Along the Tanganyika Lake in Burundi

It was a very tiresome journey, the one between Bujumbura, in Burundi, and Kigoma, in Tanzania. Around 9 hours sitting in a Matatu (small bus) is a bit too much, when one considers covering less than 300 km

Nevertheless, the wonderful view of the of the Tanganyika Lake, the hills and the valleys along the track were worth being squeezed the whole day.

The Burundian capital, Bujumbura, is located on the very north extremity of the lake. Heading south from that point towards the Tanzanian border one would cross a number of small villages and markets at its side.

Burundi is one of the poorest countries in the world and every now and then, the country is plagued by internal ethnically motivated conflicts.

Obviously, the subsistence of the communities located at along the lake is guaranteed through the fishery.

Quite a number of beaches at the shade of the typical palm trees look so inviting, specially for the tired ones, squeezed in a matatu in such a hot day. Yes! Im talking about me at the occasion!

Though the inviting environment there is no sign of any effort to improve, or maybe to create, a touristic structure in the region. A handful of small lodges can be spotted along the more than 100km shores in the country.

Towards south, approaching the border to Tanzania, we take distance from the Tanganyika and invade the mountainous part of the country. Predominantly inhabited by farmers.

The view of an abandoned refugee camp on the mountains close to the Tanzanian border. Reminiscence from the last local conflicts.

Burundi is, like most African countries, full of potentials but due to corruption, mismanagement and international influence very far of seeing some proper development.

Cheers everyone!

A bit about Kigali

The first thing at all I connect to Rwanda and its capital Kigali are my memories related to the genocide. 

Today, 20 years later, Rwanda is one of most developed countries in East Africa, and definitely the one with the best environmental politic.

Te level of development of the country can be observed in the capital Kigali. Its the more organized and clean city in East Africa. Travelers are not allowed to enter the country carrying plastic bags. They must be exchanged for paper bags at the country border.

"Umuganda" is the day when the whole country mobilizes to do public work in their local areas. It happens once a month.

Rwanda is known as the "Land of thousand hills."

Cheers peeps!

Up to an extinct volcano in Rwanda

<sitting in the bus from Ghanzi in Botswana to the border of Namibia>

Once in Rwanda there is no way to leave the country without visiting one of its National Parks. Totally the country has three of them.

Roman and I opted for hiking the Bisoke, one of the extinct volcanoes of the Volcanoes National Park. The start point for the adventure is the city Musanze situated on northwestern Rwanda, close to the border to DRC Congo.

The park Volcanoes National Park comprises five extinct volcanoes and is famous for its population of gorillas. The renowned scientist Dian Fossey, famous through the movie "gorillas in the mist" spent 18 years studying the gorillas in that area until her assassination in 1985.

The hiking track covered approximately 900m altitude till the top of the Bisoke at 3700m. Crossing five different kinds of vegetation including a dense rain forest ending with the rocky summit of the volcano and the crater lake.

All the way up and down we had the company of four heavily gunned army soldiers. According to our guide they were supposed to help us against attacks of the buffaloes and elephants, which inhabited that area of the forest. I asked myself if the dangerous, and probably heavily gunned animals, would come across the border from the DRC Congo side.

Well our expectations of nice walking in the forest spotting a few gorillas and maybe some chimps along the way were in vain. It was rainy, cold, muddy, the volcano was misty and we didn't get to see even the shade of an animal. Nevertheless we enjoyed the whole mud action.

Despite of being soaked to the bones and the hard laundry action at the end of the day all the mud and rain challenge was a huge fun. I obviously lost the bet on not sliding down the before reaching the finish line.



The 900m up to the top were finished in 2:20 hours instead of 4:00 hours. We all reached the finish line happy, some thorns in our hands, some great pictures in our pockets and no fight against "buffaloes or elephants."



Next stop Burundi.
Cheers peeps!