On The Way Part Deux

After our visit to Nyanza, we continued south to Butare, the second largest city in Rwanda.  It also hosts the National University of Rwanda as well as the National Museum.  After lunch, guess where we headed – yup, the Museum.  We did take a drive through Butare beforehand, which is much, much smaller than Kigali with straighter and wider streets.  I really like this town, less motos zooming around as well as fewer cars, most people walked so little congestion.

The Museum told the complete history of Rwanda including background on its geology and topography, the earliest inhabitants and their methods of farming and cattle raising, provided examples of traditional household items including weaving, pottery, and leather work, a full sized hut, information about sports, games, and traditional beliefs.  We also saw a display about how to “brew” banana beer.  We’d already heard that the stuff is horrible and after seeing the instructions I have no desire to taste it!  If anyone wants to give it a go (Babak, are you listening??) here are the instructions.

While I wandered through the Museum, Marty struck up a conversation with our guide.  After a bit of coaxing from Marty, these two ended up in a fairly frank discussion about events leading up to, and after the genocide.  The guide felt, except in extraordinary cases where justice must be served (whatever that means), reconciliation and forgiveness will heal the country.  Marty said it was pretty obvious he was a Kagame man (Paul Kagame is the President of Rwanda), and he didn’t say much that wasn’t the government’s interpretation of the past.  Marty found him sincere and thoughtful, and the guide admitted there was much in his point of view that many people in Rwanda would never accept. 

After the Museum, we turned to the last part of the trek and began the upward climb to the Forest.  And when I say upward, I’m not joking.  The twisty, winding, narrow road combined incredibly high cliff faces on one side with two kilometer drop-offs on the other.  Initially the “usual” foliage, this eventually changed to rain forest which gave us the feeling we were in Jurassic Park!  Below are a couple of shots that just don’t do the perspective justice or show the magnificence of the flora. 

As we entered the park we had our first encounter with coulombos monkeys. These beautiful black monkeys have white facial hair (according to Marty, this is a measure of any handsome primate!) with a distinctive white blaze on their chests.  We saw this guy right by the side of the road and I’d swear he posed for me!

We actually passed through the National Forest on the way to our hotel, the Nyungwe Forest Lodge.  Situated smack dab in a tea plantation, it was one of the most peaceful, luxurious places I’ve stayed.  Run by Mantis their aim seemed to be our every comfort.  But my favorite item: a HUGE bathtub, which our apartment sadly lacks.  Below are a few shots of the area from our room.



Rear view from our room



Tea growing in the mountains



Another view from our room

Next up: The Canopy Walk