Written by guest contributor Rachel McLaughlin

From her trip from Uganda

Finally, we came upon the gorillas.

First, we encountered the lesser Silverback, who was eating only 10 feet away from us. When we came to check out another path, Safari, the boss silverback, crossed right in front of us out in the open just staring at us for a minute. He was

extremely impressive, but not afraid of us at all, and didn't seemed bothered by our presence as he passed only feet from us. He then let us watch him eat for almost half an hour, with us only about 5-10 feet away. His facial features were remarkably human, and his eyes demonstrated similar human emotions and states of thought. After chomping through what seemed like the whole forest, he moved out of the way, allowing us to observe three gorillas hanging out in the trees.

We walked a little further, where a large female gorilla descended from the tree, standing only 10 feet from us. It was pretty amazing just staring into her eyes, wondering what would be her next move. Fortunately she waited for us to leave. Since our hour was ending with the gorillas, we moved on, only to spot about 8 gorillas, mothers, juveniles, and infants all hanging out together on the forest floor. The baby was so cute and tiny (He actually looked like Eric as a baby). We watched as the baby, no more than 6 months old, attempted to climb a tree vine with his mother carefully watching below.

Finally after an hour and a half (more than we ever imagined we'd be able to have with the gorillas), we exited, only to find 2 more gorillas (a blackback and the lesser silverback) out in the open. All in all we saw 16 of the 18 gorillas in the family. The walk back was extremely tiring, but about 2 hours later we made it to the top. It truly was an incredible experience.

NOTE: If you want to go visit them, go soon! We heard rumors that the governments of Uganda, Rwanda, and the DRC are planning on increasing the price of the permits from $500 to $1000-$1500. Possibly by next year!