in other news … the border staff on the way into the Democratic Republic of the Congo are by FAR the most friendly i have ever encountered … when i told them i was going to climb the volcano, he (a rather large fellow in uniform) actually SMILED at me .. said “welcome, welcome, welcome … we love tourists” …
i have found the best way to learn about the state of a countries infrastructure is at the border … at the border you can stand and look both ways, doing the ol’ side-by-side … ie. between rwanda and uganda … you can acually stand where the road turns from gravel (uganda) to pavement (rwanda) and look up to see the power lines overhead changing from wood poles (uganda) to steel structures (rwanda) … in the congo … i would say it was like stepping into a war zone … except … it WAS stepping into a warzone …
now, in defence of the DRC, the nyiragongo volcano i was about to climb DID erupt just a few years ago … and when it erupted .. it did so on TOP of goma … i am told the town changed completely … it actually looks pretty good considering … i mean … it looks like bombs have gone off from time to time … and there are peacekeepers in armoured vehicles patrolling the streets … and HUNDREDS of soldiers … but it is still about 1000 years ahead of south sudan … maybe more …
i met with my travel companions … 2 american journalists working in the region … and we were soon off to the base of the mountain … where they of course tried to charge us extra every chance they got …
and then we were off … it took 5 hours to get to the top, and the trek up was actually more beautiful than the volcano itself … though less profound …
i remember learning once in school about ecosystem variation as you move up in altitude … and wow … every 100 steps or so i would look up and find myself in a completely different world than what i was in 100 steps earlier … we started in jungle so dense you could not see 6 inches into the bush on either side (or sometimes above) … i felt like i was in some old novel and wished i had one of those sweet safari hats …
the jungle gave way after about an hour to intermittent fields of loose volcanic rock and solidified lava flows that sucked to climb and sucked worse to descend …
an hour later we were back in the jungle again … now the altitude was starting to kick in, and as the temperature gradually dropped, the humidity cranked up as we gradually ascended into the clouds … because we were in the clouds, everything was wet all the time … so everything we green all the time … no matter where you looked … from straight up to under the darkest shrubs … green green and more green … the only things that WEREN’T green were the flowers on the trees … which came in pretty much every colour you could want to name …
up up up …
about an hour from the top, as we entered thicker clouds our guides said ‘now the climb starts’, and the path got a lot steeper as the temperature started to drop a lot faster … which was really kind of nice after climbing for 4 hours through the most humid experience of my life … here and there we would pass the ‘breath’ of the volcano, as steam poured out of deep crevasses …
again … head down, panting for breath for 100 steps, trying not to fall … look up … totally new world … the last half hour, visibility dropped to about 25m … we were climbing loose volcanic rock again, and all around were small yellow flowers … thousands upon thousands of yellow flowers disappearing gradually into the mist …
and then … there it was … the sound came first … like a plane landing, as jets of gas shot violently out into the atmosphere … at times, the gas and the clouds would fill the entire crater, obscuring the middle absolutely … but the wind would blow … and there .. a pool about 100m down and 100m out of rock … more vibrant than any colour i have ever seen before … blubbling and churning … endlessly … dramatically …
the surface was mostly black, as the rock (i assume) cooled when it hit the air … the black would crack, as veins of molten rock showed through from underneath … and then, slowly, a crack would start to bubble and churn … until soon it was spraying forth orange liquid like a shopping mall fountain … the black slabs nearby would start to gradually sink, as waves of frothy madness devoured them and sent streams of lava shooting up in their wake …
wow …
i sat on the edge … and writing in my journal … my fingers started to get numb … so i warmed them … over the volcano 
because we were basically in a cloud … it was dark by about 6 and freezing cold … we all huddled around little charcoal fires until about 8:00 for one last look at the volcano at night … which was SO much better than during the day … before retiring to our tents to not sleep at all …
worst night of my whole life … i literally shivered the entire night … curled up in a ball, soaking wet, sleeping on shelf of sharp rocks with the wind tearing at the tent …
i have never got up at 5:30 excited before in my life … but this day … i could not wait to get out of bed … and WHAT a wake up … the volcano was 10x better than it had been the night before … as the early morning revealed the entire crater completely unobscured by clouds or smoke … there is really nothing more i can say … except that it felt like i was seeing something people are not supposed to see … mother earth at her most … primordial …
then, the climb down … just as beautiful as the climb up … most people prefer going down, as it is not as physically demanding … i am 100% the opposite … i like physically demanding … i dont like slipping down fields of volcanic rock … but that’s just me …
4 hours and 100 variations in vegetation later, i had shed all my layers and was on my way out …
i returned immediately to Rwanda, mainly b/c it is freaking expensive in the DRC, but i was sad to go so soon … the few locals i encountered seemed as friendly as i would have expected, and i am sure the country has many stories to tell … and really … it’s not as dangerous as you think …
i am now in kigali … spent today looking at 10′s of thousands of dead bodies … but THAT is going to have to wait until tomorrow … peace and love …
