Tuesday, July 3rd

The morning of Tuesday, July 3rd we were supposed to go on the same safari drive through the savanna to see if we could spot the lion. We left the hotel very early and drove to the park. It must have been a popular time to enter the park because there were so many vans lined up waiting to start their game drives. I felt bad but I ended up falling asleep on this game drive because I opted out of sitting on top of the van. I didn’t feel that badly though because we never saw a lion, unfortunately. In the time that I was awake, I saw a heard of buffalos that had a couple babies with it and then lots more Ugandan Kob. That evening we were supposed to stay at another lodge so we drove a couple hours there. We stopped midway to eat at a restaurant that had sculptures and fountains symbolizing African culture. It was nice! I even had a strawberry smoothie. This wouldn’t seem exciting to most but it was for me because ice is hard to come by around here. When we got closer to the lodge, we saw that there was a village of gravel makers. They use chisels and hammers to take large portions of rock from the mountain side and then turn it into smaller, gravel-sized rocks. It was a cool process to see, but it seemed like such a tiring, laborious job. We stayed at the Arcadia Cottages which overlooked Lake Bunyonyi and its its many islands. This was by far the best view of the entire trip even though I have probably said that about all of the views. But trust me, this view was beautiful! The rooms were so beautiful and updated too. I was excited to stay here. I didn’t even have to sleep under a mosquito net for the first time in five weeks! After we checked into the hotel, we went down to the lake and met with a new tour guide. He told us that we were going to be canoeing around one of the islands. Not a lot of the girls with us have ever canoed before so that was something to see! First off, all of the canoes were hand-carved out of eucalyptus trees. Our boat in particular was shaped a little differently than the rest. It constantly tilted to the left even when in the water. I was one of two people in the canoe that were rowing but there were four of us total in the boat. We had both rowed canoes before but this was not like anything else. I had to sit all the way to the right of the boat to keep it somewhat balanced. That made it extremely difficult to paddle on the left side. Many times we just went in circles along with the other girls in other boats. Imagine seeing that! There was a lack of understanding from the guide about where our destination actually was, so that made the circles even more frustrating. One of the groups had to go back to shore early because not only were they frustrated and not knowing where they were going, but their boat started taking in a lot of water. Note to self: Canoeing with beginners is not a great team building exercise. Like Dr. Brady told us, “If you put a newly-married couple in a canoe, they would divorce immediately.” I believe this to be true after this experience. We drove back to the lodge, thankful canoeing was over, and relaxed before dinner. I played some pool and tried to soak up the free WiFi. Funny thing is that the WiFi would only work for emails and some random web pages, but it wouldn’t work for any other messaging or social media platforms. There is a new tax on social media in Uganda that must be paid daily. We hypothesized that the hotel must not have paid the taxes to use social media over their WiFi. We could be wrong, but it was interesting! I took the longest and hottest shower of my life before crawling into the big bed. This hotel was beautiful but boy was it cold at that high of elevation! I froze all night long. That is until my roommate found out the window was open all night unbeknownst to me. That might have been why… haha.