To get to Sipi, we had to take a public bus to get to a city called Mbale, which is still about an hour from Sipi Falls. Angella said that the bus ride would be a couple of hours but we wouldn't get to Sipi until around 6, even if we left before noon. Even though the time didn't add up, I just assumed it was because we would be waiting for transport to Sipi after the bus ride. It turns out the bus ride takes over 4 hours! We could have gotten there much faster but we made at least 4 stops before leaving the city and then numerous random stops along the way. My favorite is when we stop for "snacks". THere are people in big blue vests that run up to the windows and reach up with soda, water, random meats on a stick, and any sort of random food they decide to sell. People on the bus surprisingly love getting chicken on a stick, liver on a stick, mystery meat on a stick......I always decide not to risk it! They might as well be at the Minnesota state fair with all of the food on sticks!. About an hour later we had to make a stop to let all the guys go to the bathroom. I suppose anybody could have gone, but none of the women get off the bus. The majority of the men get off and walk to the bushes on the side of the road. Honestly, it's an unessecary stop. Seriously, all the women manage to control their bladder for the entire ride, so I think them men should be able to, too! I think we must have stopped almost a dozen times by the time we got to Mbale. Luckily, Angella thought we should bring my iPad on the trip, so we entertained ourselves with Angry Birds and reading a book on my Kindle. It was surprisingly chilly for many parts of the ride, especially when we went through some of the forest areas. Unfortunately, our window didn't close so we were at the mercy of the cold air!
When we arrived at Sipi, we took a short boda ride to a special hire stand. We were told that the ride to Sipi in the little car would be 7 people (in a car that seats 5), which meant 3 people in the front and 4 people in the back where we would sit. In order to avoid the discomfort, we offered to pay for the 4th person that would have been in our seat. It was worth the extra $3! Unfortunately, this didn't mean the car wouldn't be full. We started out pretty normally, with three in the back and only two in the front. At the first stop about 10 minutes in, we picked up one more person in the front and a sack of potatoes or something in the trunk. We had to explain to a guy who wanted to ride with us that the back was "full" but he couldn't understand why he couldn't ride as a fourth. About 10 mintues after that, we slowed down to see a guy running after us after we had passed him. We thought he was adding just a sac of something, but it turns out we added the sac plus him. If your are counting, we now had 7 people. Our last stop was probably another 10 minutes later. At this stop there were at least 20 women with corn and tomatoes trying to sell us their products. Our driver got out and bought a bunch of stuff to fill the trunk, in addition to another guy to ride....the count was 8. While he was packing, another guy got in the driver's seat. I assumed, incorrectly, that we were switching drivers. Angella knew better. It turns out he was our 9th passenger! Yup, that's right 9 people crammed into that little car! We had another 40 minutes of driving up a small mountain to get to our lodge. There were a few times we were barely moving forward, but at least we weren't going backwards! It was so memorable we had to take a picture of the front seat! It was a pretty good story to tell!!!
We stayed at a place called Lacam lodge. There is no electricity and running water is only in the sinks and showers. We got to have outhouses rather than the traditional drop toilets, which was a bonus. To get around, we are all given kerosene lamps. Our beds were in a little bamboo building close to a small stream. Only about 100 feet from where we slept was a huge waterfall that drops over 60 meters. The sound of the rushing water was super calming to sleep to! We got to each four course dinners and full breakfast and packed lunches for our hikes. All of this was inclusive for something like $32 per person. At dinner, we met a tour guide, Thomas, who described the things he could do. For 90,000 shillings ($36), the two of us could go hiking to all three falls and do a coffee tour through the village. I am not usually up for village tours because I feel funny going on a "tour" where people are just trying to carry out everyday activities. However, the trip was well worth it and didn't feel invasive at all! Thomas was a great guide and taught us so much about the village culture. It is interesting that it is so different from Angella's family, even though it is in the same country. We got to make our own coffee after we had been hiking for over 9 hours! Every view is breathtaking and it is so much cleaner than Kampala. Being in a place like Sipi makes you realize why Uganda is the "Pearl of Africa". If I had to choose, this would be the place to live! (It would be even better with full running water).
We made it through the hike through 5 different villages, saw 7 different waterfalls, and got caught in 3 rainstorms. Luckily, we had the iPad and a connector to the camera. Thomas was super excited when we loaded the pictures we had taken on a big screen. It gave us entertainment for the trip. In the whole trip, I was the only one to fall! We were at a huge waterfall that falls about 85 meters. I was coming down a muddly slope and lost my footing. I was so dirty for the rest of the trip, but it was so worth the laughs! We were really muddy from all of the walking after the storms. At the end, we went to a spot where we could see all three waterfalls that make up "Sipi" There was a big storm moving in on the other side of the Canyon so we got to stand and watch it....and we took a ton of crazy pictures.
We slept in on Wednesday and then made our way down the mountain on Bodas. It was the most beautiful ride we have taken. Then came the worst part. We got into Mtatus for the ride into town. Mtatu's are glorified 15 passenger vans. They never carry just 15. You have to wait for them to stop and pick people up. If they aren't full, you can wait until they do. In our case, we waited for almost a half hour at one point and then made a bunch of 10 minute stops. A woman got in after handing off her baby, but then the guy put the baby in through the little back window. I guess that was easier? At the worst point, there were 24 people (plus the baby), in addition to whatever luggage people had in the back. Luckily there were no live animals and it wasn't too hot. I was ecstatic to get out excited to ride a bus. When we got to town, we found the bus was full and a mtatu driver was trying to convince us to get in. I was so not looking forward to it! He assured us we only took the amount of people that would fit in the seats and we don't stop. It is still miserable because the distance between seats is not long enough for my long mzungu legs. It was better than waiting 3 hours for a bus and much better than the previous ride. We even made friends with a guy who Angella taught how to play Angry Birds. I was skeptical of taking my iPad, but it turned out to be the source of a lot of entertainment and was safe!
In other news, my mom was supposed to arrive on Thursday at 10:15. We left the house at 9, thinking we could get there in an hour. Thanks to jam, we didn't arrive until 10:45. It appeared that there wasn't a new arrival because there were very few people getting out of the baggage claim area. We thought we had missed them, or they were late. After standing around for a while, we looked at a screen and saw that they were delayed until 11:30 so we went inside to have a Coke. At around midnight, it still looked like they weren't there, so we started to walk around. Finally, we decided to ask somebody. Apparently there were technical issues and the flight was cancelled. Nobody bothered to share that information with the hundreds of people who were waiting in the lobby! All of the passengers had been put up in hotels in Kigali, Rwanda for the night and we were told they would contact us later. (knowing our loved ones didn't have phones or computers wasn't reassuring). I got home around 2 am and looked for an email and checked the KLM website. According to them, the flight arrived in Entebbe at 2 am. I called the airport to check and they assured me no flights had arrived. I didn't hear from my mom until 4 am and she assured me by email that she was fine. We waited around on Friday until she finally called and said she was on a plane getting ready to leave for Entebbe. The flight is only an hour and it takes at least that to drive to the airport. With jam, JB and I were driving for almost 3 hours, which left my mom to wait for over an hour. When it comes down to it, it was just good to have here here and not somewhere randomly waiting to fly out. She made friends with some other travlers who we also drove into town. It turns out their plane had a liquid leaking from it and was in no shape to be flying. We were glad they made it safely and that it didn't take too long for them to get to their final destination. Now that she is here, we are looking forward to all sorts of adventures!!
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