6 Days Rwanda Gorillas and Cultural Tour
- Places to visit: Kigali Nyanza Huye Gisenyi Lake Kivu Volcanoes National Park Karisoke Research Center
Overview
This tour explores the history and culture of Rwandan people.You will visit Kigali, the modern capital city of Rwanda as well as the genocide memorial at Gisozi depicting Rwandas dark recent history. Other places to be visited are local markets, the kings palace reminiscent of the old Rwanda before colonialism, Ross Carrās flower farm and orphanage, and Lake Kivu in Gisenyi. In Ruhengeri/Musanze, we visit local communities and of course, the most tracking of mountain gorillas in their natural habitat.
Itinerary
Day 1: ARRIVE IN KIGALI
Airport pick-up and transfer to your hotel for orientation/safari briefing. Later in the day, we visit Kigali city, some local market and the Genocide memorial of Gisozi.
Accommodation: Kigali Serena Lodge
Day 2: KIGALI ā NYANZA ā HUYE (Formerly Butare)
After breakfast, we travel to Nyanza and visit the Kingās Palace, seat of the former feudal monarchy. The palace has been reconstructed to its 19th century state using local traditional materials and is one of the most magnificent traditional structures in Africa today. The resident cultural guide will take us through the cultural, political and social organization of society before the advent of Christianity and other recent religions in this area. Later we travel to Gisenyi passing through a beautiful rural countryside with village life.
Accommodation: Lake Kivu Serena
Day 3: GISENYI- VISIT THE SHORES OF LAKE KIVU-ROSS CARR ORPHANAGE/MUSANZE
Visit the shores of Lake Kivu and later travel to Imbabazi orphanage founded by Mrs. Rosamond Halsey Carr in late 1994 at Mugongo where the genocide orphans reside. Rosamond Halsey was a young American fashion illustrator when she married an adventurous hunter-explorer, Kenneth Carr. Together they journeyed to the then Belgie Congo D.R.C in 1949 but divorced later on. Kenneth left but Rosamond stayed in Congo until 1955. From there, she moved northwest of Rwanda where she stayed for the next 50 years. There, she witnessed a big part of Rwandaās historical events including the 1994 civil war. She is the author of Land Of A Thousand Hills: My Life In Rwanda.The resident guide will give us a story about the life and times of this lady, her relationship with the local people and Dian Fossey, the famous gorilla conservationist. For those who have watched the movie, Gorillas in The Mist, note that some of the scenes were shot in this property.
After visiting the orphanage, we continue to Musanze on the foothills of Volcanoes national park.
Accommodation: Mountain Gorilla View Lodge
Day 4: GORILLA TRACKING
Todayās activity may be the most exciting and challenging of our entire expedition.The mountain gorillas in the volcanoes national park are part of a worldwide population of just about 800 species.The gorillas we are allowed to track belong to one of the 8 habituated family groups that live in this mountain park. For up to five years each,these groups have undergone an extremely delicate process that has gradually brought them to tolerate the presence of humans for a brief period every day and allowed a few privileged visitors to interact with them in the wild.
The gorillas are by no means tame, and are completely wild animals. However, experienced guides will accompany us on our tracking where most of them have been involved in the habituation process themselves.The guides and trackers will use their knowledge of the gorillas habits and information from the previous day to locate the groupsā whereabouts.
Because of this, the time it takes to track the gorillas vary from as little as half an hour to as much as 8 hours before one returns to our hotel. Once the gorillas are located, our group will be allowed a maximum of one hour with them.This is one of the worldās truly memorable experiences- one look at them reminds us of the fact that they are on the edge of extinction,and that our presence here contributes to ensuring their continued survival.
Accommodation: Mountain Gorilla View Lodge
Day 5: KARISOKE RESEARCH CENTER, GOLDEN MONKEYS, CULTURAL EXPERIENCE
We have various options: we can track the golden monkeys, visit Mt. Visoke or Karisoke research center. In the afternoon,we continue exploring the cultural delights of this area and visit Iby iwachu cultural center for cultural dancing and an informative experience about traditional local medicine. This cultural group was formed by pygmies and ex poachers and we shall listen to their side of the story after abandoning the illegal practice.
Accommodation: Mountain Gorilla View Lodge
Day 6: TRAVEL TO KIGALI- DEPARTURE
Leisure time at the lodge after breakfast and later on we travel back to Kigali. If time permits, we can do some shopping before departing back home.
Accommodation: No accommodation (End of tour)
- Inclusions
- Exclusions
- Park fees
- All activities (unless labeled as optional)
- All accommodation as stated in the itinerary
- A professional driver/guide
- All transportation (unless labeled as optional)
- All Taxes/VAT
- Roundtrip airport transfer
- All Meals (as specified in the day-by-day section)
- International flights (from/to home)
- Additional accommodation before and at the end of the tour
- Tips (tipping guideline US$10.00 pp per day)
- Personal items (souvenirs, travel insurance, visa fees, etc.)
- Government imposed increase of taxes and/or park fees
- Alcohol drinks
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