CPG Vegan Trips creates one-of-a-kind 5-star travel experiences all about abundance, joy, like-minded connections, delicious food, and animal protection. Take a listen to see what we have planned for 2019, 2020, and 2021, and start packing your bags!
A DREAM TRIP TO SEE THE GORILLAS
Joyful Vegan Rwanda
Many of you know my love of all animals, including wildlife in my backyard and all around the world. Many of you know that I count Dian Fossey as one of my heroes. Many of you know how amazing it was to travel to Rwanda to see the culmination of her life’s work: thriving families of mountain gorillas protected from poaching because of the continued work of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. (You can listen to my Food for Thought podcast all about our trip.)
Many of you may have heard by now that Portia DiRossi gave Ellen DeGeneres the gift of an education center in her name in the Virunga Mountains in Rwanda. We’ve been to their current center, and this new one will be an amazing gift for the future of the gorillas.
What many of you may NOT know is that we’re going back to RWANDA — and taking you with me. Because of high demand for another Joyful Vegan Trip to Rwanda, we’ve made it happen.
It’s a 10-day, 5-star, out-of-this world incredible trip to see the mountain gorillas in the north and the chimpanzees in the south (not to mention golden monkeys and many other non-human primates). Frankly, this itinerary BLOWS AWAY our original trip, and I CANNOT wait to return. I fell in love with this country pretty immediately, and if you want to join me…you need to secure your spot NOW.
As you’ll see when you look at the amazing itinerary, the trip is 1.5 years away, which allows for time to save. To do everything we’re doing is not inexpensive, but by going (aside from having invaluable experiences), we’re supporting the conservation of these animals.
We have slots for about 20 people, and several have already been secured. Don’t miss out. Join me for a trip that will change you and help change the world for animals.
I recently returned from a dream trip to Rwanda seeing mountain gorillas, golden monkeys, and chimpanzees — all of whom are threatened due to human activity. But still I have hope.
Afterwards, we saw lions, giraffes, impalas, warthogs, ostriches, hippos, zebras, and elephants in Botswana, a country that banned trophy hunting but is still dealing with poaching. But still I have hope. In fact, we were in Botswana when we heard the news that China is banning the legal trade in ivory, which is a thing to celebrate although the work is not done. It never is.
Even as I stood awe-struck looking at the animals characterized as “exotic,” I thought of the animals in my Oakland backyard—the ones considered mundane—the deer, the squirrels, the foxes, opossums, raccoons, skunks, crows, and jays. Rather than pay to view them, people pay to eradicate them, but nonetheless, they’re valuable to me, to themselves, to the entire ecosystem.
I thought of our state’s coyotes, mountain lions, and wolves—all of whom are demonized by private ranchers who use public land to graze their livestock, then blame the predators for being who they are.
I thought of our nation’s animals, who will be negatively impacted if the current administration makes good on its promises to support fossil fuels, curtail plans to cut carbon emissions, withdraw from the Paris Agreement, construct oil pipelines, dismantle the Endangered Species Act, and build a wall that will impact the lives and migratory habits of native species.
And still I have hope. While I daily urge our federal congresswomen and congressmen to pass legislation that protects animals and reject legislation that harms them, we have much work to do on a state and local level, both of which can get neglected when our fears are focused on an animal-, environment-, and human-hostile White House.
I have hope because possibility dwells in uncertainty. The darkness that lies before us is not inevitably bleak; it’s just unwritten. And we are its authors. We have a future to write—for the animals near and the animals far. For the human and the non-human animals. And I intend to write it.
Will you join me?
We came to Rwanda to see the Mountain Gorillas ?. We saw them. Our expectations were exceeded beyond our wildest dreams. While I prepare our photos and videos, enjoy this little preview to get you excited. And no, I couldn’t have planned the entrance of that young gorilla if I tried.
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