Author: Yellow Duckie
•11:33
Struggling to fight against my sleepiness, I was struck in awe when the plane glided gracefully among the hills and landed on one of them. First thought that came to my mind was : Awesome...Rwanda is beautiful.
Armed with the knowledge that Rwanda is known as the country of thousand hills still did not prepare me for the magnificent sight which I must admit is very different from the African cities which I have been too. It was nothing but hills in Rwanda..endless hills.
The city of Kigali is extremely clean and the condition of the road is superb! Coming from a country where bumpy rides is often encountered, this is real comfort! In this short visit of mine, I only have 2 items in my "To-Do" list in Rwanda : Visit the Gorillas and the church where the genocide happened where upon completion I would say that I have officially visited Rwanda.
Mountain Gorillas
Everyone who knows a little more about the mountain gorillas of Rwanda, will be informed about getting a place to see the Susa group. They are indeed the biggest group of gorilla and we were thrilled that we were able to be part of the team to see them.
As you might have already known, one day, only 56 permits are issued to see these beautiful creatures and the price of the permit is EXORBITANT (even though I think that the experience was awesome but still it is too expensive), 500 USD per person excluding transport to the park.

Excited as I was being able to get a place to see the Susa group but the hike up to where they were was pure torture to my limbs and lungs. The altitude itself makes it difficult for the hike and plus the fact that we hardly exercise makes it even more difficult.


However difficult the hike was, i must admit that the trail was quite nice as we passes through the villages on the slope, passing through their farms but the last 20 minutes hike in the forest was not too pleasant as we were practically diving among the scrubs.



The feeling of the gorillas being only a mere 3m away from you (not caged) was simply stunning. The heavy mist around us made it felt as though we were in a dream...
Church
Situated only 25 KM away from the city of Kigali, this place can be visited within a couple of hours. Not that I am anticipating to experience the eerie feeling of visiting the genocide site but I Pre-empted myself before arrival at the site. However, it was not the case for me, the site was peaceful. So peaceful that it was hard to imagine that a genocide happened on the very ground we were standing on.


Lake Kivu
I must admit that there is nothing much about this lake except for the serenity of th e surrounding and the long boring journey of getting there.

Images of Rwanda (in my head), apart from the Gorillas and history about the genocide were:
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Sorghum Wheat: My first time seeing it...a lot of it in Rwanda :)

Yellow oil like chili oil : Do not underestimate this mild looking substance, it is really spicy.

Odd Looking mosque
Loads of banana tress
.and the tasty grilled chicken with long legs and wings, which I believe until today that it was not chicken that we had for dinner that night...
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2 comments:

On September 1, 2009 at 10:14:00 PM GMT+3 , Johan said...

Hello from Holland

 
On January 3, 2010 at 12:15:00 PM GMT+3 , Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!