Ruanda
Nyarugenge District

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    • Día 6

      Mongoose and markets

      5 de julio de 2017, Ruanda ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

      This morning we had a game drive before breakfast, to try and see some of the nocturnal animals as they return home. Coffee was served at 5.15am and we were off in the dark at 5.30am.

      We spotted hyena in the distance and were pleasantly surprised when they headed towards us to check us out. The plains were teeming this morning with all sorts of antelope, buffalo, zebra and bird life (for the twitchers, the highlight this morning was a lilac breasted roller). The unexpected find was a family of mongoose we watched darting around the grass.

      We arrived back at camp at 9.00am for breakfast, then left the park by the northern gate for the trip back to Kigali. There is no road diect to Kigali from the northern end of the park, so we drove back to Kayonza, dropped off our National Park guide Herman, and continued on to Kigali for lunch (buffet at an Italian restaurant)

      We checked in at the hotel, had an hour to have a shower, and was ready to go to the markets for our first shopping opportunity (Oliver first had to meet Justifiee, a friend of the hotel receptionist, who is sewing up a dress and skirt for her from a local fabric).

      The market area of town was very busy, mostly with locals as there are are relatively few tourists around. All the shops sell the same range of products aimed at tourists, and bartering isn't done with much vigour - they will generally only take 1000 francs (approx $1.60) off the starting price - so the negotiations are over quickly. Our tour leader Aloys took us to a number of different shops and each shopping centre had metal detectors and bag searches at the entrance, which took a little longer the more everyone bought!

      Tea tonight was a banquet at Republic, including chilli coconut fish, goat stew, fried plantain, garlic potatoes and ginger rice.

      Some of the ladies wanted to return to the market to buy some more fabric, so one vehicle went back into the centre of town. The streets were still busy, but unfortunately most if the shops were closed, so no purchases were made.

      Back to the hotel at 10.30pm.

      Stayed: Heaven Boutique Hotel Chalet
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    • Día 3

      Getting acclimatised

      25 de mayo de 2018, Ruanda ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

      A day in Kigali, no proper cycling today although we did set the bikes up and have a little ride out - the cobbles certainly have a way of checking all is tightened well - it wasn't, but is now - hopefully!

      After we took a trip into Kigali, starting with the genoide memorial. Difficult to fully describe, over 250,000 people are interned there, no words really suffice. 24 years on and it's still raw. We came to Rwanda for a night in 1996 and looking back I don't think I understood the full magnitude of what had happened.

      After a great lunch at the Ubunwe Grande Hotel with amazing views over Kigali, it was a spot of shopping- African style ! Great fun and great people. Have to say we avoided the ‘clean meat place’ - so no Sunday roast I am afraid!

      Tonight had a talk by an amazing visionary who was behind the project to replace Burundian cows with friesian cows that produce loads more milk, lifting families out of poverty. His latest project is to produce organic stevia- a natural sugar substitute- and giving the producers free chicks to fertilise the land, a brilliant but simple idea. Lots of opposition from sugar producers and GM stevia seed manufacturers, but he is persevering and succeeding! Tomorrow we cycle!

      Psalm 67 1-2
      May God be gracious to us and bless us
      and make his face shine on us—
      so that your ways may be known on earth
      your salvation among all nations.
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    • Día 2

      Touchdown in Rwanda

      24 de mayo de 2018, Ruanda ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

      Arrived! And the bike's here also! Safely at the Scripture Union guest house rooming with Simon.
      Bike built and ready to go - except that my tiredness and diet of airplane food probably isn't condusive to any sort of exercise, let alone riding.
      Rwanda is really full of hills! On way here came down a 1:4 cobbled Street - thankfully don't think we're cycling that one.
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    • Día 3

      Doha to Heaven,via Entebbe

      2 de julio de 2017, Ruanda ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

      Wake up time was 4.20am for a 5am departure to the airport. The roads are busy already and the overnight construction is still going on - most construction during summer happens at night because of the heat.

      Our flight to Kigali was via Entebbe, Uganda, where we stayed on the plane for an hour while they cleaned around us. The jump from Entebbe to Kigali was the shortest international flight we've been on, 30 minutes. Fortunately for the hosties there were only about 50 people on the flight so they had time to rush some food around before we landed.

      On arrival in Kigali we were met at the plane door by a very welcoming airport staff member who checked our boarding passes (yes, on the way off the plane!), then escorted us across the tarmac to the terminal. First queue was to pay the the entry visa, which we were told had to be paid in cash, US dollars only, but they now also accept credit cards, which slowed things down a bit. Passport control was also high tech, with electronic finger printing done, in addition to taking our photo.

      We were met outside by our drivers for the next 2 weeks, and had a 20 minute drive to our hotel (some road line-marking slowed the traffic to a crawl at one stage while they were hand painting one lane of the zebra crossings)

      Rwanda is known as "the land of 1000 hills", and is one of the most densely populated countries in Africa, with a population of 12 million people in a country one tenth the size of Victoria. The capital Kigali is built around several ridges and valleys, so the distance as the crow flies is not large, but navigating the hills takes some time - and plenty of hill starts! Armed Police or army personnel man most of the major intersections throughout the city 24 hours a day, as a general deterrent, and Kigali is widely regarded as the safest capital city in Africa.

      Dinner tonight was at a rooftop restaurant with a spectacular view over Kigali. Goat cutlets and a Mutzig (local) beer for me, poached line fish and a Tusker (Kenyan) beer for Oliver.

      Stayed: Heaven Boutique Hotel
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    • Día 16

      Hotel Rwanda

      15 de julio de 2017, Ruanda ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

      Our last morning in the volcanoes region, breakfast was 8.30 and we chose the "active cooking" option (omlette cooked while you wait).

      The drive back to Kigali is only 80km, but the winding roads and number of hills makes it a multi hour trip, especially when you throw in souvenir stops!

      We departed Kinigi at 9.40am, had a lengthy stop at the local souvenir market, then a stop in Musanze for water. The town was festooned with red, white and blue, the colours of the president's party, RPF - the general election is on August 4 and the current president, Paul Kagame, was due to visit the region this weekend. As part of his election campaign, he offered free petrol to all moto taxis, so there was quite a queue at the local servo.

      We made a stop at the halfway point for some supplies of banana wines and to sample some bbq'd maize.

      We arrived in Kigali at 2.30pm and headed straight to the Hotel des Mille Collines - the "Hotel Rwanda", as depicted in the movie. Lunch was under the verandah near the pool (NY Club sandwich for me, chicken burger for Oliver).

      After we settled into our room, we went for a quick shopping expedition. While we waited for the drivers, we looked for the cache in the hotel car park. It didn't take long with 6 sets if eyes looking! (for the record, muggle Vaal found it)

      Shopping was at a craft market for last minute souvenirs , then the supermarket for food supplies. Tea was in the hotel's outdoor restaurant (pork chops, Nile perch).

      Stayed: Hotel des Mille Collines
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    • Día 38

      Rwanda!

      8 de febrero de 2016, Ruanda ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

      We're in Rwanda! Kigali to be exact! We treated ourselves - I'm writing this blog while laying in bed, eating my first chocolate bar since I've arrived, and drinking from our mini wine bottle. Simple pleasures.

      To save on the details, we took a boda-boda for 10 minutes, a minibus for 2.5 hours, another minibus for 3 hours, a shared taxi for 30 minutes to the border, and this same shared taxi for another 2.5 hours. And done!

      As you'll notice in the photos, the first bus stop we were dropped at this morning was very official. Obviously they pack the minibuses very well - 12 official seats, with up to 23 people in them at any given time.

      Timing was flawless though, we'd get off and there was another bus leaving... And we scored big time with the last shared taxi! For the same price as what our book was telling us it would cost for a ride to Kigali after crossing the border, this taxi picked us up in Kabale, brought us to the border, where we all crossed by foot, then picked us up and we drove into Kigali. And this time, unlike the one on the island, Jack and I shared the back row of the car with one person, one seat per person! Luxury!

      The border was hilarious. A wooden gate lifted by a person to let the car in, which pulled over to the side to let us out. We all go in line at the exiting Uganda office, where we filled out an exit card, got a stamp, and were told to go on. We had our east Africa visa so no charge for us. We then walk about 6 minutes on a dirt road surrounded by construction trucks over to the Gatuna Immigration office. We hand over our passports, simple questions, thumb print and photo and that's it. We walk back to the car, they looked through our bags really quickly, and off we go to Kigali!

      We've been told by many travellers that Kigali was something special! It was organized, and clean, and welcoming. I was expecting to be wow'd. Meh. It was hot, we decided to walk up to town from the bus station, which even the book says you need "gorilla legs" if you decide to walk it instead of taking public transportation. I do not have gorilla legs. But we made it! One soaked freshly washed t-shirt later we were at the top of the hill! We asked about 5 different people where this central roundabout was called Place de l'unité Nationale. We were pointed in all kinds of directions. Turns out, if Rwandans don't know where something is, they point somewhere anyway.

      A 3km walk took 2 hours. And at this point, with all the transportation, my last meal was an egg and chapati at 10am. It's now 5pm and we've just dropped our bags off at our room. I'm hungry! FYI our lonely planet map blows for this town, nothing makes sense on it. Restaurants aren't where they should be. Roads entirely are missing or just wrong... It was so frustrating.

      The town appears at times just as disorganized and chaotic as any other city we've seen, and at other times there's street names displayed, actual roundabouts, street lighting, well manicured landscaping along the streets all making it appear organized.

      Our home for the night - a nuns convent! We're room A1, that means the very first room after passing the group of nuns sitting at a table reviewing the Bible together. How perfect! It's the cheapest place in town, and quite the ambiance! Once we got back to our room in the evening after diner, we could hear their choir practising, seranating us!

      I got to call my mom from a coffee shop today, best Wi-Fi we've had yet! Felt nice to hear her voice. Jack was asking me the other day if I missed anything from home, I told her I didn't miss anything at all, just people. My friends, my family, being surrounded by people I love and I know love me... A month into this trip, and I don't miss any foods, or my bed, or my shower or clothes, just my people.
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    • Día 40

      Kigali. Confusing Kigali.

      10 de febrero de 2016, Ruanda ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

      Apparently our really long and confusing walk from our first day arriving in Kigali was not enough to teach us a lesson. We started off our first morning here thinking we could walk to the Kigali Genocide Memorial. We set out, following our lonely planet book we were 2km away... We asked about 5-6 different people along the way all pointing to different directions. Even the motorcycle taxi men had difficulty telling us where it was... After an hour of walking, we gave up and took a moto-taxi. Turns out we were in the right district, maybe 4 blocks away. But with all the hills and wavy turns, we wouldn't have found it alone.

      The memorial was an incredibly emotional and eye opening experience. We spent over 3 hours here reading their displays, seeing their photos, hearing their video testimonies. 1,000,000 people dead in 100 days. Their neighbours, the same people with whom their kids played the day before, were now the ones murdering their family before their eyes. I learnt a great deal. Now, everyone I cross on the street who's 27 years old and up, I wonder what have they seen? 1994 was not that long ago, I was 6. I would remember too if my family was killed all around me. What these people have seen, I can't imagine. Before leaving I was asked to write a message of my experience. I responded "I find it incredibly overwhelming to think of a message to write on a piece of paper right now...", and the man responded "that's perfect, write that". So I did.

      Our afternoon was lighter, spent looking at 3 different art galleries. We've now learnt no walking, so we motor taxi'd to the first and walk to the others (google map helped with that). Jack was in heaven! Unlike me, she grew up going to art galleries and art shows, learning about all these great artists and techniques. She's in her world when she's surrounded by art, and she loved every bit of our afternoon.

      Another moto-taxi and we're at Hotel Des Milles Collines, or as some of you know it, Hotel Rwanda (the movie?). This is where the Belgian owner decided to stay with his family instead of fleeing, taking in Tutsi and moderate Hutu people. We read this was the place to have a drink, but it was empty. We used their maps and reception staff for directions before heading out. Beautiful hotel, we'll kept, metal detector to get in and everything, fancy!

      Interesting that the book mentions this hotel as a memorable place post genocide. This entire city is a walking memorial. The church in which we're staying, St Famille Church, housed and protected over 2000 people! Not mentioned in the book. The way we see it, Hotel des Milles Collines was recognized as a memorial because it was a white man who stayed to help, when he could have fled. Though this is honorable and note worthy, there are an incredible amount of places and people that deserve all the same recognition. Interestingly, as most would assume churches are always safe havens, there were many churches who's clergy actually betrayed the people they were told to protect. There are 2 more notable churches south of the city who, through information given by the clergy, became mass graves and mass killing sites, including grenades being thrown and people burning alive! Some of these are mentioned at the memorial centre, with pictures of nuns and priests being prosecuted for war crimes.

      We had originally thought that we would leave Kigali the next morning. But both Jack and I felt we hadn't done Kigali justice. I can't say I like this city yet, it's not walkable, I can't find anything, and no one seems to be able to help me with directions... All the buildings are well kept. Lawns are well manicured. There's traffic lights. Helmets for the moto-taxis. It is a very different city then what we've seen so far, and yet I can't say I'm attached or have any opinion formed yet... So we decided an extra day might give us a better opinion; be it a "turns out I love it" or "nope, I don't get it".

      Day 2
      Turns out, good decision! We managed to walk first to the Kamp Kigali Memorial, this time having researched the Google map ahead of time and following with my gps. It was here that 10 Belgian UN workers assigned to protect the prime minister were brought and killed, encouraging foreign troops to exit Rwanda. This was what started it all. Bullet wholes in the building, 32 years old was the oldest killed of the 10, again an emotional experience. There was these two posters, side by side, showing a very VERY simple way of looking at conditions that make for a genocide to be possible, and how to avoid genocide. I attached a photo as it resonated with me.

      We then made our way to another district called Nyamirambo, which was lively, and colourful, and full of little stores and restaurants and tons of bars. It's considered the Muslim area, but we rarely saw a veiled woman. I guess even in their area of town they're a minority. We got stared at all day, long prolonged mouth wide open stairs, but all out of what seemed like curiosity. I didn't feel judged, they were all really curious. Not too many yelled comments at all, very few "mzungu"s.

      We did a version of a day time pub crawl, walked for a bit, sat and shared a beer, and repeat. We wanted to be in this part of town of the night life so we knew we had all day here. 8 hours we spent in about 5km of town. Thanks to my gps on my phone, we didn't get lost. Didn't need a moto-taxi. It was a great and satisfying day, capped off with a shisha bar before bed... At 830pm. Yes, we set out to spend a night on the town in one of the liveliest places in Rwanda, and we were laying in bed by 830pm. In our defence, we went back an hour when we walked across the border from Uganda, so for us it felt like 930pm! Kigali, you've been alright.

      As for the people, we are pretty much left to our own devices. I can't figure out if it's just that they've seen plenty of white people considering they have a lot of NGOs and expects, or maybe they just don't care... It is rare that we get "hello" from anyone, even kids. No one asking for anything. The prices quoted to us are usually always fair. Even the motor taxis haven't tried to screw us over too much... Some speak a little French, some a little English, but still quite limited so we haven't had the chance to really have a conversation with anyone yet. They pretty much just keep to themselves, which leaves us to wonder uninterrupted.
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    • Día 26

      Day 26: Hotel Ruanda

      27 de febrero de 2019, Ruanda ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

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      Today I went on a day trip to one of the neighboring countries, Ruanda. Ruanda has a very sad history as in the 1990s as well as before that it had to experience genocide. The saddest thing is that most of us don’t even know about this genocide ever taking place ... at least I can’t remember anyone teaching me this in school. If you are interested I suggest you watch the movie “Hotel Ruanda” ... it’s a good movie which provides some insight into what has happened back then.
      Out of respect, I haven’t taken many pictures at the memorials ... it was a very emotional day with lots of tears.

      Apart from its history, Ruanda is a beautiful country. Very clean (plastic bags are illegal) and also quite developed in terms of infrastructure. I will come back one day for sure ...

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    • Día 3

      Musanza - on the bikes again

      11 de julio de 2017, Ruanda ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

      Eight of the group headed out of town for a six hour bike ride. Most were old mountain bikes from the mid 1990's but they did as required. After lots of 'good mornings' and high fives with the children we rode on dirt tracks to two different lakes with islands and beautiful outlooks. It appears that few tourists head through here as we were objects of interest when stopped or riding through villages. After a drink in a little cafe, a few bike stunts from James raised some cheers to keep the crowd happy. After crossing over the lake in a boat with the bikes, a short climb led to a stunning descent with cultivated fields and woodlands. The lung busting final ascent on the road bought us back into town for a well deserved cheese toasty with chips!Leer más

    • Día 5

      Brekkie

      20 de diciembre de 2022, Ruanda ⋅ ☁️ 68 °F

      The foliage is beautiful

    También podrías conocer este lugar por los siguientes nombres:

    Nyarugenge District, District de Nyarugenge, Akarere ka Nyarugenge

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