This is long overdue.  Currently in a beautiful hostel in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, with graffiti all over the walls.  It’s a funky hipster hostel called Books.

Roughly three weeks ago, I arrived in Uganda.  My mode of transport was a car, and my driver was a random friend of a random man who claimed to work for a random bus company.  I didn’t know him.

The drive from Kigali to Lake Bunyonyi, Uganda was pretty stunning, with brilliant green hills divided by a vibrant amber road.  The dude was flying, with villagers diving out of the way throughout, and even hit a biker once we crossed the border.  I should have been nervous, but you get used to this stuff after a while.  I passed through immigration at night, which is always a shady proposition, and made it safely to the Lake around 10:00pm.  I didn’t have a place to stay yet, but found one pretty quickly.

The following three days were spent chilling by the lake.  One day, I rented a canoe, paddled out, and fell asleep.  Another, I hiked up a big hill to get the panoramic view of the place.  I’ve been trying to stitch an actual panorama, but am having trouble with the software.  Here’s one shot to give you an idea:

Really a beautiful place.  On my walk up to this view, I was followed by seven, yes seven, village children.  They were nice kids, and gave me a bit of a geography lesson.  They showed me one of their homes, too.  Not the most comfortable of accommodation, but definitely had a hell of a view.

After Bunyonyi, I took a bus operated by the postal service up to Kampala, the capital of Uganda.  I stayed with a friend with whom I worked at HOC, who is currently teaching at an international school there. Got to walk around the school one morning, which was truly amazing.  It was built three years ago, and seemed very out of place in Uganda.  It was fancy.

Rich.  Kampala itself was a certifiably exhausting circus, but cool nonetheless.  I really enjoy walking around places like this, getting lost, snapping pictures, talking to people, and getting a nice workout in.  It wasn’t the most photogenic place, so for these next few shots, I just had the camera away from my face, bent it at a random angle, and hit the button.  Kampala:

Craziness.  I liked Kampala, had a good Italian meal and a good Indian meal, and went to a funky outdoor hookah bar.  I would have stayed for a few more nights out if not for the Carnaval.

Lastly, I took another bus to Jinja, and went white water rafting on the Nile River.  Grade 5 rapids–it was f*cking sweet.  Our raft flipped a couple of times, and on the first, as I was under the boat for a good 11 seconds, getting thrashed about by the water, I thought for a short moment that it was over–that this is where it ends.  Phew.  Sunset that night–over the Nile:

Weee.

That’s it for Uganda.  I’d give it a 6.5/10.  Enjoying Brazil much more.  There’s girls around again!

Cheers,

Will