Kigali, Rwanda: Motorcycle Taxi Rides

Eeeeeeep, I'm finally back online!!! So sorry to anyone who may have been concerned that I was dead or missing, given I've been in a remote village in Uganda for 2 weeks without internet - and therefore, unable to post my blog. Or check messages. Or really do anything that involves any kind of technology. And for anyone who wasn't concerned - fine, be that way.

So apologies for the (longest) gap ever in blog posts!! For the first few internet-less days, I completely panicked.  But after awhile, you get used to it. And now I'm so far behind that I hope I remember enough to even do this blog post justice.  This just means I'm allowed some leeway here. 

Anyhow, back to the regularly scheduled programming.  Before my two weeks in Uganda (no WiFi land), I spent a couple days in Kigali, Rwanda. J. Rich was with me for the first day, but then headed home from there (ending our safari adventures - wahhh) - whereas I had to putz around for three days waiting for an appointment at the U.S. Embassy in Kigali to add pages to my passport (which they're not doing anymore starting this year! PANIC).  Therefore, I really got to take things slow and see the city on my own timeline, which was really nice to do.  This means I woke up every day 5 minutes before the hostel breakfast ended and zipped around everywhere on motorbike taxis (NEW FAVE). 

What It's All About:

Kigali is the capital city of Rwanda, and it is absolutely stunning. First off, the first thing you notice about Rwanda is that it doesn't feel like the rest of Africa (or it was definitely a change for us from Tanzania, anyway). Kigali, especially, feels incredibly Western - you'll see the ladies in traditional dress, but you'll also see just as many in fashionable Western clothes. The infrastructure looks just like some cities in the U.S. - clean sidewalks, manicured gardens outside buildings, air-conditioned restaurants - and if you think I'm weird, these things are pretty rare in other parts of Africa. 

Kigali, Rwanda!

Kigali is located in the middle of a ton of rolling hills and valleys - which means there's basically a scenic view everywhere you look. Things here are also pretty expensive (for Africa), as most everything is imported. The people were incredibly nice as well. Rwanda surprised me - I really liked it, and it was nothing like I'd expected.

Cliffnotes of the Day:

• J. Rich and I spent his last day getting our bearings in Kigali - we explored shopping centers and supermarkets, and took the afternoon to visit the Genocide Museum.

Panoramic view of Kigali from our hotel breakfast

• And then the Rwandan Genocide Museum.  Rwanda is another one of those countries whose name I heard a lot as a child, because bad things were happening here. None of which I could have explained before visiting this country, or before I visited Kigali's Genocide Museum.  As the quickest cliffnotes summary I can provide: basically in the 90's, there was escalating tension between the two main ethnic groups in Rwanda - the Hutus and the Tutsis (though the division of these two groups was initially instigated by the Belgianss and Germans, but that's neither here nor there). The Hutus were the majority, but the Tutsis composed the majority of the ruling party. Until the mid-90s, when the Rwandan leading party began a propaganda war against the Tutsis - it climaxed one Spring night in 1994, when all the Hutus were basically instructed to kill all the Tutsis. The military locked down the country and started systematically executing all the Tutsis. Neighbors turned on neighbors, friends on friends, colleagues, families - the works. Tutsis fled to churches and community centers, believing they would be kept safe there - but instead, most of these places turned into locations of mass slaughter. Mass quantities of people were machete'd to death, including babies, children, and even Hutus that sympathized with the Tutsis.  This went on for a couple of months and by the end, about a million people had been killed - almost 70% of all Tutsis, and 1/5 of Rwanda's total population. HOW CRAZY IS THAT. These things always blow my mind; especially the ones that happened so recently.  It's crazy to think they can happen at all.

Some of the memorial gardens outside the Genocide Museum

Another Kigali view at dusk

• Post J. Rich's departure, I spent the next day on a neighborhood walking tour of one of Kigali's most happening neighborhoods, called Nyamirambo. It used to be kind of sketch, but is now one of the fastest-growing, vibrant, and fastest-changing in the city. There are daily walking tours offered by the local women's center, who take you on a tour that lets you glimpse daily life for those who live here.

First item of business - hiring a motorbike taxi!! These things are everywhere, are incredibly cheap (about $1 to get to most places in the city), and are super exhilarating on Kigali's super hill-y roads. And the driver always has an extra helmet for you! How cute is that. I'm obsessed with these. I think I took 5 of them in a day.

First stop on the walking tour - the local library. Which happened to also be hosting a weaving demonstration.

Then we visited a hair salon. There's zillions of styles to choose from. Zillions.

My favorite part of the men's barber shop was that you could choose to look like Prince William with a mohawk. Amazing. Photoshop skillz, y'all. 

Here is a beautiful scenic overlook of Kigali from Nyamirambo

And then our tour guide's cousin's tiny child saw him on the road and came over with his friends. They loved posing for photos. And some of them demanded gum. 

The outskirts of the local market. Secondhand clothing is a huge thing here. They literally have street auctions where men hold up an item of clothing and sell it at lightning speed to the crowd of onlookers.

And then we watched a local woman beat cassava into a pulpy mess. 

More Nyamirambo views

And then we went to a local woman's house and ate local food for lunch

I can't name any of these but they were all super, super delicious. One of the dishes involved the previously-seen cassava plant being beaten into a mess.

Moment of the Day:

Two nominations today. The first - J. Rich and I were walking along the road one night when he accidentally snapped his flip-flop strap. A nearby man saw what had happened and pointed us to a nearby store, which he said had super glue.  He actually walked into the store ahead of us and located the super glue, then him and another random man took J. Rich's flip-flop and performed surgery on it for him. They actually even took the time to wipe off the excess glue and make it look nice. After we thanked them profusely, both just walked off into the street and disappeared on their own ways - no expectation of any kind of recognition or tip or anything. It was the nicest thing ever.

Second Moment of the Day - riding our first moto taxi in the evening - something about the wind whipping past you and going up and down Kigali's hills while seeing the twinkling lights of the city down below you - add on the fact that the ride only costs $1, and the entire moment is one of the most magical experiences ever.  I would seriously pay just to ride a moto taxi around Kigali in circles - the fact that you get to actually get to a destination on top of the ride is totally above and beyond. 

Fun Facts of the Day:

• The Rwandan government is super encouraging for young people to start businesses - this is because there were a ton of orphaned children after the genocide. These were children with no parents and a lack of guidance. Therefore, you see lots of young people today hustling their own businesses on the street - it's really, really great to see.
• The language spoken in Rwanda is called Kinyarwanda (very confusing, as I thought it was called "Kenya-Rwanda and was wondering why they speak Swahili in Kenya). We learned a couple phrases on our tour - and the craziest thing is, the literal translation for all the greetings are super-depressing. Like "Hello" means something like "So did you survive the night?", so you're supposed to answer "Yes", or "Yego."  And "see you later" means something like "hope you don't die before I see you again."  Ok, I'm definitely paraphrasing for some of these but the point is, it's crazy.

Next up, I head into the middle of nowhere in Uganda to volunteer with kids! Bye, Kigali!

Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda: TRACKING MOUNTAIN GORILLAS

The grand finale of our Africa trip was *drumroll*.......gorilla trekking in Rwanda!  

As an overview: mountain gorillas are super endangered and the only place you can see them is in their natural habitat in the wild - which only exists in the rainforests of Rwanda/Uganda/Congo. Mountain gorillas are different from the land gorillas you see in zoos - they can't live in captivity at all.  The latest count shows there are only about 880 mountain gorillas left in the entire world.

In Rwanda, the part of the rainforest where these gorillas live is called Volcanoes National Park. You can secure a permit through the park and then hire a guide that tracks where the gorillas are, then leads you through the forest to see them. The money you spend on gorilla trekking goes towards their conservation (which is why the gorillas are being tracked in the first place), and the process is very tightly controlled by the national parks (limited # of permits, high cost, small groups, etc.) in order to not overwhelm the gorillas and minimize excess human contact.

Hanging out with mountain gorillas!

Gorilla trekking allows you the chance to see the mountain gorillas super up close and personal - they're gentle and non-aggressive, and getting to be so close to them is completely awe-inspiring.  I'd heard about gorilla trekking through my sister and brother-in-law, who had done it a few years back. Everyone I've talked to since who's done it has raved about the experience - getting to see these beautiful, rare animals up close and spend time with them in the wild is truly once-in-a-lifetime.


Cliffnotes of the Day:

• Flew from Zanzibar to Kigali, Rwanda - we were picked up by a guide and driven the 2.5 hours to Volcanoes National Park.

• The next morning, we headed to the entrance of Volcanoes National Park to secure our permits. There are 10 separate families/groups of mountain gorillas you can track - each is its own unit, and you get assigned in groups of eight people to track a specific family. J. Rich and I got assigned to the Sabyinyo gorilla family - a group of 16 gorillas, which also has the largest dominant male of all the groups. 

Our entrance to the park started with traditional dancers and drummers

• After getting our permits, we took the world's bumpiest road to the start of the rainforest. 

And along the world's bumpiest road were TONS of children who ran out of their houses and chased all the trekking SUVs shouting "Hello!" and waving like crazy. It was seriously the cutest.

Need someone to prevent me from taking some of these children home with me

"HELLO!!"  It was like being on a parade float. Miss America wave, commence.

• Then you get to the edge of the rainforest to begin your hike. I can't even describe the hike - it's the craziest thing ever. The mountain gorillas move every day so you don't really know where they are, and you have to hike different distances and routes every day depending on where the family has moved to.  Our guides were in constant contact with the gorilla trackers via walkie-talkie to determine where to go, but because the location changes every day, there isn't really a set path to hike along. Which means that in some parts, you're literally fighting your way through crazy dense jungle undergrowth and the guide is hacking at plants and trees and branches with his machete, or you're wading through crazy deep mud pits and focused on not falling down. 

Starting our hike

Gorilla-themed walking sticks in hand

Entering jungle

We had a porter named Sam who was assigned to only me and J. Rich, which basically means he helped make sure we didn't eat it.  And by "we," I mean just me. 

Oh, just going rogue and scaling random dense undergrowth

• Two-and-a-half hours later, everyone paused as our guide stopped and started yammering on his walkie-talkie - we were near the gorillas!  Here, we left our stuff with the porters and secondary guides, and then really hacked our way through ridiculous jungle growth and forged paths that were definitely not paths.  And then: GORILLAS.

Oh you know, just a gorilla.

LOOK HOW CLOSE WE WERE

To be honest, the gorillas didn't really feign any interest in us. They would glance over, be like "meh," and then resume whatever they were doing. Which seemed to mostly be chilling.

• One of the best parts: there were three baby gorillas!  Ok technically, they're juvenile gorillas - but at this age, all they like to do is wrestle and play. NON-STOP. They literally spend the entire time wrestling with each other, and running around, and just basically being as cute as possible. #lifegoals

Oh my god, only the world's cutest baby mountain gorilla ever. Notice the other two wrestling in the background.

LOOK AT HIS FACE. I have to apologize for the quality because iPhones are the worst at capturing motion, and J. Rich's fancy camera had decided to malfunction, because electronics seem to know when you need them the most.

Three baby gorillas. I love how one is just randomly chewing on a branch.

Noms. It was hilarious because the juveniles would take a break from wrestling for a brief moment and separate. And then out of nowhere, one would randomly just run up to another and wallop him in the face, and the entire wrestling saga would resume

And then this guy came barreling through. He's the brother of the dominant male, and is well-known because for some inexplicable reason, he is bald. He basically came bulldozing straight towards us, and we froze and asked the guide what to do, and he went, "Um. Move."  So we hurriedly shuffled out of his way and he strode right by us like we didn't exist.

This gorilla got tired of us staring at it so it turned its back on us. Totally on your page, gorilla.

And then a mom gorilla with a baby gorilla on her back came walking through!

• I just tried for way too long to try and upload a video to show you how adorable the gorillas were, but I can't figure it out and now I'm quitting. But putting this in, just so you know the effort was there.
• You get to spend an hour with the gorillas, which flew by - at the end, however, it started to steadily rain. From there on, the rain only intensified. This made the hike back ten times more ridiculous than the hike there.  Our previous tiny muddy trails turned into complete rivers and muck and within an hour, all of our waterproof rain boots were completely soaked through with squishy mud. I basically had a death grip on Sam (our porter)'s hand the entire hike back.  There were points where I was standing in thick, swampy mud up to my knees.  After what seemed like hours, we did finally survive and make it back to the cars.  Everything was soaked. This may include my passport. Oops.  I was squishing brown water out of all my items of clothing the rest of the day.

Sam, our life-saving porter, and us post-trek. Sam looks the way we feel on the inside.

Hiking boots post-hike. Believe it or not, a day earlier, my hiking boots had been brand-new and adorable and pink. But now they look baller, like I trek through swamplands on the reg, so no complaints from me.

Saying good-bye to the beautiful rain-soaked views of Volcanoes National Park

• One hot (incredibly glorious, life-changing) shower later, J. Rich and I headed an hour and a half away by car to Lake Kivu, a huge beautiful lake in the Western part of Rwanda, to recuperate for a night before heading back to Kigali.

Beautiful drive views

Along the way, you see a million locals carrying varying impressive items on their heads

And here is Lake Kivu!  There's all these tiny islands you can boat out to

Toasting to the end of an amazing day

Next morning breakfast - I could get used to these views

We spent the morning/afternoon sunning next to the gorgeous lake. Perfect.

 A delicious local meal - the bread was like mochi (very chewy and delicious), and the sauce was like bolognese sauce packed with veggies and meat. In my true fail form, I've forgotten the name of this dish.

• Overall, an amazing, amazing experience to get to see the gorillas - it shocks you how human-like they are, and the entire experience was incredibly surreal. I had to convince myself they weren't fake, or people in gorilla suits - just because it was so crazy having them so close and being able to see every expression in their intelligent, shiny eyes and complex faces. SO. FREAKING. NEAT.

Fun (Gorilla!) Facts of the Day:

• Baby mountain gorillas are babies up until the age of 3.5 - until this, they are carried by their mothers, typically under their armpit. Love this visual.
• Juvenile mountain gorillas range in age from 3.5 to 6 years old - this is the most playful stage of their life.
• Gorillas eat a lot of plants that contain water (including bamboo and thistle), which composes a lot of their water source.
• Mountain gorillas are called silverbacks when the males reach adulthood and develop a silver stripe down their back.  And they average around 400+ lbs!
• People don't typically hunt mountain gorillas, but they became endangered due to deforestation and because they often get caught in traps intended for other animals (that people do want to trap and eat).
• Happily, mountain gorilla numbers have increased recently due to the super-intense conservation efforts: but they still remain very endangered.
• Sorry not sorry for overwhelming you with gorilla facts. They were beautiful and I loved them.