Lake Kivu Serena Hotel Gisenyi

... told you all this and also had a lot of videos of personal accounts of people who were almost killed or who had friends or family members killed. There was even one room that was just filled with glass cases of probably about 100 skulls and lots of piles of bones. A lot of skulls had pieces missing which meant they were hit over the head with something. In all, we learned a lot about what had happened in their country and that is the way the Rwandi ...

... were intoxicating and in the end it was pretty hard to get the soap off but hey it was better than nothing. The next day we went in the Land Cruisers to the mountain. It was pretty rough going and I understand why the need all wheel drive. We ended up hiking up the mountain to go see a gorilla family of 14 called the Mapuwa familly. We were five people and it seemed like a good ratio of people to see the gorillas. I was hoping that this was not going to be just a walk ...

... this country the place of a thousand mountains. It's pretty crazy but the roads on the Rwandan side are really good (sadly better than Montreal). So early in the morning I went to try to get a permit. Now these things are booked months in advance but I heard that you could get cancellations fairly easily. So in the guidebook there is supposedly a bureau that helps tourists with exactly this but unfortunately they closed the office and a girl ...

... staying and as I was climbing on my boda-boda I heard the waves lapping and couldn't resist one mare day at the lake. I paid the driver the fee and went back to bed before spending another day swimming and sunbathing. I had to move to a different hotel because a conference was arriving at the Bethanie, but the Eden Golf was comfy and the food was good. I'm heading back to Uganda tomorrow in a much lighter mood than a few days earlier.

... or, more likely in Rwanda, a hard boiled egg), you cannot eat it whilst walking down the street. Nor can you eat it whilst sitting by the side of the road. I think that this fact is not advertised widely enough, considering how taboo it is considered! Anyway whilst sat in the taxi I bought a lollipop; I had been told that eating in a taxi was 'au fait' so decided to go right on ahead and get my sugar rush. As I was happily enjoying my ...

... group only had 5 people in it! To minimize impact on the gorillas, you only get to spend one hour observing them once you find them. We were assigned to the Bwenge group...the gorillas usually live in small groups of 10-20 gorillas. We all loaded back in the van and they drove us to our starting point in a small village on the edge of the park. The trekking is done by hiking to where the gorillas were on the previous day and tracking them from there. The ...

... their mind if they wanted to go back but they didn?t think they would. They were 100% committed to their missionary work. As soon as I got to Gisenyi, I could see that I wasn?t going to like it. What a dump! It wasn?t what I expected at all. I couldn?t believe this was a resort town. A bunch of old buildings along a dirt road. The beach was about a 15 minute walk away from the town. After I checked into my sketchy guesthouse, I changed into my swim shorts and ...

... the night (which we unfortunately didn't end up going to due to time constraints) and to escort us to the bookstore several blocks away, where we stocked up on a lot of new magazines and books. Martha is an amazing hard-working woman and we were both so pleased to have met her, even briefly. Look her up if you're ever in Kigali! They also focus on community-geared tourism, where they take ex-poachers and have them ...

... here as well as the African feel to the town so the place has got a good mixture. We went for lunch at a place called Tam Tams. Know in the Lonely Planet it says if you want to order food and get it delieved quickly to you there are 2 places in town the rest take hours to bring your food, how right they were. There was 4 of us and we ordered a simple side salad and chips each. After an hour the food had not come out so ...

... we drive alongside lake Kivu from south to north. We like to drive in one day the approximatly 220 km from Cyangugu (in the south) over Kibuye to Gisenyi (in the north). You can enjoy beautiful views on the lake. Kibuye lies on the eastern shore of Lake Kivu, about ...