We arranged to ride with friends (3 hours from Kigali) to the western part of Rwanda on Lake Kivu, next to Goma, DRC. We stayed (again!) in the very nice Kivu Sun/Serena hotel which offered a special $100 deal for rooms because because of the "jungle party" on the beach with a bonfire and live music planned. We made the decision to go late in the week and I had to sweet talk the reservations staff (thanks Eme) into giving me a room; I brought them cookies when we arrived.
Jenny and I, in front of the hotel.
Jenny, in our room, with her tennis raquet which I insisted she bring but we never ended up usng!
This was the beautiful view from our room.
We had some trouble with our door, which locked us out on one occasion because the inside-security latch caught accidentally caught when we closed the door. The hotel staff thought it was fine for them to climb accross the balcony from the room next door to come inside through the un-lockable back door whenever this happened. Luckily, technician-Jenny was able to break the latch further to "fix" the problem.
On Saturday, we had beautiful sunny weather and I spent most of the day at the beach.
Lounging with friends,
and swimming in Lake Kivu or the pool.
The Serena began to set up tents and the stage on the beach for the Saturday night "jungle party".
We enjoyed early-evening happy hour on our balcony.
We bought tickets for the jungle party- $20 each!
Before the party, we took a taxi to a nearby restaurant at Paradis hotel, and unexpectedly were able to see traditional dancers and drummers perform .
Most of us got up to dance with them.
We made some new friends at dinner too.
The hotel Paradis is a beautiful spot to eat dinner, and we were able to sit right near the water.
The menu included the usual chicken, fish, beef, or goat choices and the food arrived on cute wooden plates, some with wooden silverware.
I took this picture of my friend Barbara at the bar at the jungle party, before smartly deciding to put my camera back in my hotel room once it got crowded (little did I know I should have put my purse away too!) The "headliner" music artists at the party were 3 Blue (three women from Uganda) who didn't start playing until 2AM but were pretty coordinated with pop hits and choreography. Unfortunately, shortly after then, my purse was stolen. VERY fortunately, most items were returned (including my passport, phone, and flash drive, minus the money) when other guests caught the thief. The upsetting part was my being confused over why the police wouldn't come and how the hotel was "handling" the thief themselves. In the end, it all worked out and was quite a learning experience for me. I visited the police station on Sunday to get a better sense of the system and meet the local Inspector. It was eye-opening!
We drove back to Kigali after lunch on Sunday, and I of course, took lots more photos of the beautiful Rwandan hillsides and tea fields.
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