June 7, 2009

Location: Southwest Rwanda

According to our Lonely Planet guide book, there are five things you “must do” in Rwanda:

#1-See the gorillas. Too expensive

#2-Kigali Memorial Center. Been there.

#3-Rwanda National Museum. Done that.

#4-Gisenyi. Beach vacation sounds nice!

#5-Parc National Nyungwe Forrest. Never been to a rainforest before!

We had heard that Rwanda was a short four hour drive across. According to our exhaustive (and exhausting) research, that’s simply not true. With our one free weekend in Rwanda, we decided to see the last two “must sees,” as well as a few other sights. Little did we know we were about to embark on an impossible journey. It turned out it’s a 12 hour drive from Gisenyi to the park, so at the last minute, we grabbed a bus to Kibuyi, an equally nice beach spot on Lake Kivu.

The following morning, after a splash in the beautiful Lake Kivu, we trekked 8 hours on an overcrowded bus (7 hours riding on laps), we arrived in Cyangugu with just enough time to catch a glimpse of Bukavu, over the border in the DRC, just before the sun set. The next morning, as we planned on crossing the border for a look around Bukavu, we realized our next mistake. Our passports were in the Tanzanian embassy, awaiting our visa stamps. With nothing more than our faded and ripped passport copies and some smooth talking, we got the border guards to allow us onto the bridge between the two countries, a “no mans land”. After waiting hours for our minibus to fill from Cyangugu, we set out to the rainforest, where our guidebook promised self guided monkey tours for only $20. Through broken English, we were told we had arrived, and we jumped off, just as it began to drizzle. We rushed to the ranger’s office, excited to get looking for monkeys. We were told by the nicest ranger we’ve ever met that not only did we get off at the wrong place (an hour’s drive from the parks visitor entrance), but it was impossible to go in the park without a guard ($50 each) and on top of everything, it was too late to head out. And so we began our long trek to the visitors entrance on foot in the rain.

It was over half an hour of walking until the first car passed us, but shortly thereafter, we were able to hitch a ride with the local police chief. After being dropped off at the visitor’s center, our fears were confirmed. We couldn’t see the monkeys today. Instead, we camped out under a small thatched pavilion and had a picnic. Luckily, the rain stopped and we headed out again on foot, sure we wouldn’t get to Kigali by nightfall. Before we knew it, we were hurtling around Rwanda’s hills in a Mercedes-Benz. On the road through the park, we even managed to see a colobus monkey and two baboons! Our drivers dropped us off at Gikongoro, our very last destination of the trip. We saw the infamous memorial where over 50,000 perished during the genocide. As we left, we knew we had to get back to Kigali, despite the setting sun; we had scheduled a project visit Monday. Our moto-taxi drivers confirmed that we could take a bus al the way, and they dropped us off at the bus company. The company, of course, told us it would be impossible get to Kigali. They put us on a bus to Butare (half way to Kigali), and told us to go to Kigali the next morning. As our bus started to pull away, and the feeling of defeat settled in, another bus pulled in, and, as we found out, was going to Kigali. We stopped our bus, climbed over our fellow passengers, and sat on the new bus. SUCCESS! We did everything we wanted, and made it back to Kigali by Sunday night!