Blogs from Province du Nord, Rwanda, Africa - page 4

Kudos to Rwanda Air for their inflight food and beverage service. A happy Heather got full meals on both our flights with them. Shame shame Air Canada. En route from Kili to Kigali we flew over the massive Lake Victoria. For the majority of a two hour flight we seemed to be above the lake. As we came in to land in Kigali we noticed a lot of shiny squares. A little more descending and we realized it was all of the aluminium roofs on the houses. We landed and got through customs with no issues and met our guide Hamadi. He gave us a city tour of Kigali, highlighting all of the new building that’s happening - buildings and roads. A huge portion of the city is either new or still being built, a lot ... read more

I knew I had booked into the cheapest place in town in Musanze as I was the only Muzungu in the place and the rest of the occupants were tour guides! I had a day to kill in Musanze so I updated my blogs and arranged a lift to the Gorillas with Amahoro tours, fortunately I was able to join a group which meant I spent US$15 instead of $80. The next day I was up bright and early 05:30 to be ready for my pick up at 06:00, the LP said we had to get there for 07:00 otherwise you would lose your place and waste US$500 - this turned out to be rubbish as the rangers were still hanging about at 08:00. By 06:30 I had been waiting at the guest house since 06:00 ... read more

NOTE: For those of you who received an email form of this, I called this "Day 1" since this was the first FULL DAY in Rwanda. But from the perspective of the whole trip, this was the 4th day I had been traveling I am writing to you from a dark church in Gisenyi, Rwanda, where there is a satellite for Internet and evidently just enough electricity to power that and one 4-ft fluorescent bulb that is humming and off more than it is on. As I wrote in the blog dated 1/11/10, it took 4 hr 15 minutes longer to get here than it was supposed to. That means 44 hours of traveling time, plus the 10 hour time difference. I had dinner with Pastor Simon and family, and then we got a Rwandan sim ... read more

So, my Grand Gorilla Adventure turned out to be pretty much a bust! It was 10 minutes of “Gorillas in the Mist” followed by 30 minutes of “Gorillas in the Torrential Downpour”. I didn’t get many good photos at all and not a single photo of me with a gorilla in the background. The more evolved, philosophical, Buddish side of me says “that’s the way it goes”, “who can predict nature?”, “at least I saw 10 good minutes of Rwandan mountain gorillas which is more than most people ever get”. The other 70% of me (it’s a tight contest for control on most days and today it's fairly lopsided) says “what the &^%*#? I paid $500 @%*!&ing dollars for a gorilla permit, got 10 good minutes, then got soaking wet and muddy!” Let me start from ... read more

Today we enter Rwanda, a country filled with excitement because they represent the home of the gorillas for us, but a place also filled with distant recollections of the Rwandan genocide which happened only 15 years ago. Driving into the country, the scenery changes dramatically, the low-lying plains of Uganda replaced with narrow valleys and steep hillsides - all utilised for agriculture. Rarely have I seen cultivated land so high up... the land is filled with tea plantations and other food crops, and the locals toiling in the fields stop their work and watch us as we pass. Our first stop is the capital city, Kigale, which occupies a commanding position on a hill amid a series of dramatic valleys. We go to the genocide museum, established in the aftermath of the violence to fuel reconcilliation ... read more