Lake Kivu Serena Hotel Gisenyi

... steered by Jimmy who had otherwise been busy saying hi to a number of people, Echalotte joined me at the jeep to many tut tuts on my part. Nothing to do with it being Arsenal *most Rwandan cab drivers seem to side with Man U*, but just the choice of souvenir :)<br><br>The next stop was the clothes market...which frankly we could have done without visiting though being a girl I was to be seen trying on shorts over my trousers. To no avail, but I did try to partake of the offer ...

... 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 ...

... only one silverback, and he is the first one we see, and the last one at the end of our hour visit. He poses obligingly for many photographs, and finally turns and walks into the jungle. Such power and majesty, I couldn't help but get misty-eyed to think how fortunate I am to have seen this endangered species so close in the wild. There are only 380 or so in this three country area (Uganda, Rwanda, Congo), and only ...

... laughing like it was funny. For them death is just a part of life. For Baracka he saw friends as also being your worst enemy because when times were difficult it was your best friends that would have to kill you or be killed themselves. Seems like such a strange and lonely way to live not being able to be close to anyone and living in fear. Took a shower from a bucket of water in a shed which was a challenge. They had put the generator on so I could have light but the ...

... 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 ...

... 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 ...

... 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 ...