I've been back for a full week now, but my body seems to still be recovering from an extreme and unique trip. Here's part one of the trip repot! Day 1 - Kigali, RwandaLiz and I met at Kigali International Airport in Rwanda. It's clean, modern, and efficient. Plastic bags are banned in Rwanda and Liz had to carry the cheese she bought in Amsterdam in her hands as she walks out of customs! People follow traffic rules and the roads were nicely paved with lane markers. The contrast with the constant chaos in Kampala was immediately evident. I felt relaxed already. We had dinner at Repub Lounge which was walking distance from Katharine's apartment in Kimihurura. Rwanda is the safest country in East Africa and we felt really comfortable walking in the dark. Katharine described the food to be nicer local food. We had some amazing kebabs, ginger rice, and curried vegetables. The food was full of flavor which is really different from Ugandan cuisine. *Note: there is no wifi in the airport, but if you exit to your left, there's a nice coffee shop that has free wifi and lots of outlets. They take credit card. There are ATMs in the parking lot if you want to get some local currency before hopping in a cab. We didn't prearrange a ride and felt safe taking a cab from the airport. A cab to Kimihurura cost us $10 without any bargaining. Day 2 - Kigali to GomaAfter a sleepless night for Liz (welcome to hot nights on foam mattresses), we headed to breakfast at Shokola (not to be confused with Shokola Lite which has the wall of kitenge that you may have seen photos of). Katharine works remotely from this cafe a lot and I can see why! It's like a library, cafe, and treehouse all in one. The wifi is good and the smoothies / juices are even better. At 11, we met up with Tresor from Kasitu Eco Tours and set off for the Gisenyi - Goma border. It was a beautiful 3ish hour drive to Gisenyi. There's one pit stop where you can use the bathroom and buy snacks. The border crossing was pretty seamless. They took our temperature on the DRC side and checked for our yellow fever cards. Tresor had our visas already and interfaced with the immigration officers on our behalf. It took like 20 minutes for them to process everything and I've heard that sometimes they'll give you a hard time if you don't speak French. We said farewell to the paved roads and neatly manicured gardens of Gisenyi and embraced the roads of Goma filled with motorcycles, chukudus, and white UN Land Cruisers. We spent the rest of our day reading and enjoying a relaxing dinner at Lac Kivu Lodge. The bed there had a spring mattress and I got the most comfortable night's sleep since coming to East Africa.
More photos and details about our time in the DRC are on that webpage - click the button to the right! I can't say enough good things about the gorilla trekking experience. It's not cheap but we all walked away feeling like the experience was well worth it. On top of getting to be up close and personal with these mountain gorillas, the park seems really well run and part of your fees to go support the local schools and communities that live within the park. A bit about Goma...a lot of the kitenge (traditional printed fabrics) in the region is exported from the DRC, so we made a stop on the way back to buy some fabric. 6 square meters goes for about $10. My Ugandan colleague asked me to buy her some from there because they usually have a bigger and higher quality selection that when we can get in Kampala. There is also a small crafts market where you can get cool wooden masks like the one Liz is holding above. The vendors were pretty aggressive and started with prices 3-4x what Liz and Katharine ended up paying, so get ready to bargain! If you don't speak French (and maybe even if you do), don't both trying to ask what the meaning / story behind each mask is. All we could understand is that pregnant women can receive a "message" from the bird on Liz's mask... Day 4 - Nyiragongo Volcano, Virunga National Park, DRCAfter volcano boarding in Nicaragua last fall, I think I've had my fair share of spending time on / around active volcanoes for awhile. Nyiragongo has been really active and we were waiting for the park rangers or tour company to tell us they've shut down the trek. They didn't...so up we went! Day 5 - Nyiragongo to KigaliI couldn't walk normally for two days after this trek. Hanging out above the clouds comes with a price. The descent was easier physically, but still taxing on your ankles since you're walking on unstable rock for most of the way. We hit the round around noon and were back in Kigali in time to make it to Monday night trivia (better known as quiz here in East Africa) at Sol e Luna.
We were surprised to see Howard Buffett's name around the DRC. We first saw his foundation on a billboard at the border and then again further into the park. It turns out, he produced (along side our friend Leo DiCaprio and others) the Oscar-nominated documentary Virunga (it's on Netflix) which spotlights the park rangers' fight to protect the park from poachers, M23 rebels, and large corporations looking to tap into the natural resources. While it looks like he is a well-intentioned environmentalist, we were interested in figuring out why he was building infrastructure at the border. Katharine did some quick googling and we found our answer. Hydropower. I don't know enough about it to understand what the long-term implications are or what local sentiment is like towards him, but at least in the short-term, it sounds like he's creating jobs and pumping money into an area that most others don't want to go near. 2/20/2017 04:06:45 am
Love to read travel experience and seems look you all have fun out there, keeping posting about your trekking experience with us. Comments are closed.
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AuthorI'm eager to learn about the world around me and find that travel (and food) is one of my favorite ways in which to do so. Archives
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