Start of the road trip in an art gallery

For the next eight days we would be doing something we had been looking forward to do for several weeks already. We rented a car (not a camper) to explore more of Rwanda. We had also both shifted our work schedules around, which meant that we'd have one and a half weekdays free for explorations as well, with no work scheduled then.

I had done a bit of research into reputable rental car agencies and ended up with the best one, at least judging from the reviews. I had agreed with the agency to deliver the car to our Airbnb at 8am, as we wanted to go and visit an urban art gallery in the morning before heading on a 5h drive with heading southwest to visit a large rainforest National Park.

Eventually, with more than an hour of delay, the car was delivered, and we were already super impatient. The delivery driver had apparently not been briefed, as he expected cash payment in USD. I had to call the agency again and tell them that I don't have cash, and that we had agreed on a payment by card. We were running late, so I rejected the owner Frank's invitation to come to the head office and pay by card there. Instead, I told him he had 15min to send someone with a card terminal to the art gallery, and from there we would depart at once.

We went to the gallery and marveled at the displayed art, several of the pieces really spoke to me. Unfortunately they were usually very large and cost 10 000 - 15 000 USD, haha. It did give us a good opportunity to do an intense dive into the Kigali art scene, which is quite developed.

While we were there an agency guy showed up with the payment terminal, and I was able to pay as planned. I pointed out to the guy that several check engine lights in the car were on and that I didn't appreciate that the car seemed stuck in 4WD, but I was reassured that this is normal on these imported cars and that they were no reason to worry. A bit of a red flag there, but I decided to roll with it, seeing how we were almost 2h behind our intended schedule.Read more