Amahora-ful Weekend (aka peaceful weekend)

Last weekend I visited quite possibly the most beautiful place I have seen, (It's in tough contention with Manchu Picchu) Kibuye, on Lake Kivu. Its about a 2 hour bus ride from Kigali (that is if the tire on your bus doesn't fall off en route...), through lush, green hills dotted with banana trees and small villages. The scenery on the way there was so beautiful i almost didn't mind the 19 people (and luggage) crammed into a 15 passenger vehicle or the overwhelming smell of B.O. from the larger gentleman in a checkered yellow suit two rows ahead of me....

Once we (we being Alana, Mary (the tulane law intern) and Whitney (William and Mary law student) arrived in the "town" of Kibuye-which consists of a gas station, several stores that all appear to be selling mattresses (does the town have a princess and the pea complex?), and several "saloons" (i.e. Salons, my favorite one i've seen in kigali is the Trust Saloon: the best place in town for waxing), we set off by foot to the Hotel Bethanie.

The hotel is beautifully situated on the Lake and definitely the most scenic hotel I have ever stayed at. And it was only $6 a person (warning: the boxed wine at the restaurant was $5 a glass and was NOT paid for by the nice russians that invited us to have a drink). Anyway, following a leisurely lunch which involved me eating a large meal of mixed vegetables, ham and cheese in what i thought was going to be with pineapples, but instead was OUT of a pineapple, we started on the 2 mile loop that is Kibuye.



Kibuye, sadly, was one of the worst regions affected by the genocide with about 50,000 people killed. I read somewhere that 9 out of every 10 Tutsi's did not survive. Along our walk, on one of the most scenic stretches, we came across a church where 4,000 Tutsi's had sought refuge, but were killed when a drunken mob raided the church. It now has a small memorial outside and we were lucky enough to visit during a church service. It was pretty haunting sitting on the stone steps listening to the beautiful hymns drift over the hills. While we were sitting there we met a group of teenage Congolese Refugees who walk 2 hours each way just to come to the service. The strength of people here never ceases to amaze me.


The next day we rented a boat to take us out to the famous "Napolean's Hat" home of the famous fruit bat. Honestly I can't say that our guidebooks description of the fruit bat had made me all that excited to see them. I had imagined seeing a few fruit fly sized bat flapping around on a deserted island. Umm.....No. When we disembarked on the island the next thing i knew andrew, our boat captain, had slipped off into the wooded area and started clapping. Soon after, the four of us were completely engulfed in a swarm of millions (apparently 3 million reside on this island-which is no more than a mile around) of fruit bats (named after the bananas they feed on) dodging (unfortunately fairly unsuccessfully) bat droppings in a scene somewhat remenicent of the London Blitz.

While we were walking around the island, which is actually a large hill resembling none other than Napolean's hat, I had a sudden impulse to start climbing this very steep "goat path" (which was more the size of a chipmunk path) up to the top of the "hat". For some reason flip flips and a skirt seemed to be suitable climbing gear, but at one point as i was clinging to a few blades of grass wondering how i could possibly go higher, i realized i had somehow steered off course. Nevertheless, somehow we all made it to the top and it was a spectacular view. To the west were the hills of Congo, to the east rolling Rwanda, and spectacular view of the lake-which is a beautiful clear blue with absolutely no boats in site.

In america no doubt, this beautiful lake would be covered with jet ski's and sail boats but here, from the top of the hat, it seemed so untouched and i had a definite pocahontas moment. Oh, just thought i'd throw a question to the world. Is anyone aware of the swimming capabilities of a cow? When we asked the guide if there were any other wildlife besides the bats on the island, he claimed sometimes cows (?!@#@) swam over for the day....keep in mind this island was probably 2 miles from the mainland, so unless he likes to refer to overweight americans as cows, i'm not quite sure this is possible.

On the ride home i kept my eyes peeled for potential cows doing the breast stroke, but all we saw were some egrets and a monkey tied to a tree on a "touristy" island which we decided to forgo since it cost $1 to land. So we motored home, with andrew as our dj providing an interesting variety of tunes ranging from Rasta music to Celine Dion to "i wanna have sex on the beach" by the venga boys. Very organic ride back....but oh so relaxing!

I think those are the highlights of my first trip outside of kigali...oh that and the fact that rwanda beat morroco in soccer and is 3-0 for the first time in their history (i think?). As we were walking around we could tell when someone scored a goal as the entire town was glued to their radios and would give us high fives and jump up and down every goal....