nairobi, is a friendly and comfortable place. Kampala's only major drawback is its traffic. I did a lot of walking in Kampala because it was often faster to walk than to drive.

I'd been warned by tour operators that it would be necessary to buy my gorilla permit months in advance. This is not always true. On March 27th, there were plenty of permits available for April 1st. I choose April 1st because gorilla permits are reduced from $600 to $450 during the low season: April and May.

With that errand taken care of, I enjoyed a couple of days of walking around Kampala visiting mosques, temples, cathedrals, museums, malls and markets. There aren't a lot of pale-skinned tourists in Kampala. Maybe this is why everywhere I went people smiled, said hello, and made genuine offers to be of assistance. During a rainstorm, a driver stopped her car by the road and offered me a ride.

I also got one other excellent bit of advice: En route to Bwindi, stop at Lake Bunyonyi. Here I found the Lake Bunyonyi Rock Resort. I felt as though I'd discovered a dream land on another planet. It was so magical, I stayed an extra night. I borrowed a dugout canoe to spend a day exploring islands and photographing birds, including the Grey Crowned Crane. The Ugandans will tell you it's the world's most beautiful bird. They like this bird so much they put it on their national flag.

Here's how gorilla trekking in Bwindi works:

First, you can't go by yourself. The Bwindi Forest is quite impenetrable. I wouldn't have made it more than 100 meters into the forest by myself. I certainly would never have found any gorillas on my own. I don't know how Dian Fossey found her Gorillas in the Mist.

Second, when you arrive at the park entrance at 7:00am, you'll be assigned to a group of no more than eight tourists. Groups are small in order to limit the impact of tourism on the forest and on the animals.

Third, to ensure your safety and the success of your trek, you'll be accompanied by at least four guides. One will lead the way, clearing a path with a machete. One will follow your group with an AK-47 in case your group is attacked by a rogue elephant or an angry buffalo. Two others will have started at dawn to follow yesterday's trail of scat and broken branches to locate where your gorilla family is today. They'll communicate by radio with your first guide to let him know which direction to go.

Finally, when you find your gorillas, you'll be allowed 60 minutes to view and photograph them. You must talk quietly and move slowly. You can't eat or drink in their presence. You're supposed to stay at least 5 meters away from them.

There are five habituated gorilla families in the southern end of Bwindi. Our team was seeking the Kahungye group. With 18 members, this is currently Bwindi's largest habituated family group. I requested this group, knowing that it was the largest of Uganda's habituated gorilla families. I'd also heard that this group was the most remote, so I was guaranteed a long nature walk in the jungle.

The tourists in my trekking group were 2 Germans, 2 Mexicans, 1 Belgian, 1 Israeli, 1 Hungarian, and me. Even though April 1st is the official start of the rainy season, we were blessed with a beautiful, cool and sunny day. There hadn't been any rains for 3-4 days. The two steams we had to cross were shallow, with stepping stones exposed and dry. There was no mud to slog through. Yay!

To find our gorillas, all we had to do was to climb up and down very steep ridges, through impenetrable thickets of vines and nettles for 2.5 hours. We followed a trail for the first hour. After that, we followed our lead guide as he cut a trail through the brush with his machete. Every few minutes, he had a brief chat on his radio with our two trackers. As we got closer to the Kahungye group, our trackers whistled discretely to guide us through the underbrush.

We spent the next hour following our guide and our trackers through the brush finding eight other gorillas. The gorillas generally ignored us. This is what is meant by "habituated". They get human visitors for 60 minutes every day. The humans are all quite predictable. They huddle together, whispering as their cameras go click, click, click. The gorillas seem to have become quite used to this. They go about their business doing whatever they want to do. The mothers feed and groom their infants. The silverbacks, of which we saw three, lounge in the shade using their long arms to pull branches of leaves into their mouths. The adolescents chase each other through the underbrush and frequently swing from low tree branches like ... well ... gorillas. Fascinating! Exciting! Amazing!

Click here to see a wonderful video made by one of the members of my gorilla trekking group. There're some good shots of the gorillas we saw in Bwindi, as well as lots of other footage showing what Uganda today is really like.

Forming the border between Uganda and Rwanda are the Virunga Mountains. This is a chain of forested volcanoes, with elevations from 3000 to 4500 meters. The southern slope of these volcanoes is where Dian Fossey set up her Karisoke Research Center to study the mountain gorillas. Having seen gorillas, my new goal was to find the rare Golden Monkeys.

From Bwindi, I caught a ride to the Rwandan border. With my East African Tourist Visa, I breezed into Rwanda and changed my Ugandan shillings into Rwandan francs. From there, I paid $1 to ride public buses 50 kms to the entrance to Volcanoes National Park.

Visiting the Golden Monkeys was much like tracking gorillas. We were a group of eight tourists, led by two machete-wielding guides. Ahead of us, trackers radioed our guides where to find the monkeys. Behind us was a soldier with a high-powered rifle to protect us from elephants and buffalos.

We climbed through a bamboo forest for about an hour, and then ... voila! We were surrounded by a troop of about 50 Golden Monkeys, eating bamboo shoots and chasing each other through the forest.

What makes these monkeys special is that there are only ~3500 of them left. Most of their former habitats have been eliminated. Today, they live only in the bamboo forests of the Verunga Volcanoes. Amazing to see such rare creatures!

After seeing Mountain Gorillas and Golden Monkeys, I turned my focus to the Rwandans, their rich culture and their tragic history.

Rwandan singing, drumming and dancing is passionate and exciting. Public performances keep their traditions alive. I attended church services on Sundays for their joyous gospel music.

Sacola dancers at Volcanoes National Park

Kigali, Rwanda, with a genocide memorial in foreground

Rwanda's roads are excellent. Public transit is comfortable and cheap. One morning, I rode halfway across the country (~200 km) for less than $4 in a clean bus with padded seats. I learned to use the licensed motorcyclists. They'll put you on the back of their bikes, provide you with a helmet, and take you anywhere you want to go. The drivers' yellow jackets and specially-marked bikes show that they're legitimate and insured, and that they won't overcharge.

In Rwanda, I was glad not to be part of a safari tour, cooped up in a Landcruiser and staying at luxury lodges. Traveling by bus, riding moto taxis, walking, and sleeping in guest houses are natural ways to meet people. In Kigali, I met Jean Luc Rushema who was an excellent local guide and a great guy, too.

My visit to Rwanda coincided with the 23rd anniversary of the Tutsi genocide. On April 7th, 1994, Rwanda exploded into one of most horrific and violent bloodbaths of the 20th century. About 1 million people − both Tutsis and the Hutus who tried to help them − were killed in 100 days. Many Rwandans were intent to tell me their story about how they survived, while their friends, neighbors and family died. 80% of Rwandans lost a family member in this tragedy.

• An ID card system was implemented which included ethnicity. Every Rwandan was registered as a member of one of three ethnic groups: Hutu (84%), Tutsi (15%) or Twa (1%).
• When Rwanda declared its independence in 1962, a Hutu government was elected. One of the policies of the new government was to set quotas for Tutsis in terms of education and work.
• Radio stations critical of the Hutu government were replaced by pro-government radio stations.
• These radio stations promoted the beliefs that Tutsis were an immigrant group from Ethiopia and the source of Rwanda's problems. Tutsis were referred to as inyenzi (cockroaches).
• Incidents where Tutsis protested − sometimes violently − against Hutu discrimination and repression were branded as terrorist attacks and were dealt with severely by government forces. In contrast, there was little effort by the government to police or prosecute Hutus who committed crimes against Tutsis.
• Politicians and military leaders held orchestrated rallies to show support for their policies. At these rallies, the Hutu leaders claimed that the way to make Rwanda great again was to eliminate the Tutsis.
• In the media, there was a lot of fake news in which thefts, robberies, drug smuggling, rapes and murders were blamed on Tutsis.
• The government created a database of the names and addresses of all Tutsis.
• Young men who wanted to fight Tutsis were organized into a group called the Interahamwe. They were provided with weapons, a communication network, training on the use of machetes and grenades in combat, and plans for an emergency response network involving roadblocks and ID checks.
• Finally, on the night of April 6, 1994, the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi − both Hutus − died in an airplane crash. Within an hour of this crash, and before any investigation could be performed, Rwanda's radio stations reported that Tutsis had shot down the airplane, and urged Hutus to take action against the Tutsis.
• The Tutsi genocide began the next morning. Tutsis were stopped at roadblocks. They were led to staging areas where they were slaughtered, men, women and children alike. In 100 days, an estimated 800,000 Tutsis plus about 200,000 Hutu moderates were killed.

April 7th is Rwanda's Day of Remembrance in which the people acknowledge what happened, speak about forgiveness, and promise to live in peace as one people. I was invited to join in the Walk to Remember in which 25,000+ people march from parliament to the national stadium for speeches, parades, dances and music. This is an all-night event in which Rwandans hold a candle-lit vigil until dawn. April 7th will not be forgotten in Rwanda. I certainly won't forget this night.

"There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew." − Marshall McLuhan