Virunga - Take One

To celebrate Johannes’ birthday, we decided to spend the weekend at Virunga Lodge in northern Rwanda near the town of Ruhengeri and Volcanoes National Park. We left last Friday morning after our usual stop at Bourbon for café lattes and fruit crepes. The drive to Ruhengeri is quick – just two hours from Kigali – despite being one of the worst roads in Rwanda (embarrassingly sponsored by the World Bank), which is unfortunate because it is one of the most-traveled, particularly by tourists on their way to see the mountain gorillas. That said, the views are spectacular – drastic drops into river valleys below and luscious green rolling hills as far as the eye can see.

After driving the last 30 minutes up a steep hill on a disastrous dirt road, we finally reached Virunga Lodge. Its location is unbeatable – situated on a hill between Lake Bulera and Lake Ruhondo with impressive views of the five big volcanoes in the park. Many famous folks have stayed at the lodge, including Rahm Emanuel, Hillary Clinton, Don Cheadle, and Bill Gates, but they all probably arrived by helicopter! : )

Virunga Lodge

Mt. Muhabura

The breathtaking view from the lodge

Our main goal for the weekend was to relax since we have plans to come again and see the mountain gorillas in late November with some friends. On our first evening we watched some of the local villagers put on a traditional Intore dance and then Johannes went off to get a massage while I settled in with a good book. For dinner, we managed to avoid the group table in the dining room by requesting our own special table for two in the bar area with a warm fire nearby (it gets COLD up there!) and enjoyed a delicious meal, complete with some whiskey for Johannes and a glass of Amarula (a South African cream liqueur that is made from the fruit of the elephant tree and tastes like caramel) for me.

Intore dancers

On Saturday we ate a late breakfast with fresh mango and then set off with our guides for the village walk down to Lake Bulera. The whole time children from the village waved at us, yelled “muzungus!”, or even walked along with us for awhile. After a couple hours we reached the lake and went for a canoe ride where, interestingly, the village women were in charge of paddling and steering the boat. We continued on our way with sightings of many interesting birds and even a chameleon! Following a quick stop at the local hydropower plant and a sampling of banana beer in another village, we got a ride back to the lodge.

Johannes and his new friends

While Virunga Lodge was pretty amazing, Johannes and I couldn’t help but compare it to Nyungwe, which we both liked a lot more. Virunga has more of a “rustic” flare – the public toilets are more like outhouses, there is not always hot water for a shower, there are no fancy bath products in the bathrooms, etc. As Johannes said, “Do you think Hillary brought her own shampoo?” We, of course, hadn’t – honestly, at that price, we were expecting more. Man, do we sound spoiled! ; )