Land of one thousand hills.

Boarding time for our RwandAir flight started an hour before the flight.  While we were walking toward the gate from we heard our names over the loud speaker.  A bit strange as it was an hour before the flight. Lo and behold they boarded all of us early and efficiently and the plane departed 40 minutes  before schedule.

We arrived in the dark and what stood out were the lights from hordes of motorcycles resembling dirt bikes buzzing around and waiting in droves for the traffic signal.

*Click photos to enlarge. Click on blue words to see a video.

Rwanda is the third most densely populated country in the world.  A bit smaller than Maryland with approximately 13,700,000 inhabitants.

The country suffered mass genocide in 1994.  It lasted approximately 100 days and a million people were massacred.

Per Britannica (plus my snarky comment):  “The genocide was conceived by extremist elements of Rwanda’s majority Hutu population who planned to kill the minority Tutsi and anyone who opposed those genocidal intentions. It is estimated that some 200,000 Hutu, spurred on by propaganda from various media outlets (imagine that!!!) participated in the genocide. More than 800,000 civilians—primarily Tutsi, but also moderate Hutu—were killed during the campaign. As many as 2,000,000 Rwandans fled the country during or immediately after the genocide.”

Our driver, Kevin, said his family fled to Uganda during this time.  His family repatriated when he was 16.  He’s now 27 years old.   Their community in Uganda consisted of mostly Rwandans.

Rwanda is stunning!  Windy-turny roads, spotless clean, perfect sidewalks (even in mountain areas), no potholes,.  Trees line the streets in the capital.  Beyond is farmland and then jungle.

Poor Kevin must have heard me say “this is so beautiful” a thousand times.  One for each hill.

We spent time in Kigali, the capital.  It was safe to roam around anytime of the day.  Beautiful buildings interspersed with typical unattractive concrete structures.  Because the country is so well cared for those structures do not scream neglect like other third world countries.

We had a driver take us to the huge Kimironko market.  Jammed packed with local fresh food, home goods, hardware and miles of colorful fabric with seamstresses begging to sew you something.  If only we had room in our luggage!

While walking in Nyamirambo, the Muslim neighborhood, we decided to sit at the most popular restaurant for a bite to eat.  Restaurant row was closed to traffic and offered restaurant after restaurant to choose from.  All but one was empty – hawkers tried to lure us in. Of course we choose the restaurant with clientele.  Mucoco must have had 30 employees all wearing t-shirts with their roles embossed on their backs – waiter, cleaner, supervisor, and protocol.  Security people acted like concierges.  A hard working lady adorned in an abaya and hijab also served meals.  Sweat ran down the brow of workers with the rate of hustle serving everyone.  I had the thickest, creamiest, heart attack in a bowl – their version of chicken soup.  It was delicious with local hot garlic chili sauce on it.

** I wrote this a couple days ago and it just now dawned on me that the reason all the restaurants were empty was because it’s Ramadan.  Apparently, our restaurant was full of non-Muslims.

We traveled to Rwanda to see the gorillas.  The drive was three hours long and pure eye candy.  I wish we could have driven slower for all the photo opportunities.  Instead I upped the shutter speed and snapped away.

Not only does Rwanda’s have 1,000 hills it includes mountains and volcanoes.  In this area the three extinct volcanoes range from 12,000 to 15,000 feet. Interestingly when this part of Africa was carved up one volcano went to Uganda, one to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the other to Rwanda.

The single lane (one in each direction) road was used by huge 18 wheelers, cars, trucks, motorcyclists, bicyclists (ridden and used to carry heavy goods), walkers (carrying their wares on their shoulders or head), little children, goats, sheep and cows.  The roads are paved and in perfect shape.   Many areas had sidewalks, retaining walls, and street lights.

Did I mention how beautiful Rwanda is?

There’s not much wasted space in the country. Tiered hills with rich, dark, volcanic soil are either full of crops or ready for the next planting – weedy – where some men but mostly woman bent over 90 degrees hoeing. Corn season is over and hangs drying in large open air buildings.  Banana plants are prolific and potato plants are growing at various stages.

Homes range from concrete to mud huts and there are no signs of trash anywhere.

We spent the night before our trek in the mountains.  I chose a budget lodge .  The cost of the park permit to see the gorillas was $1500.00 each so we conserved.  It was great.  It reminded us so much of places we have stayed in China.

We were greeted with a glass of fresh squeezed juice and two plates of snacks and fruit.  We were handed a typed sheet of paper and a pen to choose what we wanted for dinner.  There were two choices plus lots of side dishes.

The room  was not attached to the lobby/restaurant.  It was huge (the whole place bigger than our tiny house) and sparse with stone floors and concrete walls surrounded by jungle – which equated to no sunlight which equaled a frigid room.  Lucky, there was a plug-in heater and closing the door to the cavernous bathroom helped the heater do its thing.  The innkeeper said it would take a minute or so for the water to warm in the shower.  That didn’t matter to us. There was no way we were getting naked in that cold room plus the towels were still damp from being laundered.  Bill and I hopped under the covers until dinner time.

We learned we were the only guests.  A coal burning pottery stove was placed beside our table and a candle provided ambience.   The dinner portion was fit for a king and the food was delicious.  We were embarrassed to hand back our plates with only a portion of the food eaten.

By the time we returned to our room the heater had made the space toasty and the staff had put hot water bottles between our sheets.

Up at 5:30 for our 6:00 pickup to head to the gorillas.

To be continued….