Eric mastering the winding roads!
Matt after a bike ride and a frat house experience
Orion in his "seat of adventure"
Check out that farmland
More impressive farming
Wet and lush landscape
Can you tell I was impressed with this farming style - I probably took 50 pictures of similar views
One of the mountains wearing a hat
AMAZING!
I am sitting in the “business office” of a hotel that cost about $100 a night. It is really a wide open tiled floor room with no walls and a super sticky keyboard. Why you might ask am I at a hotel on a Saturday night in Rwanda; that my friend is a story for another night. It is pouring down rain with thunder and impressive lightning. We finally made it outside of Kigali and are in a town called Musanze that is northwest of Kigali about 2 hours on a two-lane windy road straight up a mountain. Three words for you...it is beautiful.
When you think of Africa and the images you have seen in your life...those images do not really capture Rwanda (or at least the parts of Rwanda I have been in). Our ride out of town was puncuated with amazing feats of farming. Really crazy to look almost straight up and see people tilling the land. There is very little use of terracing for planting, just land cleared and crops planted at whatever angle the land happened to be at.
Musanze is the closest town to the Volcanoes National Park - home of the mountain gorillas made famous by Dian Fossey and the movie Gorilla's in the Mist. The park is also part of the Virunga Mountain chain that forms the border between Rwanda, Uganda and DRC. It is close to 6,000 feet in elevation and pretty chilly at night.
We went on this one night jaunt with our friend Matt and 9 other people that we kinda knew. Up in Musanze the Rwandan National Cycling team lives and practices. Matt is an avid biker and knew the coach of this team from years back. It is quite the set-up and really an amazing project. If you are a coffee lover you should definitely check out the coffee they sell as a funraiser to support their projects.
While most of the folks went on a killer bike ride - 4 of us took a crazy car ride that made our car shudder and Eric's hair turn gray. It provided some amazing views and I can not wait to go back to Musanze for a longer visit. Gorilla Trekking anyone?
3 comments:
Frickin' awesome!! I LOVE hearing about your adventures. So green and lush. Not at all how I picture Africa (insert image of Lion King setting.)
Hugs all around. xoxo
Wow, sound amazing! But a car ride "that made Eric's hair turn gray?" Ahh, no thanks. I can only imagine. Pass.
SO jealous! It looks just beautiful, and I love all the gorilla history, Virunga and all the cool stuff you are living. Adding Kigali to the "yes" list. Keep enjoying and Hi to all!!
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