Tourists for a Day: Sipi Falls

Saturday we were tourists and travelled to Sipi Falls - about two hours from where we are staying. Sipi Falls is a popular tourist location where you hike (and I really mean hike) to each of three waterfalls. The first waterfalls, that you must hike down to, is a 99 meter drop down a cliff face - we hiked to the bottom of the waterfall, but it was too rocky/clippery to go behind the fall or swim at the bottom. We then hiked back up the mountain - took quite a lot of doing (I'm still sore from going up) and were able to go into some caves near the top of the mountain. Once we reached the top we made our journey to the next fall, where we were able to make our way behind the falls and then underneath - quick shower as our guide called it. It was getting late by the time we made it down and back to the second fall, so we decided to hike up to a spot where you could see all three falls and the surrounding area very nicely. The spot was very picturesque and I was able to take a lot of photos (unfortunately the internet isn't good enough to upload those photos from here, so I'll post some when I get home). Sipi Falls was a great daytrip destination and I had a great time climbing with my group, some of whom had to help pretty often to ensure I made it all the way up the mountain.

This week marks our last full week of work. Next week we have three days of activities off the compound - little euthreprenurial (I know that's spelled wrong) projects in the local community that we'll visit. Thursday we leave for Jinja and Friday begins our four day safari. I cannot believe how much the time flies.

The AU summit began July 18, yesterday, and security is definitely hiked, even so far from Kampala - where the summit takes place. We've been checking emails quite often, and have gotten many alerts from the state department - but only when the power grid allows us to do so. We're frequently without power or without enough power to power a computer. We're being cautious - don't get me wrong - but we're also pretty isolated right now. We're not going to be in Kampala until after the AU summit is over and then it's only to make sure we make our flight.

There's a line for the computer and breakfast has made it onto the table. I'm not sure when I'll update again, depending on what happens this week it may not be until the weekend. Once we leave for the safari there may not be anymore updates until I return to teh states - unless we get access to an internet cafe, we shall see.