Rwanda 2010 – Days 1, 2, 3

Our trip to Rwanda started, for me, like almost every other Thursday: I got up to go to work. Unfortunately for me, this morning I had to shovel a couple inches of snow off the driveway before leaving for work. It only took 20 minutes or so, but still an auspicious start to the trip. As I mentioned in a previous blog, we were very worried about our flights in and out of London being cancelled. Thankfully British Air got close to a full working schedule as the week went on, and it appeared that our flights would be working – and on time.

Work for me was mostly taking care of loose ends before the holiday break, and I was on my way home around 2:15 pm. Sage took the entire day off to finish packing and getting organized, and we left the house at around 4:20 pm for the drive to Logan. This being a big shopping day, and considering we have to drive right by the Natick Mall (oh, excuse me – the Natick COLLECTION), we hit a bunch of traffic. Even so, we made it to our satellite parking lot a little past 5 pm. We checked in and confirmed our flight was operating (Hooray!). A young man was checking in next to us and said, “Please tell me I’m on this flight…my last 3 flights were all canceled”. So at least we weren’t THAT guy. Security was quick and easy (and Sage got her first body scan, for which she was very excited), and then we had a quick lunch at the Earl of Sandwich. (The name of which a young Englishman found so funny that he had to take a photo of it.) We boarded our full flight around 7:45 pm, but take off was a bit late at 8:45 pm, or 1:45 am London time. I was able to sleep off and on for about 3 or 4 hours, but Sage (who has an inability to sleep on planes) had no such luck and ended up watching Toy Story 3. When I woke up they served a snack for breakfast. Sage told me that I missed dinner after the plane left, but the woman in the window seat next to me got a beer, dinner, wine, and then coffee. But she never once had to use the bathroom the entire flight. Pretty impressive.

We circled Heathrow for only 15 minutes or so (which could be a record for us – normally it’s been 20-30 minutes), and we noticed snow all over the countryside. After deplaning onto buses that brought us to another part of Terminal 5, we went through another security checkpoint. Sage’s saline for her contacts was confiscated, as it was too big for England. So it appears that the liquid volume limits are different in the US than they are in the UK. How convenient. So after security Sage found a Boots to purchase some more. We found our gate around 9:05 am GMT for our 10:10 am flight. Unfortunately our flight was late arriving, so we didn’t board our flight to Nairobi until 10:45 am, and didn’t leave London until 11:20 pm – which was 2:20 pm Nairobi time. Sage’s day didn’t get any better, as the sound on her headphones was off and she couldn’t hear any of the movies. On top of that the woman in the window seat had to get up and use the bathroom about once an hour. I ended up watching Inception, then read and dozed for most of the 8 ½ hour flight. About halfway through the flight, as we were stretching our legs back near the galley, we looked out the window and saw our first glimpse of Africa! We believed it to be the shores of Libya on the Mediterranean Sea. Exciting nonetheless!

"...to the shores of Tripoli..."

Over 8 hours is long for any flight, and this one was no different. We landed at 10:30 pm local time, about an hour late. We got off the plane and went to Kenyan immigration. They had lines for Kenyan citizens, other African citizens, all other citizens, and then a line for those who needed to purchase a visa before entering. The visa line was huge, about 5 times longer than our line, and we smiled to ourselves about how smart we were, purchasing our visa ahead of time. But our forward thinking didn’t seem to help as our line did not move at all, while every other line, including the visa line, went by very fast. To top it off, whenever a different line got short, people working in Immigration would take the END of our line and tell them to go to a different one, which led them all to get through Immigration before us. We must have been there for over 40 minutes waiting to get processed, and by the end we were one of the last ones to get through. (Immigration consisted of them taking fingerprints and photos of us – who knew that Kenya had such strict immigration controls.) After collecting our bag we found our driver carrying a sign (“DOUGX02” it read), and he introduced himself as George. He ended up being a great guy, and drove us the 30 minutes or so to our hotel for the night, the Fairview. We couldn’t see much on the drive to the hotel, but if I didn’t know any better I would have said we were on Rt. 1 north of Boston. The area was industrial, with car dealerships, businesses, and storefronts. We arrived around 11:45 pm on Christmas Eve, checked in, and found our room. It was clean and modest, and organized ourselves a little bit before retiring to bed, setting our alarm for 6 am.

Unfortunately we both woke up at 4 am and neither of us could fall back asleep. We headed down to our Christmas breakfast around 6:30 am. The Fairview put on a great spread, with all sorts of breakfast buffet items, a wonderful juice bar, and of course some fabulous coffee. We had time to look around the Fairview some, and it felt like a small oasis in the middle of the big city. The landscaping was incredible, the buildings felt like something out of Bourbon St. in New Orleans, and they had a pool area that I felt like I could spend all day at. But we only had a few minutes before George showed up to take us back to the airport. On our way back to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport we saw some of the city, including downtown Nairobi. Nairobi is one of the 3 largest cities in Africa, home to over 3.5 million people. Even on Christmas morning many of the locals were out and about, waiting for transport, or simply milling about. In the daylight I could finally see what I couldn’t see the night before: Lots of trash along the roads, run-down apartments, and lots of smog. Closer to the airport there was a large grassy area that was free of buildings and surrounded by a fence. George told us that sometimes we could see zebras or giraffes in that area, and sure enough, way off in the distance we spied a couple giraffe necks! They were too far to get any sort of photo, but pretty awesome all the same.

At the airport we bid George farewell and a Merry Christmas and entered the airport. The Nairobi airport had an interesting setup in that the very first thing we had to do upon entering the airport was to go through security: A metal detector, they scanned our bags, etc. We then checked in at the counter, checked our bags, and got our seat assignments. Sage got worried because on this flight, which wasn’t a REALLY small plane but sort of small (only 4 seats across each aisle), they required that carry-on bags be no more than 10 kgs. The carry-on we had brought with us on the first 2 flights (which had hiking boots and clothes for the first 2 days) was 12 kgs, and she made us check it. I didn’t think it was a big deal, as it was a quick flight from Nairobi to Kigali (via Bujumbura in Burundi) and they should arrive with no problems. After going through immigration once again, we walked to the departure gates. The Nairobi airport is really small, kind of surprising for such a large city. There were only about 12 gates total, and interspersed through them were plenty of duty-free shops, liquor stores, smoke shops and candy stores. Being a couple hours early we walked the departure area several times. On one of our trips we noticed something on the ground. It was about the size of a person’s fist, and appeared to be moving a little bit. Sage thought it was a frog. We looked a little closer…oh, it’s not a frog. It’s a bat. Yep…in the airport, a live bat sitting on the ground. Although, I’m not sure what freaked me out more: seeing the bat as we walked by it, or NOT seeing it when we came back 10 minutes later. Did it get picked up by the cleaning crew? Or fly away, waiting to pounce on my neck at some other moment? Yeah, I was ready to get out of Nairobi.

We had a long wait at the gate, so we read and people watched. (I did see a father and two of his sons waiting with us, all 3 wearing Arsenal jerseys. Sage can’t get away from the Gunners!) Once the gate opened we had to go through another security check, with metal detectors and bag x-rays, and then we boarded the plane. We left on time, which was a first for our flights on this trip. After takeoff we flew over the Masai Mara, the Serengeti, and Lake Victoria on our way to Bujumbura, but with cloud cover we couldn’t see too much. The airport in Bujumbura was extremely small – it almost looked like a private airport you’d find in a small town. I was surprised that half the plane departed in Burundi, and even less got on for the flight to Kigali, Rwanda. After only a 45 minute layover, we departed for the short flight (only 30 minutes) to Kigali. We arrived at Kigali 30 minutes early, and if I thought Bujumbura was a small airport, Kigali looked even smaller! How small? When we parked on the airstrip to disembark, I noticed that they brought a farm tractor, pulling a wagon, to unload our bags.

Immigration at Rwanda was one of the most welcoming and pleasant experiences we’ve ever had entering a country. The official was smiling and friendly and even gave us a holiday card, wishing us a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! All our bags made it in one piece, which led Sage to breathe a huge sigh of relief. After going through Customs we found our driver/guide for the first part of our Rwandan trip, Mr. Francis. (Once again holding up a sign that said “DOUGX02”. I wanted to start calling myself Doug X, but Sage advised against it.) Francis was hired by our tour group, Baobab Expeditions, although I think technically he worked for Volcanoes Safaris, which is the company that owns the place we were staying, Virunga Lodge. He told us that before heading to Virunga Lodge we’d be stopping by a downtown hotel to pick up 3 other passengers who were also staying at the Lodge. They had come in the night before and were staying at the Serena Hotel. The drive took about 25 minutes, and Francis pointed out a few of the sites of Kigali along the way. My first impressions of Kigali were these: It was busy; it was clean; and it seemed to be built exclusively on hillsides. One of the quirks that Kigali has is that their taxis are almost all motorcycles. Each taxi/motorcycle driver has an extra helmet for their fares, and it was kind of funny to see women dressed in skirts, stopping a motorcycle, climbing aboard, and putting on a helmet.

Kigali taxi service

We arrived at the hotel and waited a few minutes for the others to finish lunch. We were joined by Mort and Judy, an older couple from New York City, and their son Jeff, who works for the Clinton Initiative in Uganda. They seemed to be nice enough, and we chatted for a few minutes before getting back in the Land Rover for our 2 ½ hour drive to the lodge. We were off to the Virungas!

Once we got outside Kigali, the road immediately started to ascend into the hills. Rwanda is known as “Land of a Thousand Hills”, but I’d have to say I think they underestimated that by about half a million. The land on the way north was astounding. There were beautiful, steep valleys, lush hill sides, and streams and rivers flowing through it all. Most of the hills were terraced for farming, as Rwanda is one of the most populous countries in Africa. (Meaning, almost every available space that can be used for farming is.) But that’s not to say it’s been entirely clear cut either. There were large tracts of forest, although most of it was eucalyptus trees. (Francis told us that the eucalyptus was all imported from Australia, as it’s not native to Rwanda. They like the eucalyptus because it’s very fast growing, and if you cut down the tree a new trunk will simply sprout up in its place. Since they use the trees for so much of their subsistence – firewood and shelter being the 2 most important – you find forests of eucalyptus everywhere you go.) I’d also say that Rwanda is the Land of a Thousand Smiles. People were on the road almost the entire time to the Virungas, and everyone had a smile on their face. The children were always so excited to see white people and they’d shout and wave when we passed. This being Christmas many people were on their way back from church. The women were wearing the most beautiful clothing, all with radiant colors and patterns.

At one point, trying to make small talk, I asked Jeff (the son) what the best beer was in East Africa. He said there were different beers in Uganda than there are in Rwanda, but gave his opinion on the ones that seemed popular in Rwanda, based on the amount of billboards and signs for the beers. I mentioned that someone had told us that Banana Beer was popular, but pretty bad. He had never heard of that, but Francis sure had. He got all excited talking about it, and when we stopped about halfway through the drive for a rest break, he ran out and bought 2 bottles for us! We thought it tasted more like very sweet wine than beer, and I could only take about 2 drinks of it before I had to put it away. I noticed it was at 14% alcohol, so it's probably a good thing I didn't drink the entire bottle.

The drive continued all the way to the main town outside the Virunga Mountains, Musanze (formerly known as Ruhengeri, for those keeping track at home). On the drive Francis pointed out all the different crops that the locals were growing, including: pineapples; corn; bananas; potatoes; coffee; tea; and sorghum. After turning east in Musanze, we traveled about 10 miles before reaching a dirt road turnoff that led to the lodge. The road was very narrow, very rutted, and was turning muddy with some rain falling. Francis only knew one speed with the car – fast – and we fishtailed straight up the hill with steep drop-offs on either side. It was an understatement to say it really got scary at that point, but in reality Francis was a very good (and safe) driver, and we made it to the Virunga Lodge at around 4:20 pm.

Virunga Lodge is perched on top of a tall hill, at around 2,300 meters elevation. It sits between 2 lakes – Lake Burera to the east and Lake Ruhondo to the west. When we arrived several of the staff welcomed us, including Grison, who seemed to be in charge, and they invited us to sit in their small, outdoor reception area, and gave us a short orientation. They talked about how the lodge has strong eco-ethics; all the power was solar power; hot water was warmed by the sun, not electricity; and the lights in the room weren’t turned on until 5:30 pm or so. Grison talked some more about how there were some trails around the lodge, including one that descended to the small village at the bottom of the hillside, and said that dinner would be at 7 pm that evening. With that, 2 people showed us to our room.

The lodge is made up of 8 bandas, or bungalows, all privately situated on the crest of the hill, and each has either a view of the lake or the mountains. Our banda, called Cyahafi, sat overlooking Lake Burera to the east. It was amazing! The living area had two double beds, a couple of dressers, a desk, and a couple of chairs. The bathroom was fantastic – above the sinks it didn’t have a mirror, but huge picture windows out looking onto the lake. The toilet was recently upgraded from a compost toilet to a flushing one, which is one of the improvements I was glad they made. But the best part was the patio. It was probably about 300 square feet, with the most incredible view, and surrounded by all sorts of plants and flowers. It was a great place to sit, relax, read a book, or write in a journal, or even catch a catnap. We unpacked, got organized, and changed for dinner.

Our patio at the banda, with view

We made our way up the pathway to the main lounge around 6:30 for drinks. The lounge had a small bar in the corner (all food and drinks were included in our stay – hey now!), and a large fireplace in the center of the room that most people were seated around. Being the anti-social people that we are, we sat on a couch away from the fire and the rest of the group while we had a drink. A few minutes later another couple walked in, and they sat at another couch not too far away. I noticed the man had ordered a Primus beer, which seemed to be the most popular brand across the country. I asked him how it was, and before he could answer he grabbed his wife, walked over to us and introduced himself. His name was Kevin, his wife was Debbie, and they were from Perth, Australia. I liked them immediately. They were down-to-earth, very friendly, and Australian – so how could you NOT like them? (Actually, I found out later Kevin was from New Zealand. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to.) They had just arrived themselves, travelling from Perth to Jo’burg to Nairobi to Kigali. Unfortunately, their bags didn’t make it! One of the women around the fire overheard them, and said that THEIR bags were lost as well! So maybe Sage wasn’t too paranoid about worrying after our bags…

Dinner was ready around 7:15 pm, and we all moved to the dining room. There were about 16 for dinner this night, and we all ate together around a huge dinner table. Since this was Christmas, they told us they had a special dinner awaiting us: a cookout over charcoal! They served 4 different types of barbecued meats: beef, chicken, pork and goat. Yep…I had goat for the first time ever. (And to be honest, I can’t say what it tasted like, as I took both pork and goat on my plate. When I got back to the table to eat it, I couldn’t figure out which was which! So I guess I’d say goat tastes a lot like pork.) The taste was great for the simple reason that the charcoal was so flavorful. Along with the meats there were some mediocre potatoes, rice, and charcoal roasted bananas which tasted a lot like a roasted potato for some reason. Over dinner we met most of the rest of the group. Besides us 2 and the 3 we rode in with from New York, there were: Joy, a single woman in her 50’s from New York City; Karen & Terry, a couple from Newton, MA, believe it or not; Debbie & Kevin from Perth; Carla, who goes to school in St. Kitts, and her husband who is a doctor in Miami; and a foursome that we didn’t really meet, and it was their last night, so we didn’t really miss much by not talking to them. By far the most interesting and entertaining folks to talk to were Debbie and Kevin, and we were glad to be sitting near them. Most of the other folks had been there at least one previous night, so they had all sorts of talks about the gorilla treks they went on, and sounded like experts. Little did we know that by the time our stay at Virunga Lodge was over, we would act that same role!

Dessert ended up being a special Christmas cake, which I think was a fruit cake, and the entire meal finished up around 8:30 pm. At the very end of the meal we were approached by one of the lodge workers to plan our next day. First they asked if we were trekking the next day, and we said we were, so they said we needed to get up around 5 am. They would provide the wake-up call for us by delivering either coffee or tea to our room at 5! (There were no phones in any of the rooms, which is why the wake-up call needed to be delivered in person.) They then said breakfast would be ready at 5:30, as we’d need to depart for Park headquarters by 6. They asked what we wanted for breakfast, and let us know that we would automatically get fruit and toast. The choices were really either oatmeal (which they called porridge), or eggs with bacon or sausage. We both went with the oatmeal, thinking it would be good energy before our hike the next day. By then we were exhausted, so instead of going back to the lounge we excused ourselves to our room. When we arrived we noticed that they had come to turn down our beds, as well as to put the mosquito netting around our beds. (We saw one or two mosquitoes during our time there, but nothing to get excited about. I really think the netting was more of a decoration, and maybe to give piece of mind to us flatlanders than anything else.) But the real surprise was when we got into bed and found 2 hot water bottles! The temperature at night was in the low 50’s, maybe 40’s some nights, and the rooms had no heat, so the hot water bottle was a welcome surprise on a chilly evening. We were in bed by 9:30 pm, but unfortunately the high elevation combined with a few too many glasses of South African Shiraz caused me to snore most of the night, causing Sage to pound on my head. On top of that, we kept hearing something scurrying and scratching on the roof a few times during the night. For some reason (lack of sleep, general paranoia), I was convinced that the noise was actually INSIDE the banda, and it was a bat fluttering around the ceiling. And finally, we both knew that the next day would hold our first gorilla trek, which made us both almost too excited to sleep. Needless to say, we both had restless nights, and neither of us got much sleep at all.

Coming next: Our first gorilla trek!