Rwanda

Romance-in-Travel

You’re deep in the Virunga Range on the border of Rwanda and Uganda. The heavy jungle is alive with life. You come around a corner and suddenly, you’re left breathless. You’ve reached a small band of gorilla. Imagine making eye contact. This is the adventure of a lifetime amidst sweeping landscapes and wide range of wildlife viewing.

INTRODUCTION

At the center of migration routes from all directions, and with a wide diversity of wildlife and plant life, Uganda, the “Pearl of Africa,” has become a touristic highlight as it emerges from its civil war and rebuilds. Uganda offers snow-capped mountains and lions, leopards, rhinos, elephants buffalo, as well as giraffes, zebras, chimpanzees, hippos, crocodiles and more than half of all bird species found in Africa. Rwanda, “Land of a Thousand Hills” is ranked as the safest country in Africa, (#5 in the world). The country is modern and has a fast-growing economy. Rwanda is great for active travelers and in addition to mountain gorillas, offers Big Five experiences, plus 14 primate species and 700 bird species.

CUISINE

Part of your experience should be to sample local specialities. Isombe is a combination of vegetables and peanut butter, with pounded and boiled cassava leaves, cooked with spinach, onion, bell peppers and eggplants. Agatogo is a plantain-based stew with garlic, tomato and meat, fish, or vegetables.Ibirayi is the tasty potato dish, with potatoes boiled in spices then fried in butter on a skillet. Urwagwa is a local fermented beverage known as banana beer.

SUGGESTED READING

Woman in the Mists (F. Mowat), Running the Rift (N. Benaron), The Impenetrable Forest: My Gorilla Years in Uganda (T. Hanson), The Girl Who Smiled Beads (C. Wamariya), Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda (R. Dallaire), God Sleeps in Rwanda (J. Sebarenzi), We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families (P. Gourevitch), Our Lady of the Nile (S. Mukasonga), A Thousand Hills: Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It (S. Kinzer), A Girl Is a Body of Water (J. N. Makumbi).

SUGGESTED VIEWING

The African Queen, Black Panther, Mississippi Masala, King Solomon’s Mines (1950), Tarzan (2013), The Last King of Scotland, Bed of Thorns, Hotel Rwanda, Gorillas in the Mist, Shooting Dogs.

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