ECO LODGES

I must say, I am becoming a fan of these eco lodges.  We staying in three different ones on this trip, and the consensus last night at dinner, was Buhoma (in Bwindi) has been everyone's favorite  so far. They all follow the same format, no electricity at all, even for cooking, everything runs surprisingly well off of solar power.  There are compromises made, but we are getting used to that. we always have scalding hot water no matter the time, flush toilets, drinking water brought to our huts, and very comfortable, if not plush accomodations.   There are charging stations for iphone, computers, etc but they only go on  about 5 PM.  They are slow, but everything in Africa is on "Africa time"...no hurries. No one seems to have a watch but Visitors, because here on the Equator, you get up when it is light and go to bed when it gets dark.  We do have solar lighting in our huts and it also goes on about 5.  Everything we eat is grown locally, or fished from local,lakes, and is prepared over fire.  In the rural areas, everyone uses fire pits to prepare food, even if they happen to have electricity.  I have not seen a stove yet.   They ask us at dinner when we would llike our "wake up call" in the am.  Wake up call consists of a gentle voice outside our hut..."morning mam, sir", accompanied  by a beautiful coffee or tea service left on our deck.  In our case, it is about 100 stairs to our hut nestled in the trees!  I usually get up  around 6 am because I love watching the dawn break while,sipping my hot coffee on our deck.  The lodges also wash our clothes for us, but no dryer.  They do not do underwear for "cultural reasons".  We were offered complimenarty massages after our trek yesterday, and mine was different but very wonderful, and gave a new meaning to"full body" massage.   There is a lovely bar, with excellent wines, mainly South African.We all seem to gather there and they bring munchies.  Yesterday was homemade potato chips and some kind of small hot wings, hopefully chicken.  Ha.  When we return to our tree top dwelling after dinner, our beds are turned back and being warmed by cozy hot water bottles.  Like i said, I could get used to this.