Short: Bid farewell to Jaccie, Sandy, Ingrid, Nick, Jess, Jason, and Ellen, Easily enter Rwanda, Figure out that they drive on the right side of the road!, Strike out finding hotels, Enjoy a wonderful dinner, Experience a horrible nights sleep
Long: After relaxing at the lake this morning, we took a boat back to the mainland. We really enjoyed our time at Lake Bunyoni, and in particular, enjoyed the time spent with the people we met there. When we left the island, Jaccie and Sandy even walked down to the shore to take pictures of us leaving on the boat. Great people…
We arrived at the Uganda-Rwanda border around noon, and had absolutely no issues getting through. The Rwandan border was, quite possibly, the most efficient border we have passed through in Africa. Best of all, we didn’t have to purchase a visa to enter Rwanda. We did have one issue though. After passing through the border, we became a little suspicious when we began to notice that street signs were on the opposite side of the road. A few meters down the road our suspicions were confirmed when we saw that vehicles were using the other side of the road. Amusingly, we saw absolutely no signs warning us that Rwanda, unlike any other country we have been in thus far, uses the right side of the road.
Rwanda is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, and this was evident as we passed through the countryside on our way to the capital, Kigali. We encountered a large number of people and also took note that almost every conceivable inch of land in this lush, mountainous, country is being used for agriculture. Looking at the mountains, it was hard to believe people could even stand upright on the hillside, nevertheless farm it. While the drive to Kigali wasn’t far, it was fairly long. The roads were excellent, the result of a tremendous amount of aid money, but they snake narrowly through the mountains and this forced us to go slow.
Once in Kigali we began searching for a hotel, but to our dismay found that most had already been booked out. We also found that our guidebook, and our map, was out-dated. After a few hours of searching we settled for a $30 room in the Sky Hotel, close to the center of town. While the location was adequate, the hotel room was awful.
After finding the hotel we headed over to the Rwandan tourism office to check on gorillas tours. Rwanda, Uganda, and Congo each share forests that are home to some of the last remaining mountain gorillas in the world. You can attain a permit to see the Gorillas in each of these countries for a hefty fee. Currently Rwanda is charging $500 for one hour of viewing; however, there are rumors this might be increased to $1000. Nikolai wanted to see if he could attain a last minute permit, but we found that most of the permits were booked months in advance. The gorillas would have to wait. It was later in the afternoon, and after a quick shower, we walked to Republika Lounge, a bar situated in the upscale, Kiyovu district. The walk to the bar confirmed what others had told us; that Kigali is one of the cleanest and safest cities in Africa. For the first time since South Africa, we used sidewalks, and even crossing signals. After a twenty minute walk, we found the bar, and were a little surprised to find it completely empty. The waitress told us that the bar should get busy around six, but it was already almost 7. We left after only one drink, only to realize later that Rwanda does not recognize daylight savings time…Whoops! We adjusted our watches accordingly.
We walked back towards our hotel and stopped for dinner at a hilltop, French/Continental, restaurant called New Cactus. At New Cactus, we enjoyed one of the best dinners we have had in Africa, while also enjoying a wonderful view of Kigali. The rest of the evening was not as relaxing. Our hotel room lacked mosquito nets, and after falling asleep I woke up shortly after with five bites on my hand. I tried to wrap myself in my hostel sheet, but it was just too warm to remain covered. Adding further insult to injury, our hotel’s bar/club pumped out loud music until 2am. We finally feel asleep after the bar closed, but not before incurring a few more mosquito bites.
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