Rwanda Visit: Part Two

As I mentioned in my previous post, the main reason I took a trip to Rwanda last weekend was to visit a friend and see Lake Kivu. It was quite a different experience from traveling with 50 other people (which I"ll be doing in 2 weeks). I flew, which shortens a 12-15 hour drive to a 45 minute flight, and the picture to the left is of our take-off over Lake Victoria. I realized I have rarely taken off or landed during daylight in Uganda so it was nice to see the lake as the sun came up.

I stayed in Gitarama for one night, which is about an hour outside of Kigali. My second day Christi and I took the windy road to Kibuye on the lake. In the picture below I was trying to capture the twists and turns of the road but it doesn't quite do it justice- lets just say the motion sickness medication was very tested.

We stayed at a Catholic guest house right on the lake which had amazing views and surprisingly good food. Our first morning we had crepes and giant fruit bowls. The picture of Christi with our breakfast is a great moment- sitting on the terrace, with good food and looking forward to a fun day.

Lake Kivu is on the border between Rwanda and Congo. Not sure if you can actually see Congo in this photo, but it is in that general direction. Rwanda is often called the Land of a Thousand Hills and it is very obvious why from any point around the lake.

One activity we did was go on a boat ride to an island about 30 minutes out. As you can see below- safety first! It was a pleasant cruise and stop on Amahoro Island.

It was a great weekend of catching up, seeing a new place and feeling refreshed. It was good timing before the busy month ahead of final classes and meetings then 2 weeks of travel with the students.

One funny aspect of the island we visited was this old playground ride positioned in the water. We were skeptical but after some encouragement climbed on and were pushed in a circle over the lake. I had to take a picture as we pulled out of the contrast between the odd and the beautiful, which sums up a lot of what is enjoyable about traveling to new places.