Paradise???

I realized how much of an internet junkie I've become after eight days of not being connected. So in fifteen brief minutes, I am just going to rave about one of the most beautiful places I've seen in my travels.

Last weekend we hopped on a Sotra Tours bus and went 2.5 h westward towards Lake Kivu, the big pond straddling the border between the DRC and Rwanda. Our destination was Kibuye, one of the major Rwanda towns on the shores of this huge lake. It is an up and coming resort town and we caught it before the crowds did (hah!). In fact, the potential is such that all the Kibuye lakeshore properties have been bought up in the space of 12 months.

The place was stunning. No exaggeration, I must have looked like I was walking around with my mouth slightly held open because I’d be muttering “wow” to myself over & over again. Looking one way, I’d see emerald-green mountains rising up around the lake in waves, one range after another. The other way, I’d see this silver lake with some definition of "picturesque." For example, two fisherrmen in a wooden canoe paddled out onto the water during the sunset. They cast their net into the water with the sun setting behind thunderclouds in the background, so that they were silhouetted against the water. I took a walk in the morning and just wandered along some dirt paths lined with eucalyptus trees, flowering jacaranda trees, palms, laurel bushes, bougainvilleas, etc. and then the view opened up so I'd see Lake Kivu in blue, green and greys framed by all this blossoming. All this with no cars, no air pollution, just a quiet clean breeze and chirping birds. I could have been in a travel commercial, it was so perfect.

The perfect hotel/resort we chose to have breakfast in also offered the obligatory boat ride to some islands. They took us to a small island with a small restaurant and a huge sound system blaring happy Ugandan music. Since it was a small island, there's not much to do there except eat, drink, take pictures, splash in the water and watch the resident pet monkey chug orange Fanta. We were joined by a boatload of Kigalionians, who took a great deal of group photos all around the island. I walked by and was promptly mobbed and roped into the middle of the picture-taking frenzy. In the flurry of Kinyarwanda, I catch on that they wanted a picture with the 'mzungu.' So that makes 15 times since the beginning of the trip, Christine.

I reluctantly boarded the bus back to Kigali on Sunday afternoon, really wanting to feign sickness to stay in Kibuye for another few days.