Well, let´s try this out. I´m not sure if it will work but I guess I
will find out too late if it doesn´t. In the end I didn´t have the time
to write about my trip from Lajuma to Cape Town, nor to write about the
(exhausting/crazy/paranoid-bringing) making off of my current
destination but this is how it goes. Anyway, I´m sending this lines from
a remote place in the middle of the jungle of the Democratic Republic of
Congo, through a neat email-radio system (one can be survive without
flushing toilets or current water, but apparently no without emails).
So, after my trip was postponed against my will for visa issues, I
finally took the plane and from the cold winter of Madrid I landed off
in the humid heat Kinshasa with a stop in the snowy Brussels. I´ll save
all the tedious details, but believe me if I say that what I went
through in SA to sort my visa out was a children game in comparison with
what happened here.
The day after the arrival to the capital I took one of these tiny planes
for 4 people to get closer to the campsite (we almost died once, but the
rest was pretty fine and the landscape was amazing). Once there, I spent
a messy and confused night in the closest village, getting used to
listen to French and Lingala and to have bugs bitting you at the minimal
chance.
The next day with, again, different delays, let´s summarize by T.I.A, I
started the long walk to the campsite together with a guy from the
village who only spoke French and Lingala (my French is still amoeba
level, so imagine). 5 hours of savannahs, jungle and river latter I
arrived to which will be my home for the next 9 months; which I would
spent following bonobos and trying not to be killed by any tropical
illness or by the different arthropods that seek my blood as gold.
For the moment everything quite fine; seems that I´m doing pretty well
with the bonobo Id´ing and the conditions are not as terrible as I
expected (probably because I expected an harsh version of hell), but I
will need some time before getting used to be sweaty, smelly and itchy
at all times.
I guess I´ll write from time to time. Wish me luck!
