Lake Kivu

So on our day off today we went to Lake Kivu beach in Gesenyi, which is a town on the Western edge of Rwanda near the border of DRC. It was just as beautiful as everyone has claims it is. We drove an hour to the lake and basically walked through a hotel onto their beach with no problems. Looked and felt like we were at the ocean. Steve did some birding, while the rest of us got some sun. I'm turning a lovely shade of pink and my freckles are getting ridiculously brown, while everyone else tans nicely.

I know I keep mentioning we, and I thought I would just quickly explain who these "we" are. Shannon is here again, and this year she brought her husband and 5 yr old daughter, Sophie. In addition we have a doctoral student, Erin Marie, also from George Washington University who is chronicling our field season in a series of blogs and audio clips for NPR's website. I'll post a link when I get ahold of it.

Overall it was a great day. I didn't have a chance to visit many places last year, so this day trip has already made up for that. At the end of the day we saw some giant bats hanging in the trees as well as a pair of African grey parrots, which are apparently rarely seen in the wild due to their value in the bird market.