After our unfortunate experience in Dar Es Salaam, Meghan and I were just about ready to call it quits on the rest of the trip and just head out of Africa. We had realized pretty early on – during our planning for the trip – that to make it to Rwanda was going to create a bit of a travel headache.. and indeed it did. Getting up to Rwanda (with a swing through Tanzania) meant a lot of time in airports and airplanes and the mix up with Kenya Airways was the straw that broke us.
Our energy was low.
But, we were able to get onto flights the next day so we only lost one day from our original itinerary which in the grand scheme of things, isn’t too bad.
We flew up to Nairobi and then over to Kigali where we were met at the airport by a representative from a tour company who would be arranging our trip.
After a good lunch at “Bourbon Coffee” (an interesting coffee enterprise in Kigali started by, we later overheard by an ex-Starbuck’s guy) we drove through the countryside up to the Virunga mountains. We were instantly aware of the differences between Rwanda and Tanzania/Kenya. It was surprising to that the city of Kigali was really well kept and seemed almost more Asian than African. This may have been because of all of the motorbike taxis zipping around, but there were also the parks – which had flowers. And the city was just cleaner than other places we had visited recently.
The countryside also reminded me of Vietnam or Thailand – with lots of lush hills supporting a lot of agriculture. The steep slopes of the hills had plots for grazing and farming running clear up to the top of the mountains.
We arrived at our hotel near the Volcanoes Park where we settled in for the evening and had a few beers (Mutzig is definitely the beer to drink in Rwanda – skip the Primus). While sitting in the hotel bar we overheard a conversation that a producer for CNN was having – making arrangements for Anderson Cooper who would be visiting the area soon.
The next day we got up early (again) and after a brief breakfast made our way over to Volcanoes National Park where we were matched up with a guide and other guests to trek into the mountain jungle.
We hiked up the densely-vegetated volcano for about 1 to 2 hours until we finally met up with our designated group of gorillas. We were able to spend only 1 hour with the gorillas but it was incredible. Our group consisted of 1 silverback male and 5 females – 4 of which had ‘baby’ gorillas 2 years old or younger. We sat and watched them all in amazement.
It was really great to juxtapose the Gorilla trekking with the game drive safaris that we had done earlier in the trip. While I also really enjoyed those experiences as well, there’s something satisfying about hiking yourself in, rather than just sitting in the back of the car. Also, watching the animals out in the open – without the benefit of the safety of a vehicle – is just more intimate. Finally, the Gorillas were just different creatures – and when you get eye contact with a silverback it’s just nothing like staring down an impala.
After our time was up we hiked back down the mountain to our awaiting car. We then drove back to Kigali where we spent the night.
Before heading to the hotel we made a detour to the Genocide Memorial. The memorial/museum does a really good job of explaining how the Rwandan troubles began – the history leading up to the massacres – and it gives a lot of very personal testimonies to the atrocities. It was very moving.
And unfortunately, that’s all that we had time for. Our flight out was the next morning where we returned to Nairobi (on a flight that swung through Burundi just in case we hadn’t touched down in enough countries) and then took an overnight flight to London.
Rwanda is definitely on my short-list of African countries to re-visit. The countryside is beautiful, the nature-opportunities are quite varied with great National Parks around the hills and mountains and you can also see rare species of monkeys there as well as more ‘traditional’ safari animals like Giraffes, Elephants, etc., on top of the gorillas.
But, for now, it’s on to London for 1 day of walking around to break up the flights back to the US.
this year I think it’s possible we won’t go anywhere internationally and we might not take any big trips.
