Yesterday, Drew and I took the day to head into Kigali to take care of our gorilla tracking plans. Kigali is the capital city of Rwanda, and it is where we spent the first couple nights when we flew in. This trip, we had a much different experience from our initial visit, since we were not as anxious about being in a new place, and we had some tricks and key phrases down for navigation.
We left Kibungo around 9:30 for the 2 hour drive. To our surprise, we happened to be on a bus that was a little larger than the last time, more like the size of an airport shuttle than a 15-passenger van. They still have jump seats in the aisle, but it is a lot more spacious than the other option. The drive in was fairly uneventful without too many stops. We arrived in central Kigali just before 12:00.
Before beginning our wanderings through town, we were sure to find ourselves a bus ticket for the trip back later that afternoon. Even though, Drew had been practicing how to say “2 tickets for 4:00 to Kibungo please,” in kinyarwanda, the man at the bus station wanted to practice his English with us, so he didn’t get to use his phrase this time.
We wandered into the city center to find some lunch, and decided upon the restaurant where Tom and Malea had taken us the first day we arrived, Blues Café. At that time, they commented that it was the best place in Kigali for sandwiches and burgers. While we enjoyed the sandwiches then, we could not fully appreciate how delicious they really were. When we took a bite of our cheeseburgers yesterday, it was heaven. Cheeseburgers are a little different here than back home. Instead of pickles, they use fresh cucumbers, and the ketchup here is very sweet, and a little runnier than the Heinz we are used to. We also had a side of fries and a bottle of coke. They eat fries and coke all over Rwanda, but pairing it with a burger was delicious. Since, we have been eating a vegan diet, the meat & cheese on our sandwich was a nice change of pace.
After a long lunch (when you sit down for a meal at a restaurant here, it often takes an hour to an hour and a half, even for something simple like sandwiches), we headed over to the ORTPN office. This is the Rwanda Tourism board that coordinates all fees and permits for visiting the various parks around Rwanda. We were hoping to purchase our gorilla tracking permits for the last week we are here. Because it is the rainy season, we were told we shouldn’t have much problem, as tourism is often down during this time of year. When we got to the counter though, and requested a permit for any of the days during the last week, the woman said that they were sold out of permits!
Fortunately, one of the tour companies had had a cancellation about an hour prior for Sunday, the 7th. She called the representative, and he came down to the office. Because we had to buy through the tour company now instead of the official permit office, we would have to use cash (the permits are $500 a piece!). Fortunately, the international bank was just across the street, and the tour company rep was VERY patient. He also gave us advice for doing the trek on the cheap, rather than booking through a company like his. We were so appreciative. He also gave us his card, and he told us to call if we had any questions before our trek. He spoke lovely English and was so helpful. So, we will be trekking gorillas on the 7th of November, the weekend before we leave, and we cannot wait!
After getting the permits squared away (our main goal for the day trip), we were originally going to head to the genocide memorial museum, but after a long lunch and the long permit meeting, we were shorter on time than we had hoped, which left us with a couple hours to spend in the city center. We happened upon the Nakumatt and spent a while wandering the aisles. The Nakumatt is the closest thing to an American supermarket we have seen. We picked up a few items – oatmeal, spices, soy sauce – that we haven’t been able to find in Kibungo. We resisted the cheese and wine they also had there, since by Rwandan standards they were very pricey, but we did stand and look at them for a while.
After our shopping excursion, we found a very swanky coffee shop called Café Bourbon, where we sat and had a cappuccino while waiting for our bus…superb! All in all, it was a lovely day in the city enjoying some of the comforts of home for the afternoon. We have been doing well in Kibungo and hadn’t really been missing a lot of the things we enjoyed yesterday in Kigali, but it was certainly nice to have the chance to experience them while we were there.
After a successful afternoon navigating the hilly, curvy streets of downtown Kigali, we caught the 4:00 “bus” back to Kibungo. It was a smaller bus again (like the one we took when we first arrived), crammed tight with people, but we made it back in one piece in time for a simple dinner of red beans and rice.
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