hey. we have a problem with chocolate, i tell you that. >> get him in the coffee business. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com after nine days of threats of imprisonment, and what was the most chaoticiest amazing difficult trip of my life, the last thing that stands between us and our flight home is the reason we came. the congo river itself. >> indeed, because now they're closed. >> been here since this morning. >> held up for days. >> what's up, buddy? >> they're dpgonna -- >> broke down again? >> yeah, and the only one hour

of daylight left. >> they started? >> okay. great. here he comes. >> you learn quickly. in congo things change in a moment's notice. >> welcome to the jungle. ♪ ♪ through this beautiful world ♪ felt the cool rain on my shoulder ♪ ♪ found something good ♪ in this beautiful world ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪

everyone gets everything he wants. i wanted to see the congo. for my sins, they let me. >> in "heart of darkness" joseph conrad writes of his alter ego -- when i was a little chap, i had a passion for maps. at that time there were many blank spaces on earth. but there was one yet, the biggest, the most blank, that i had a hankering after. this then is the congo. the size of all western europe

combined. it should be africa's wealthiest nation. the people forget, or never even knew, that the 20th century's first holocaust happened here when belgium's king leopold managed to bamboozle the world giving him personal title to the congo. leopold's agents of whom the mythical kurtz was one, raided, slaughtered, mutilated and pressed into forced labor much of the population, in a bloodthirsty quest for first ivory and then rubber. when independence finally came, the belgians trashed what they could, and left behind a completely unprepared tribally divided and largely ungovernable land mass, filled with stuff that everybody in the world wanted. and things pretty much went downhill from there.

♪ but this story begins with a truck stop in rwanda. stocking up in rwanda. my expectations for food in the congo are more measured.

if you're looking to get to the eastern congo, and many would ask why you would even want to do that, the best way is to drive across from neighboring rwanda. this country, of course, not too long ago, suffered its own appalling genocide. behind the wheel, dan. he's been living in the drc for two years, working on a documentary about some of the several dozen rebel groups in the country. riding shotgun, dan's close friend and associate horeb, a congolese. they're taking me across the border. one side, rwanda, hotels, paved roads, internet, and paperwork to be filled out. just a few feet of barbed wire, machine guns and cement walls away -- this.

welcome to goma. a city of 1 million, the significant number of whom are idps, internally displaced people -- sitting, rather inconveniently, at the base of mt. niragango. a still smold erg volcano. current street level is about 12 feet off 20202, when it last 2002 when it last erupted. lava everywhere. which explains the less than smooth ride. one of the first things you notice out the car window, the u.n. about four months ago, the m-23, one of the various rebel groups holed up in the jungle nearby, invaded the city. the ngos battened down the

hatches. the u.n. stood by, hands tied. everyone else had to fend for themselves until the rebels withdrew. the congo was a place i dreamed of visiting before i ever thought i would get the chance to travel the world. actually being here, i'm not so sure. dan, horeb and i head for a local restaurant. good food is going to be a challenge soon, so we take the opportunity to fill up on what we can. grilled chicken, gugali, pirripirri pepper, pretty nice meal. >> goma in the '50s, tourists used to come as far as rhodesia, up here to vacation.

>> amazing life. i remember in my childhood seeing lions along side the road. goma was a choice place for some time. >> they're not coming anymore? >> no. it's a red zone. >> it's looking like there won't be house to house fighting or artillery or mortars dropping in. was today a good day? >> we have a rebel group just ten kilometers north of us, and maybe seven other rebel groups that are all caught in the blender, you know? >> things change quickly in the congo. >> confused yet? virtually all of the eastern part of the country is being contested by rebel groups -- some local and others allegedly acting on behalf of interests based in neighboring countries. recently the largely tutsi rwandan backed m-23 has been active in the area around goma. but the mostly hutu is also here. they can also refer to self-defense groups or specifically entities.

like apcls or chaka. some groups like the frpi are defending a stake like gold, and the others are mainly interested in fighting with the particular enemy, in their case they have a beef with the fdlr. lots of other organizations controlling territory who haven't come up with a name or cool acronym yet. this is om a fraction of the rebel groups in a single area of the congo. be advised this map was hopelessly outdated before we even got here. >> it's all these variables kind of knotted into one big mess. these are the reasons why media has a difficult time, why the western world doesn't hear much about congo, because how can you sum it up in a three-minute report? >> but for us, goma is just a stopover on the way to the congo river. so we need to keep moving. and roads, forget it.

certainly nothing even remotely safe between goma and where we are headed. >> we're flying to kisangani, this is the preferred route. >> we chartered the queen's former traveling wardrobe. when she traveled in her younger years, we're told her clothes traveled in this beast. oh so we're told. >> this is a first for me. >> you learn to take nothing for granted in the congo. uh-oh. just as we're about to take off thunder, lightning. >> it looks fine to me. >> let's get this thing airborne. >> wow, nice. >> we have to wait this one out a little. crashes are pretty commonplace. not so long ago a plane with nearly 100 people on board went down on the same route we're

taking today. >> most planes crash in congo crash because of the weather, right? >> yeah, most of the time, yeah. >> not us. don't worry. >> impossible. >> the weather clears up, sort of. so we decide to give it a go. >> when the weather is very bad, stay on the ground. >> what about rebels? are they shooting at the planes? >> no. normally, no. okay. we'll see you after your trip. >> yeah, yeah. >> okay. have a good one. >> lifting off from goma, we head out over the shores of lake kivu before circling back north-northeast. our destination -- what conrad referred to in "heart of darkness" as the inner station. here surrounded by dense jungle

lies our rendezvous with the congo river. a waterway responsible for both building this country and helping to destroy it. vo: traveling you definitely end up meeting a lot more people but a friend under water is something completely different. i met a turtle friend today so, you don't get that very often. it seemed like it was more than happy to have us in his home. so beautiful. avo: more travel. more options. more personal. whatever you're looking for expedia has more ways to help you find yours. (girl) w(guy) dive shop.y? (girl) diving lessons. (guy) we should totally do that. (girl ) yeah, right.

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two hours out of goma, we land at kisangani. this was once stanleyville, and the country's second largest city, and before war and neglect cut it off from the rest of the congo and the world. stanleyville, known in "heart of darkness" as the inner station. the congo river stretches across the country's middle. conrad describes it as a twisting snake with its head in

the atlantic ocean and its tail buried deep in africa's heart. to europeans, it was a natural route to transport slaves, ivory, rubber, minerals. the commodities upon which modern-day brussels and antwerp are built. for the congolese, both before and after the belgians, it provided more basic things. water to wash, to clean your clothes in, to cook with, to drink. also fishing. since long before the expeditions of dr. livingston and henry morton stanley, the wageni tribe has been fishing the river in unique fashion. highly coordinated and acrobatic, the wageni dived into the treachery rapids in what is

still referred to as stanleyville falls. navigating between baskets going down the river, perched on a precarious network of wooden poles, they hoist together. the catch these days -- not much. >> so it is the second biggest force in the congo river. >> oh, yeah. >> this man was a guide bringing tourists to his village. since the last two wars, kisangani tourism has been pretty much nonexistent. chief of the wageni, pierre mu sala abaka. it is said she a direct descendant of the king who greeted stanley in the '70s. >> please, thank him for the privilege of seeing his

community. [ speaking foreign language ] >> translator: it's a present from the chef. this is a way to welcome the delegation of cnn. >> the wageni tribe made, what was in retrospect, the mistake of allowing stanley to pass. the famous explorer, of course, pretty much shot and raided his way along the historic route to the coast, before effectively jump-starting the colonial period. ♪ >> using stanley as administrator, king leopold of belgium claimed the congo as his personal property. under leopold's reign, men women and children were tagged with numbers, separated into groups, given production quotas. if they fell short, they were

whipped, their hands cut off, hanged. an estimated 10 million congolese were either starved, worked to death, executed or just killed where they stood, all in just over 20 years. by the end, half the population of the country was gone. have you ever thought about all those years ago that your if your people had just killed stanley? >> translator: somebody else would have come. >> ordinarily, a large tiger fish like this one, it's going to the market, considered way too valuable to eat. but today -- guests. >> it's a mean-looking fish. >> she used to sell fish in the market. >> the congolese standard, liboke. pretty much anything wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed.

>> typical tradition. >> excellent meal. >> a lot of work. it doesn't look like an entirely miserable time of it. the water loose good. looks good. these? >> on a good day, 50. 50? >> bad -- they just -- one basket like this. they have about ten big fish, but the situation changes. the tourists used to come and see how the fishermen catch. >> hundreds used to come, yes? things get a little better here, maybe they come back. >> i hope so. >> i hope so, too.

[ singing ] ♪ after leopold, the belgian government took over and pretty much continued as before. an apartheid-like system of what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine. by the '50s there was beautiful modern infrastructure built -- railroads, hotels, sports clubs, schools. the envy of africa. humphrey bogart and katharine hepburn were here while filming "the african queen." they stayed at the luxury hotel the pourpoquo i'm pas hotel. this is the pourquoi pas hotel now. none of this was ever for the congolese. they weren't allowed in any of these buildings, except as help.

not even allowed to walk their own streets after dark. not a lot of dependable electric power left in the city, but what lights do glow around town, much of it comes from places like this -- small kiosks serving the congolese version of barbecue and what passes for cold beer. christian is one of our fixers, tasked with keeping us on track and out of trouble. which, believe me, is a big job around here. you know, it's an amazing-looking city, if you just blur your visionalities bit, you can see it the way it used to be. >> beautiful. i think it could be the best

place to live. very kind people. people like listening to music, eaten. >> what's the congolese word for barbecue? >> barbecue. >> cheers. >> cheers. >> i like any meat on a grill. it's looking good. grilled goat, with a traditional goat stew on the side. >> now we're talking. >> roasted, put some sauce in there. >> that's delicious. >> as you can see, people don't eat meat. meat is quite expensive, almost $2. >> which is a lot. it's more than most people make in a day or even two days. what are the first things you buy if you're very, very poor. >> very poor, soap. >> soap. >> because at least you have to look a bit clean. . so soap first. >> soap. but in between, as congolese, you have to think of dressing, looking smart, clothes. >> all the congolese will tell you, if you give them $10, they will think of at least buying soap or food and keep maybe $1 to buy a shirt.

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♪

in "heart of darkness" conrad writes about the greed of the belgian colonizers. they grabbed what they could get for the sake of what could be got. it was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale. and after 75 years, the congolese had had enough. but independence came quickly. when the new country managed to inaugurate their first democratically elected leader, the cia and the british working through the belgians, had him killed. we helped to install this miserable bastard in his place -- joseph mobutu, he stole billioning of dollars from his people and pretty much became the template for

desmitism in the congo. by the time he was done, the congo was mired in a series of civil wars, the government was no longer paying its bills, and the trains basically stopped running. this is kisangani station. there's one short run left. service once a week, when operational, which isn't often, i'm guessing. abandoned by the belgians, the station, the engines, the ancient passenger cars, and the tracks themselves have slowly receded into the jungle.

>> and yet all these years later, with hardly any resources, alub emile, the administrator and the staff of clerks, conductors, mechanics and engineers show up at work and do what they can in an attempt to keep things in working order. how do you do? >> he says you're welcome to see this place. >> how many employees still work here? [ speaking foreign language ] >> so at one time you could

dispatch a freight to south africa? [ speaking foreign language ] so a hypothetical question -- if the government said, okay, we are ready. we have the money, we would like to as quickly as possible get operational, does he have the workers ready to go? [ speaking foreign language ] >> and this is one of the few things here that's working today. a feature of great pride to the staff. the railway employees, i'm told, do not get paid, yet they continue to show up and work.

♪ >> it is said of the building of the country's once vast rail network, one congolese died for every single tie. like many congolese we meet, they are, all these years later and in spite of everything that's happened, ready and waiting for the situation to improve.

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once. so conrad described the congo after piloting steamships in the early days of belgian colonialism. i've somewhat of an obsession. it's been kind of a personal dream, if you will, to travel a congo river. now, for better or worse, i get that chance. wife rented a trusty vessel, and i shall dub they "the captain willard." all right. did you maggots load the chickens? >> finding food along the way, it's anticipated, will be a challenge. refrigeration of any kind is impossible. >> okay. well, i'm psyched. my dream has finally come true. blocked by officials? this could be months.

okay. let the probing begin. [ speaking foreign language ] >> now, how do we do this? >> let's get under way until they figure a new tax to levy on us. our trip downriver there take us some 120 kilometers, even deeper into the jungle, instead of kurtz and his ivory and the crumbling hoard, with a shadowy past awaits us at our destination. it's the turn of the century map, so kisangani was then called stanleyville, leopoldville would be here. >> 3,000 kilometers or something like that. >> a long way to go, and we're

taking a full ride. >> that's what we're doing, right? >> all the way to the atlantic? >> you didn't tell them yet? >> i don't think we have enough spam, gentlemen. a half day's journey downriver there's a local dignitary we have promised to visit. >> there's the chief who is coming down. >> we arrive, late. but the king is still waiting for us. traditionally headgear, not so traditional suit. the medals given by the belgians proving his royal lineage. >> this place belongs to the mombuli ethnic group. >> he's the king?

[ speaking foreign language ] >> my father ruled from the age 1928, and i came to him at 1963. >> that's great history. incredible. we gave him a goat for being so late, i'm sorry we can't stay longer and he gives me a simple, hefty-looking bracelet only later do i come to appreciate it for what it is. >> horeb tells me it goes back to arab portuguese times, they taught them how to do it. they wear them on the wrists and ankles. it's older than our story, probably. the chief said his father gave it to him in 1935.

so who knows, man? wow. so where did you get the bracelet? oh, an african king gave it to me, the congo river. where did you get yours? we've come a long way downriver, with many kilometers still to go. attention has turned toward the evening meal. sill figure i'll make coq au vin. getting close to killing time. the moment of truth. it's quickly getting dark. i'm very aware of a number of things. how do they usually kill chickens? >> a small knife. >> a small knife. cut the heads off? >> our chickens are thin, scraggly, tough. in order to make anything edible, i'm probably going to have to stew the heck out of it.

most of my crew don't know. it takes time. still wet to kill these things. you want to eat, you have to kill your own chicken and pluck it, too. but every man has a breaking point. in retrospect, perhaps this was ours. >> harder, harder. almost through, man. >> no, i'm not. >> clean kill. >> now you can join our tree house. by the time our birds are cleaned and plucked, the sun is down and dinner is still a long way off. ♪ clean out the chickens ♪ it's time to -- kill chickens ♪ alec, for this mission i upgraded your smart phone.

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somewhere down the congo river, i'm continuing to deal with a few pressing concerns. the one knife on board is as sharp, really, as a soupspoon. soon i'm frantically trying to rip out the backbone and guts, in one go, with my one hand. the damn generator keeps kicking off. i really need light so i can see what i'm cutting. i can't cut what i can't see. >> there's only 240 watts.

no way it's the draw. >> they're not going to eat at all. i'm never going to get through with this. >> machete? >> no, maybe we should figure out how to cook dinner, because we'll really not going to eat any dinner here. i've had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and i would like to eat, especially after getting through all this misery with the chickens. all right. this machete -- it would be apropos to point out we do not want to be moving at night. we would not like to run aground in the middle of the freaking congo. >> swimming now. >> is he worried about crocs?

the current's unpredictable. visibility nil. time to tie up for the night. generator issues more or less fixed, but now another just as serious problem presents itself. with the lights burning, it becomes insanely buggy. crush one of these moths, and you will blow up like a balloon. seriously. pour all three bottles of wine into the onions. all right. let's put the top on, bring it up to a boil. three hours later, it looks like the jungle-style stew might actually work out after all. okay. so who wants to bring this over, carefully, to the table? all right. let's eat. >> bon apetit.

>> bon apetit. >> in the end, my kaukow vin was scrappy, but tolerable. i think i now understand what that means. next morning on the river, and of course we're not alone. fishermen from all the surrounding villages have heard of us, and have, long before worry eve we're even awake, have come by to check us out. can you find a couple onions? don't go crazy. if we don't have them, we don't have them.

>> i will not go crazy. >> all right. i about get on the spam and egg patrol. they may have had invented the stealth bomber, maybe this will be our crowning accomplishment as a culture. >> been there, boys. >> once we finally get there, we're supposed to get all wait back. >> coming back was not part of the plan. we're not coming back. >> find us ten years later with naked in the bush with a necklace and spam cans. that was glorious. >> time to get back out on the richer. we have places to go. two days down the congo, we're finally nearing our destination. >> an abandoned belgian research

station. it's still functioning in in capacity. about 30 kilometers in, over 250 buildings. they're doing it all here. >> much myth and legend surrounds this place. >> ah. there we go. >> yeah. >> it has been inferred by some that the belgians conducted you're r uranium enrichment and a host of bizarre experiments here, however, the facts would suggest the scariest thing to ever happen here, some genetically modified banana arrivals. vo: traveling you definitely end up meeting a lot more people but

a friend under water is something completely different. i met a turtle friend today so, you don't get that very often. it seemed like it was more than happy to have us in his home. so beautiful. avo: more travel. more options. more personal. whatever you're looking for expedia has more ways to help you find yours. happy birthday! it's a painting easel! the tide's coming in! this is my favorite one. it's upside down. oh, sorry. (woman vo) it takes him places he's always wanted to go. that's why we bought a subaru. (announcer) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. bjorn earns unlimited rewards for his small business.

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...and we inspected his brakes for free. -free is good. -free is very good. [ male announcer ] now get 50% off brake pads and shoes at meineke. deep in the jungle and mimes from anywhere, this was once the institute for agriculture studies of congo. instruction began in the 1930s. the complex was once staffed by hundreds of belgian researchers, d doctors and engineers until they left hurriedly in 1960.

with independence began a rapid decline. the eventual cessation of funding. of the hundreds of structures built here, what used to be housing, laboratories, hospitals and research facilities, the vast complexes library is clearly the most important to those who remain. though crumbling, like everything else, the grass is cut and ground is maintained. it's swept and kept clean, and yet most incredibly, this man, casango, still fight as daily battle to fight awe to the book the shelves. >> what happened here? did people continue to do

research? did they stay here? [ speaking in foreign language ]. >> they get an allowance from the government. >> independence comes. what happens here? [ speaking in foreign languag ] language ]. >> the whites left and many of them realized they shouldn't come back. >> unless i'm mistaken, the gentleman said research moves to berundi. those who remain, their mission, all these years later, has been to preserve the pack kramony th existed. all of this was state of the art back in the '50s when the library was built, but for 20 years there hasn't been electricity to run the dehumidifiers to keep out the damp. >> so many war, through all these difficulties, he has

maintained this facility to an extraordinary degree. why? [ speaking in foreign language ] . >> staff still show up to work and organize. catalog and write requests for funding. perhaps this man on a central office or someone may or may not ever respond. >> he was here pre-independence. does he remember the prebelgian rule? [ speaking in foreign language ]. >> does he remember? he remembers the fear. and then the time they were

leaving -- >> what do you say to someone who suggests that belgian colonialism might have been the good times? >> the road home, such as it is. rotting bridges -- makeshift ferries -- it's an adventure. fortunately, ours was a good adventure. the congo is a place that's always fascinated me. this is a trip i've been wanting to take since i've been writing stories or making television. but what i found was something unexpected. i met a lot of people who, for a long time, have been waiting. hoping for things to get better. a lot more hope here than theirs

any right to expect. when all is said and done, i wanted to go to the congo -- wanted to go to the congo -- and i did. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com i'm anderson cooper. in the hour ahead, you're going to meet somebody who has demonstrated bravery time and time again as a u.s. navy s.e.a.l., a person who served this country for 20 years, and now is showing another kind of strength, living as the woman she felt she's always been. this is her story, from chris to kristin, a navy s.e.a.l.'s secret. christopher todd beck enlisted with the military in 1990 with the dream of joining the u.s. navy s.e.a.l.s. the elite unit with a reputation of being one of the toughest, fittest and most secretive forces in the u.s. military. chris