the adventures 'upcountry'

so....jess and i thought we'd get out of the village for a weekend and go 'upcountry' to visit baboon island, where they rehab chimpanzees! little did we know what we were in for....17 modes of transportation, 30 hours of traveling, and 0 meals in 3 days, left us more than exhausted!!! after breakfast friday morning, we headed out. it took the average 5 hours to get to town and take the ferry across the river, and then we thought we had a 3 hour bus ride from there. WRONG!! 6 hours later, we were in a small crowded bus with 12 men who spoke no english, it was getting dark, and no one could give us a straight answer on how much longer it would take. we used our peace corps contacts to get more info...only to find out that the 2nd ferry that we need to take to get where we were staying for the night stops running at sun down. so....we were given a village name where one peace corps guy resides, shouted the name to the driver, and were promptly dropped on the side of the road in the middle of NOWHERE!!! luckily, we soon saw another tubob strolling across a dirt field to meet us! brain (our peace corps saviour) works in a rural village in upcountry gambia. and when i say rural, i mean rural!!! there is NOTHING even remotely close to the tiny village he lives in! quite a crazy life...
it being ridiculously hot here, we decided to drag his 2 flat mattresses outside, rig up some sticks to hold the mosquito net, and have a campout! it was quite an experience....very beautiful and very hot!
the next morning, we hiked back up to the road and hitch-hiked to wassou, where we managed to grab a ride down to kuntaur...an abandonded down that consisted of many empty buildings built with good intentions, and 3 fishing boats. after bartering with one fisherman for about 30 min, we were able to negotiate a price for him to take us to baboon island!! finally the moment we had been waiting for....
but by the time we got there, it was 'rest time' (the gambians rest from 12pm-4pm every day because it's too hot to do anything else), so we laid around by the river until 4pm, when they would take us to see the chimps.
and....it was worth it!! it was sooo amazing to see all the chimpanzees in their jungle environment, jumping, swimming, and swinging from the trees grabbing at the food the men were throwing them. they are so human-like it's amazing! and so many babies and little guys! they were so adorable! we went to 4 different feeding sights because the different 'families' or clans live at different places around the island. and they had to fight off the baboons, who kept creeping up to grab their food! it was so fun to see all of them and learn their names, and about how they got to be here and everything. quite the experience! it felt like we were in Jurassic park, and sounded like it too with all the screeching and screaming!
after we left the island, we hitch-hiked back to another little town on the way back to our village where we got very little sleep and got up early to finish our journey back today!! what a weekend!! we are so exhausted, hungry, and dirty!! but it may have just been worth it. that being said, i am NEVER going upcountry again!!
hope you are all well! great to hear from you! much love, sarah