Good times in Gisenyi

Morgan and I took a "matatu" (swahili word for taxi; refers to public transportation mini-buses in many African countries) to Gisenyi on the shore of Lake Kivu in the West Province of Rwanda, near the border with Goma. The bus is one of the cheapest ways to travel in Rwanda- this trip only cost $5 for the three-hour journey. Gisenyi is near Mount Nyiragongo in Congo which has erupted many times including a very destructive eruption in 2002 and a small eruption most recently in 2007. Some of the highlights of Gisenyi include the Serena Resort hotel on the beach, the Brawilra (only brewery in Rwanda), hot springs, and an orphanage founded by the late Rosalind Carr.

Morgan lived in Gisenyi for 6 months a couple of years ago so it was fun to roam around the city with a semi-local friend!

We took many pictures of the scenery out of the window. The Rwandans on the bus were very friendly. We held babies, practiced speaking Kinyarwanda and french, and laughed at the country music tape the driver played (which of course included Kenny Rogers, The Gambler).

There are signs like this one below in and around the Gisenyi town which indicate the eruption threat level for the volcano. Yellow seemed like a good sign to us, although we couldn't read the information since it is written in Kinyarwanda. We wondered how often someone comes to check and change the flag if necessary?

We stayed at the Hotel Belvedere. It opened in the last few months, and Morgan happened to see it being built when she last visited. It is very nice and we don't think many people know about it yet. It is situated at the top of a hill above Gisenyi, so our weekend involved quite a bit of walking up and down the hill, and one or two interesting moto taxi rides!

Our room cost 45,000 francs for the night (about $90), although we learned there is a cheaper room that costs $50 which has a smaller bathroom but was mysteriously unavailable for our night even though the hotel was mostly empty. We're pretty sure they just wanted to give us the more expensive room! Oh well, live and learn.

We had a pretty fantastic view of the lake from our balcony as well as the upper hills behind the hotel.

Breakfast on the terrace was included with the room. I ordered an omelette, which unfortunately came drenched in butter so I filled up on the delicious tropical fruit and coffee instead!

Almost everyday for breakfast I eat passion fruit, mango, and these sour but yummy tree tomatoes.

As we walked through town we noticed these funny topiaries shaped like the traditional Rwanda baskets.

We met up with Morgan's friend Fred who is so nice and fun.

We spent some time relaxing on the beach at the Serena Hotel.

Morgan discovered floating lava in the lake, which she was glad was not a floating head as she had thought.
We stopped at a small local restaurant and ate goat brochettes (grilled goat and onions on a stick) which were really yummy. Although Morgan mentioned she had once heard a goat being slaughtered here. Luckily that didn't happen today, otherwise I might have become a vegetarian! We also drank the locally brewed Mutzig beer.
We stopped by a small kiosk/store where a friend of Morgan works.

She used to stop here everyday after work to get an informal lesson speaking Kinyarwanda with her friends. They were very happy to see her again, and happy to spend some time teaching me too!


Of course, I couldn't take a weekend trip without buying some more Rwandan and Congolese handicrafts for my growing collection.