Rwanda: Days 1 and 2 (continued)

That last entry was getting really long, so I decided to break Monday into two separate entries. The gorillas weren't my only adventure that day!

My driver dropped me off at the guest house, and I called Greg to find out what the itinerary was for the rest of the day. He told me someone would come to pick me up at 2pm to go see Lake Burera. I decided to call Becky to see what she was up to, as she had the day off from work; July 4 is Liberation Day in Rwanda and marks the end of the 1994 genocide, so her schools were closed. She said she would come into town and take me to one of her favorite cafes, but when we got there, it was closed because of the holiday. She had just had lunch at her house where she stays with a Rwandan family, so we got boda bodas (called "moto taxis" in Rwanda) to her house. In Rwanda, all the drivers have to wear helmets, they have to have their passengers wear helmets, and they're only allowed to have one passenger at a time. Will wonders never cease... so we got moto taxis to the Musanze genocide memorial, which she lives right next to, and I ate lunch there. It was the same kind of food I eat in Uganda -- rice, beans, cabbage and potatoes. Random observation: Rwandan potatoes are better than Ugandan potatoes. I had potatoes a couple of times, and I also had a conversation about potatoes, and apparently Rwandans are very proud that theirs are better than everyone else's.

We went back to the guest house to meet Pascal, who drove me around for the next day and a half. He was happy to take Becky along with us to the lake, so off we went. It took about 30 minutes to drive there, and when we got there, it was absolutely beautiful. There were Rwandans at the lake, which was nice to see, and there was a breeze and it was lovely and quiet. Becky's guide book said there was a waterfall that can be seen from a boat, and Pascal said hiring a boat cost 50,000 Rwandan francs. If I had realized how much that actually is (about $80), I would have refused to do it, but we did the conversion wrong and somehow figured out that it was around $10 instead. Oops. So after we hung around the lake for a little bit, we hired a boat to go find the waterfall.

We put on our (really attractive) life vests and set out in the boat. It was so nice out on the water... it was a motorized boat, but other than that, it was really quiet, and the hills were so beautiful. We could see the volcanoes around the lake, which Becky said was unusual; apparently, the past two weeks had been so misty and rainy that she hadn't seen the volcanoes at all yet.

I knew there would be trouble when the boat driver had to stop another boat and ask for directions to the waterfall. That was my first inkling that maybe this had been a typical case of Africans being agreeable -- even if they don't know where something is, they'll say, "Yes, I know it," to get your business. It happens to me in Kampala with boda boda drivers all the time.

Still, it was so pretty that I wasn't too worried. It was when we had to stop the second time to get directions that I started to get doubtful. But the people in the other boat said that it was about a 20 minute hike to the waterfall. There was a building up on the top of one of the hills, and it really didn't look all that far away, so we decided to go for it and make the hike. The boat pulled up to stop at a somewhat random spot, and we got out to head for the waterfall.

Becky had brought a pair of sneakers with her, because apparently she is clairvoyant. But I only had my flip-flops on, and we were both wearing skirts. It probably wouldn't have been a problem if the hike had actually only been 20 minutes.... but it was not. We were facing the hills in the picture below, and we ended up hiking all the way to the other end of the hills and beyond. We kept thinking we were getting closer to the waterfall, and after a certain point we could even hear it, but there was always one more hill, one more turn, one more thing in our way. We ended up going straight down one side of the hills, during which process I fell twice and actually ended up twisting my left knee my right ankle, though thankfully not very badly. At that point, I decided to just take my shoes off and go barefoot. We were trampling through people's crops and falling all over ourselves -- it was steep!

At one point, we realized we needed to be on the opposite side of the hills. We marched through the mud and reached a "bridge" that had looked a lot more substantial from a distance. It was, in fact, two logs bridging the little stream from the lake. We laughed hysterically when we saw it, although Pascal just walked right across it. Becky shimmied across it in a seated position, and Pascal came back across and walked backwards holding my hands to keep me from falling into the stream.

We had to leap from mound to mound across the mud, and there was a chorus of Rwandan kids who cheered every time we made it -- and cheered even harder the one time I didn't make it, and ended up in the mud. Pascal also may have had to physically haul me up the hills at certain points because it was so slippery and I was barefoot. We reached a point after about 2 hours where I just got frustrated that we were getting nowhere and still couldn't see the waterfall, and the sun was going to set soon. I refused to go any further. Becky and the guy from the boat went a little bit further to see if they could see the waterfall, but we still couldn't, so we turned back. We had hoped the boat could come down the stream and pick us up, but the water was too shallow. We ended up having to ford the stream on the way back (instead of walking all the way back to the "bridge"), but we finally made it back to the boat. It took almost 4 hours round-trip -- for a "20 minute hike." Liars. Still, it was actually a pretty funny/fun experience to have -- especially once we gave up on finding the waterfall and just sort of saw it as a hike through the Rwandan hills. There was a point where I was so tired it wasn't fun anymore, but I recovered enough that the walk back wasn't so bad.

The sun set during our boat ride back, which was beautiful. I originally objected to paying 50,000 francs since the driver had lied to us and said they knew where the waterfall was, but Pascal seemed to disapprove of that. I didn't want to upset anyone, so I just went ahead and paid the full price (Becky paid me back her half the next day).

We got Cokes back on shore, and then we headed back to Musanze. Greg called to say he was back in Musanze for the night and wanted to take me to dinner, so we headed back to the guest house. Greg drove up as soon as Pascal dropped me off, so I hopped in his car without showering or anything. I smelled so gross and was so dirty, but Greg didn't seem to mind. We went and got pizza and I told him about the day, and then he took me home, I showered away the day, and went to bed. I had to get up early the next morning to visit one of Becky's schools -- but that is another blog post.