Wildlife
tourism
Akagera National Park
Rwanda being located in East Africa
has extensive natural beauty. Tour groups are led by an experienced guide who
specialises in teaching others about the landscape and wildlife of Rwanda.
Expeditions visit volcanoes, waterfalls, and rainforests that are home to many
different African animals.
Rwanda is home to a huge diverse population of animals
including mountain gorillas and the world's largest natural park for hippos
with some 20,000 are believed to live there. Although Rwanda is still
a developing country, it has quite a few hotels and its new international
interest in tourism is helping economic growth.
Plastic bags are banned in Rwanda,
and tourists are instructed not to bring them to the country.
Attractions
Volcanoes National Park
Mother and baby gorilla in volcanoes national park
Airport makes it the most
accessible gorilla national park in the world. Sharing a border with Uganda and the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, this national park in Rwanda is home
to a growing number of critically endangered mountain gorillas. Experts estimate
that there are about 600 gorillas in the park, which is a significant increase
from around 240-250 individuals in 1981. Besides gorillas, Volcanoes National park
is a home for golden monkeys, a variety of birds, reptiles, amphibians, and
insects among other creatures which together make a complete Rwanda safari
package. Volcanoes National Park is named after the chain of dormant volcanoes
making up the Virunga Massif; Bisoke with its verdant crater lake, Sabyinyo,
Gahinga, Muhabura, and the highest at 4,507 meters, Karisimbi.
Trekking at Volcanoes National Park
typically lasts between four and eight hours, most of which is spent hiking
through bamboo forests, meadows, and swampland. Guides from the national park
service will eventually lead you to one of the habituated gorilla families.
Visitors typically spend an hour observing the creatures as they eat, care for
their babies, and interact with each another.
Nyungwe Forest National Park
One of the oldest rainforests
in Africa, Nyungwe, is spectacularly beautiful and rich in biodiversity with a
total 1,068 plant species, including 140 orchid species, and also 322 species
of birds including red-collared babbler, along with 75 mammalian species such
as the serval cat, mongoose, congo clawless otter, and leopard to name a few.
Most tourists come to this rainforest to track chimpanzees, as well as 12 other
primate species, including the L’Hoest’s monkey endemic to the Albertine Rift.
The park is also home to the only canopy walk in East Africa, with it being
roughly a 90-minute hike from the Uwinka
Visitor Center.
Visitors walk across a 91-meter long suspension bridge dangling more than 50
meters above the verdant rainforest, getting a dizzying view of the treetops
and mountains in the distance.
Akagera National Park
A roughly two-and-a-half-hour
drive from Kigali is Akagera National Park.
Managed by the African Parks Organization, Akagera
National Park is located in eastern Rwanda with 2500 km2 (one of Central Africa's
largest protected wetlands) of mainly Savannah
land. The park is named after the Kagera
River that flows along Rwanda’s eastern boundary with Tanzania. The
river feeds into Lake
Ihema and other smaller
lakes in and around the park. The park protects an African savanna landscape of
acacia and bush with patches of open grassland and a dozen swampy lakes. It is
home to elephants, buffalo, giraffe, zebras, leopards, hyenas, lions, and
several antelopes like bushbucks, topis, oribis, water-buck, roan antelope,
duiker, klipspringer, impala, and world largest antelope, the cape eland.
Visitors can watch schools of hippos and Nile crocodiles basking in the sun
near Lake Ihema. The common primates in Akagera
national park are olive baboons, vervet monkeys, blue monkeys, and bush babies.
Visitors can also see the environment make a shift from savanna plains, to
wetlands, and to lakes.
Lake Kivu
Covering a surface area of
2,700 km2, Lake Kivu is Rwanda’s
largest lake and the sixth largest in Africa.Steep, terraced hills lead down to
the picturesque lake shore and the resort towns of Gisenyi, Kibuye, and
Cyangugu. These small towns serve as retreats from the sometimes strenuous
hikes to find gorillas and chimpazees in the surrounding Volcanoes and Nyungwe
Forest National Parks.Lake Kivu has a lively waterfront of sandy beaches mixed
with resorts.
More adventurous ways
visitors explore Rwanda are
through kayaking tours on Lake Kivu, mountain
biking, and hiking one of the 6 paths of the Congo Nile Trail.
King's Palace Museum
The star attraction at King's
Palace Museum,
which is one of Rwanda’s
eight national museums, are the sacred inyambo cows due to their staggeringly
large horns. Throughout the day traditional singers lull the cows into a mellow
state by belting poems, which is a ritual unique to Rwanda.
The museum showcases a
replica of a king's palace from the 15th century with a thatched roof, royal
hut, and a fresh milk hut traditionally run by an unmarried woman.
Tourists can also explore the
colonial-style home that was once the royal residence of King Mutara III
Rudahigwa in the mid 20th century. The interior design strikingly blends
Rwandan patterns with European-style furniture (some of which was actually
owned by the king).
Ethnographic
Museum
One of Africa's best
collections of ethnological and archeological artifacts can be found in Rwanda's ethnographic museum, located about 130
kilometers south of Kigali
in the Huye District. Belgium
gifted the museum to the city in 1989 in honor of the 25th anniversary of
Rwandan independence.
The ethnographic museum's
seven galleries take visitors back in time to precolonial Rwanda. The
galleries hold a collection of woven baskets, traditional garments made from
animal hides, woven grass spears and bows, musical drums from hundreds of years
ago, and old farming tools.
Visitors can step inside an
authentic royal home and learn how it was constructed. The museum also hosts live
handicraft demonstrations.
Kigali Genocide Memorial
Inaugurated on the 10th
anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide, the Kigali Genocide Memorial at Gisozi is
where 250,000 victims have been buried. This memorial serves to educate how the
genocide against the Tutsi took shape, and in addition it also examines other
genocides that took place during the 20th century.
The wall of names is
dedicated to those who died, though many of the victims of the genocide are
unknown and names have yet to be found, so it is still a work in progress.
The memorial gardens provide a place for quiet
contemplation about the history of the genocide against the Tutsi. While the
largest memorial is in Kigali, the genocide
touched all corners of Rwanda,
and as such there are many emotionally charged memorials located throughout the
country. Some are as simple as a quiet garden space for contemplation, while
others are larger and hold relics, remains, and exhibits on the genocide itself
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