Kivu Sun Hotel Gisenyi

... I’m astounded to see THE BIG GUY sitting right there, not much more than 2 metres from me. There’s the surge of adrenalin at knowing this guy could woop your @ss with a flick of the forearm and yet the other 14 members of your team are lined up with wide smiles in awe and you know it’s ok and this is gonna be GREAT. It’s still raining but you could stand there for hours in the rain watching these guys. He’s just sitting there, almost in a ...

... loan which they backed. When the war was over and all the dust settled, there was over 1 million people killed in about 100 days. The war had left thousands without parents and a country in pieces. Millions had also fled into the neighboring countries of Uganda, Congo, and Tanzania. After the war, dead bodies were found strewn all over the place including latrine holes and mass graves. Thousands of people also had mangled bodies and missing limbs. The ...

... we couldn't find. So we decided to walk to some travel agencies we saw on the way to see if they had any idea. The first one said it was too dangerous to do because of rebel activity but the second one had a card for Lubwe with a map on the back!! So we headed off but unfortunately arrived at the exact place we were at before but this time the guy renting the space tells our drivers where he moved to. So this was the final straw for the Americans as we were going in ...

I know it's been a while since my last entry and the reason is that I hit the first obstacle of my trip. My reasons for not posting were twofold...first I was going into an area where there was some guerrilla activity last month and secondly Internet access was scarce. So here is what happened. Last I wrote I was on my way to Rwanda to go Gorilla trecking. So the closest town to do this is Musanze. So I made my way there and now I know why they ...

... of my guides. We went throught little trails, villages, and weverywhere I went all people went out to greet me. The boys taught me how to say "hi, how are you, I am fine, thank you' in their laguage, and everybody was totally delighted to hear me speak it. Just before reaching the 'pigmey village' we sat on the ground and I shared with them teh two sandwiches, samosas, and oranges that I had. It wasn't much, but the biggest boy made sure everybody got some. The ...

... matatu: having discussed options for the remainder of our stay with the volunteers, we had decided to head straight down to Huye, in the south of Rwanda. We said some brief goodbyes and settled into our new taxi in an experience that felt much more like Uganda: the taxi didn't leave until it was full. In that time I had a chance to test a cultural taboo. In Rwanda people do not eat in public. By this I mean that, say you buy a sandwich ...

I took off for a town called Gisenyi today. It's supposed to be a resort town frequented by rich Rwandans. They do exist. Along the way, I met two people from Winnipeg doing missionary work in the town I was about to visit. When I asked them how long they would be staying in Gisenyi, they explained that they committed to living there for their WHOLE life. I couldn't believe that. They didn't even pick the town. It was chosen for them. Of course, they could ...

This morning in Kigali, I went to Rwanda Eco-Tours to confirm and pay for my gorilla trek (for Thursday). Matt had already done the gorilla trek twice when he was in Uganda, and so we decided that it wasn't worth the cost ($500 US pp! and going up to $1000 later this year!) for him to go again. Martha, the extremely friendly and helpful owner of Rwanda Eco-Tours, went out of her way to help us book camping accommodation ...

I arrived in Gisenyi after a 3 hour plesent bus ride from Kigali the capital of Rwanda. The scenery on the drive was quite spetacular with lots of lush hills and an abudance of trees everywhere. Gisenyi is very close to the border of the DRC and is based on lake Kivu. The town itself is quite a pretty place and has a nice lake beach while you can overlook the mountains on the congo in the distance. There are a lot of western ...

After exploring and admiring the wonderful nature of the Nyungwe Forest, we continou our way to Cyangugu at Lake Kivu, where we check in at Hotel du Lac before sunset. Hotel du Lac is a nice hotel near the Rusizi river. The Rusizi river forms the frontier with Congo ...