Last Hoorah in Bujumbura!

I was able to squeeze one last weekend international trip in before heading home to the States. Daniel, Kathie, Laura and I drove to Bujumbura, Burundi (6 hours from Kigali) Sat.-Mon. Bujumbura has some safety concerns so the American Embassy in Kigali only allows permission to travel there if driving in a two+ car convoy with a sattelite phone, first aid kit, and GPS system. We found that three other groups from our Embassy were driving, so we had a four car convoy and left very early Saturday morning.

The road was very curvy. We had multiple passengers suffering from car sickness, but thankfully I did well. This is common site of bicycles hanging on to the back of large trucks to get up the steep hills. This is so dangerous for them!

This was a welcome sign just over the border into Burundi. The border crossing was surprisingly easy and very well organized. We paid $20 for a 3 day Visa at the border. The hardest part was changing money with a chatoic group of Burundians swarming our car trying to offer us exchange rates. Burundi is primarily french speaking, although the local language is very similar to Kinyarwanda. I enjoyed working on my french more over the weekend. It is also known to have a higher rate of pick-pocketing, or people who reach in your car and try to take things. We did not have any trouble like that over the weekend though. As soon as we crossed the border some things seemed very different to us. The roads are not as nice as Rwanda; the weather was almost immmediately hotter; and the trees are different including tall palm trees and coconut trees.

We stayed at the Club du Lac- the nicest hotel in Bujumbura on Lake Tanganika.

We had a large group checking-in. I was especially impressed with one Embassy family who travelled with us and their 22-month old twins and older 4 year old son. Some of them got motion sickness and cried a lot of the way there, but the parents were upbeat and handled it with smiles!.

A breakfast buffet was included with our rooms which we enjoyed every morning.

Although the rooms were a little less than hoped for (mosquitos and bugs; no fans or A/C), the pool and beach felt worth the price. We immediately headed to the pool upon arrival.

The lake had a nice big beach, gusty wind, and waves.

We walked down the beach to the neighboring Bora Bora Club which is a lounge restaurant on a nice deck with a pretty pool.

We met up with other Kigali colleagues for a drink.

Kathie and I enjoyed trying their mojitos.

Daniel and Kathie lounging. After the Bora Bora club we all went to Botannica for dinner.

We explored the downtown area one day, and visited a craft market to check out the local crafts.

We had fun dancing at this bar- Havana on Saturday night.

Everyone enjoyed trying an Amstel Bock beer which is a local favorite and not available in Rwanda.

Two boys selling eggs and peanuts on the street.

I was told by a friend that we could not come to Buj without visiting the Musee Vivant (a small, low budget zoo) where we got to hold a snake.
There were chimpanzees in one cage.

There is an unusual and somewhat shocking option of having the guide feed a guinea pig to a leopard and a crocodile. I was not too keen on the idea, but we did see this happen while we were there.

I was a little concerned that the crocodiles were looking at us and seemed only to be kept away from us by a short cement wall!

The grounds also include a series of traditional Burundian huts so we of course posed for a photo.

On our last night there we strolled a little further down the beach to the Saga Beach where we heard live music. We stopped and ate some delicious fried fish with yummy sides.

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Burundi Info and Recommendations:

$1 = roughly 1200 Burundian francs

Hotel Club Du Lac- +257 22 250 221

Other hotels: Botannica in town +257 22 228 873 or +257 22226792; Saga Beach next to Bora Bora)

Restaurants- Botannica, Tanganika, La Fantasia, Khana Kazana, Belvedere, Bora Bora, Resha Beach

Clubs- Havana, Toxic, Raggae Place

Activities- Buja Day Spa massage- +257 22 22 7000

Musee Vivant- crocodiles/leopard