This edition of the Sunday Summary is coming to you from a rustic lodge in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. Some of you will know exactly what we’re doing here...and others of you will find out below.

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This Week

It’s actually been a little more than a week, but we’ve been to four different countries in the last 10 days (this feels like the old days). Last time we talked, we were on our way to Barcelona where we had redeemed the majority of our Marriott points we had spent the last two years saving up for a 5 night stay at the Ritz Carlton.

We had never stayed at the Ritz before, and we weren’t sure if blowing all of our points on one luxurious stay was going to be worth it. All of our doubts immediately went away upon check-in when we were upgraded to a penthouse suite!! We still don’t know why this happened. Maybe it was our status. Maybe it was the nice email we sent the night before. Maybe it was sheer luck, and the category of room we booked was full. It doesn’t matter! It made for an amazing 5 days in Barcelona!

Unfortunately, we weren't filming this week, and I don't think we took a single photo in the penthouse...

From Barcelona, we flew to Italy to crash a wedding! A couple who came on our Myanmar river cruise tour back in 2019 was getting married in the small town in Italy where we held our Vespa Tour. It felt like in some way we had played a small part in this wedding (at least where it happened), and we were pretty sure they’d be excited to see us…..

They were! And it was my favorite wedding I’ve ever been to, because instead of dancing, we had a four hour nine course Italian dinner! It was totally worth buying a new suit at H&M the night before! Plus, we were very excited to visit some of our greatest friends, Gina and Bob.

From Italy, we flew to Rwanda which was country #108 for us! Trekking with the gorillas has been on our bucket list since we watched the show Idiot Abroad back in 2014, and 10 years later we finally marked it off!

Our first stop on this trip was the capital city of Kigali. We only spent a day there, but we were both super impressed and would love to come back and spend more time here one day! Kigali is one of the safest and cleanest cities in all of Africa, and probably my second favorite African city I have ever visited behind Cape Town, South Africa.

From Kigali, we made the 10 hour drive to Kibale National Park in Uganda, our 109th country! Along the way, we passed through Queen Elizabeth National Park where we saw elephants from the road and made a quick stop on the equator! Gorilla’s don’t live in Kibale National Park, but chimpanzees do! So after watching the Netflix docu-series Chimp Empire this summer, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see chimps in real life while in Uganda!

It was an “adventure” for sure. Turns out chimps are way more active than gorillas. I thought we’d be sitting beside them in the jungle like you see people doing with the gorillas, but we were in an all out sprint through the jungle trying to keep up with them. We were a muddy, sweaty (and slightly bloody) mess by the end of it, and we were laughing hysterically. While it wasn’t the up close and personal experience we hoped for, we definitely created a core memory!

From Kibale National Park, we made the 8 hour drive to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest where I’m writing you from now. We just wrapped up two EPIC days of gorilla trekking! The first day we did the "classic" gorilla trek which allows you to spend an hour with the gorillas once you find them in the jungle. THIS was the up close and personal experience we were hoping for! After looking forward to this experience for over 10 years, I was a little nervous that we had hyped it up in our minds so much that it could never live up to our expectations, but it was everything we hoped for and more! Out of all the amazing wildlife experiences we’ve been fortunate to have over the last 9 years, this was by far the best! Spending an hour sitting with a family of gorillas, including multiple babies and the majestic silverback alpha-male, can’t be put in to words. Which is why we are so so so excited to share the video with you in a few weeks!

On day two, we did what’s called a "habituation experience" which is where you get to spend 4 hours with a family of gorillas that is learning to feel comfortable with humans. This is an important part of the conservation process that we’ll go into more details about in the video.

This habituation experience was very different from the day before! There was very little sitting and observing. These gorillas were active! We spent hours bushwhacking up and down through the steep mountain rainforest trying to keep up as they moved through the jungle actively feeding. We’re so glad we had both experiences! It was amazing getting to be so up close and comfortable on day one, but day two felt like a real adventure! We were false charged twice. The whole experience was a massive adrenaline rush, and it really felt like we were just getting to observe a wild group of gorillas going about their daily life, just as they would if no humans were around.

Next Week

Tomorrow, we make the 6 hour drive to back to Kigali and on the way we're stopping at a coffee farm for the full farm to cup experience! As you can probably guess, this is quickly becoming one of Kara's favorite trips we've ever taken!

Once we arrive in Kigali we're jumping on an overnight flight to Scotland! We’ve technically been to Scotland, but it doesn’t really feel like it since we were only there for a couple of days to do the world’s shortest flight. ​

This time, we’ll be visiting our friends Craig and Aimee who are in the process of renovating a Scottish cottage! Then, we’re hopping on one of the world’s most epic train rides. We’ll be spending four nights onboard the Royal Scotsman as we travel through the beautiful scenery of the Scottish highlands to some of Scotland's most famous distilleries to learn all about Scotch Whisky.

Seeing friends, riding a bucket list train, and drinking Scotch are reasons great enough to make me 10 out of 10 excited for this trip! But I feel like this trip is extra special because long long ago, my family was originally from Scotland. The Buchanans (our last name) were a clan in Scotland, and we even have our own family plaid. So you may or may not see me in a Buchanan plaid kilt while on the train, because apparently that’s acceptable formal dinner attire! And a kilt sounds way more comfortable than a suit.

New Video

What was supposed to be a fun mother daughter trip from Los Angeles to Dallas turned out to be a more eventful train ride than either of them expected.

​38 Hours on Amtrak Overnight Train (WANTED FUGITIVE ONBOARD)​

At the moment, I’m feeling extra grateful for the crazy life we get to live! Thank you so much for reading and watching and allowing us to dream up crazy adventures that we get to call “work”!

Cheers from Uganda,

Nate (and Kara)