Kigali, Rwanda

After getting of the bus we hopped a cab to our hostel Discover Rwanda Youth Hostel (which I highly recommend. It was a good price, clean, and full of friendly people) Kigali was absolutely beautiful; I really want to go back. 

We went to the Genocide Museum and let me just say, that place is very intense and very emotional. The genocide that took place there was utterly horrific and the museum does a good job of presenting the facts coherently while really making you feel. The Genocide wasn’t really that long ago, only roughly 20 years. There were many Rwandans crying throughout the museum and the memorial had lots of people laying out flowers. The most intense room for me was the children’s room.

The whole aim of our trip was to go gorilla trekking. Before the museum we wandered down to the Rwandan Tourist Board Office and paid for our trekking permits.

We paid for our trekking permits the day before and then had to make our way to the town of Musanze, which was a couple of hours away. To get there, we woke up at 3am and then met our cabbie outside the hostel at 3:30. I was awake for the first part of the two hour drive, but drifted off after a while. As we drove away, we headed up one of the taller surrounding hills, giving us a good view of the city at night. Kigali at 4 in the morning mirrors the night sky; rolling blackness sprinkled with millions of twinkling white lights.

I was mildly freaking about getting there late, but as it ends up we got there early; even before the office was open. We hung around and then did a short orientation about the group of gorillas that we were going to see. The Agashya Group. The group is led by a silverback called Agashya, hence the name. The group consists of 26 gorillas, the silverback, his ladies and all the babies. Each gorilla has a name and apparently the guides can tell them apart based on their noses.