Author Archives: Kathryn
Lake Kivu boat ride
Lake Kivu is on the border of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The DRC city of Goma, which is immediately across the border, had been in the news recently because M23 rebels had temporarily captured it, but everything was calm and peaceful when I was in the area. (Bird photos by Posh!) … Continue reading
Nyungwe to Gisenyi
Dear reader, I’m falling dangerously behind in blogging these days so the next several posts will be photo-rich/text-poor in an attempt to catch up to present day! It was a long day in the car driving from Nyungwe to Gisenyi. The scenery was gorgeous. We’d actually passed this sign on the road, but I … Continue reading
Hybrid monkey love
In the last post, I mentioned seeing a hybrid monkey among the Colobus monkeys. The name was so odd that I didn't think I had heard it right! But sure enough, hybrid monkeys exist. They are the infertile offspring of a Mona and a red tailed monkey (when I uploaded this video to YouTube, … Continue reading
Colobus monkey watching
Posh and I had to decide if we wanted to go on a canopy tour or go on a Colobus monkey trek in Ngunywe National Park. At first we planned to go on the canopy tour, but after the excitement of seeing the chimps, we wanted to see more wildlife and opted for the Colobus … Continue reading
Chimpanzee trekking
The rest of the drive to Ngunywe took us past a sprawling refugee camp. For the rest of the week, we noticed the ubiquitous presence of tarps from the UN High Commission for Refugees across the country. We arrived at our hilltop hotel in a downpour after driving up a slippery mud road. Posh … Continue reading
Murambi Genocide Memorial
It's been so easy to put off finishing this post for the last few weeks. Life has kept me happily busy of late, so I haven't wanted to dwell too much on seeing the horrors of Rwanda's genocide, but I've finally finished my post about the Murambi Genocide Memorial. The blog should be regularly updated … Continue reading
Huye, Rwanda
Our Rwandan road trip began bright and early this morning as my friend Posh and I hit the road with David, our driver for the week, bound for Nyungwe Forest National Park. Even though I had already traveled on this same road to Cyangugu a couple of days prior, it was a completely different experience … Continue reading
Cyangugu, Rwanda
Getting to Cyangugu wasn't a whole lot of fun. Even though the roads were perfectly paved, my seatmate spent most of the journey throwing up into a paper bag. Plastic bags are illegal in Rwanda, an attempt to limit litter and pollution, but I had one handy so I gave him the plastic ziplock bag … Continue reading
Bujumbura, Burundi
I’ll admit it, I wanted to visit Burundi mostly to check it off my list. I knew very little about this small country other than it had been colonized by the Belgians who played on ethnic divisions between Tutsi and Hutus which resulted in several bloody eras in the nation’s recent history. I arrived in … Continue reading
Goodbye Tanzania
I spent a little over a month in Tanzania. I did a good amount but there were a few places I didn't get to so we'll see what happens in the future. I just know next time I want to take more flights in Tanzania–no more buses!