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Things to do in Rwanda in a Day - Part 1
THINGS TO DO IN RWANDA IN DAY PART 1
Where is Rwanda?
A virtual guide to "The Land of a Thousand Hills". Rwanda is a relative small landlocked, hilly country in Central Africa, located south of the Equator and east of Lake Kivu, one of the African Great Lakes. It’s bordered by Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania and Uganda.
Stuck in Rwanda and You Don’t Know What To Do?
With its varied ecosystems and abundance, Rwanda offers numerous activities unique to the country and region. Here are a few unique things tourists can see and do while visiting Rwanda.
Kigali City Tour: Mentioned activities takes about 6 hours. Kigali is a beautiful city and voted one of the cleanest cities in the world. Some of the must see places in Kigali are Nyamirambo Old Town (Nyamirambo), Kigali Genocide Memorial (Gisozi), Campaign Against Genocide Museum, lunch at one of the local restaurants, pay a visit at the Presidential Palace (Kanombe), visit the Richard Kandt Natural Museum (Nyarugenge), Souvenirs Shopping, Kimironko and Caplaki craft village.
Explore Akagera National Park: Game drive takes approximately 15 hours. With all talk focused on mountain gorillas, it’s easy to forget that Rwanda is also excellent for game drives and standard wildlife safaris. Akagera National Park is composed of swamps, savannah plains, woodlands, lakes, rivers and terraced hills. It’s now home to all the Big 5 animals (lions, rhinoceroses, elephants, buffaloes and leopards). Thus, offering tourists a chance to experience a full wildlife safari in Rwanda taking into consideration other adventures like gorilla trekking, chimpanzee tracking, cultural encounters and mountain climbing.
The King’s Palace and Huye Package: This activity is just about 12 hours.
The King’s Palace specifically has been turned into museum for visitors who are interested in learning about the country’s past and, offers tourists a detailed look into the Rwandan traditional seat of their Monarchy. If you’re visiting the southern part of Rwanda or are on your way to Nyungwe National Park, ensure that you stop at the Museum. It’s an impressive museum made entirely with traditional materials.
Ethnographic Museum is located in Huye. It’s one of the most beautiful structures in the city, the museum wins top marks for having one of the best ethnological and archaeological collections in the entire region. Has seven exhibition halls which hold some very fascinating items; museum shop, geological displays, flaunt items used in agriculture, hunting, animal husbandry, weaving, pottery, woodwork, traditional clothing and everything is unusually well lit and presented. The museum is also the venue where the Intore dancers and drummers perform so that’s a plus.
Traditional Candle Dipping and Hive Making Experience: The duration of activity is 10 hours approximately. Take a step back in time and learn the traditional techniques for bee keeping before building your own hive. Eventually, you’ll learn how to prepare the wax and how to dip your own pair of bees wax candles. The group have been working hard on making 100% pure and natural dipped beeswax candles.
Cow Dung Painting Experience (Imigongo): The activity takes 9 hours roughly. Most contemporary Imigongo is now found off hut walls as smaller-scale artworks however, process of making it starts with a wooden base plate that can range in size from a tiny photo frame to large scale wall mural. Finished designs are either in sketches geometric patterns, zigzags, spirals, diamonds, or squares. The main medium is a mixture of fresh cow dung and ash which kills bacteria and odor. It takes the work about a day to air dry, and then it’s sanded for smoothness and covered in a neutral base coat of ochre to ensure that the rest of the colors will show up in uniform hues.
Traditional Coffee Experience: Duration of trip is about 12 hours. Rwanda is known for exporting some of the finest coffee in Africa. In fact, coffee farming is aided in part by the fertile volcanic soils, high altitude and good weather in the country. Coffee plantation tours can be organized for tourists who are interested in learning about how the cash crop is grown and processed. Tours involve observing how the workers plant the crop, pick, select, wash, dry and turn them into final products ready for consumption. Every tour should end with tasting locally prepared coffee also known as African coffee (coffee with milk and other flavours).
Traditional Pottery Experience: This takes 9 hours roughly. Travellers undergo pottery experience by giving you the chance to try your hands at creating your own piece like pot, vase or even piggy bank. Local potters take you through the entire pottery making process and show you how and where they work. You need to be delicate and not apply much pressure with your fingers, it really is an art and a lengthy process. Travellers who don’t always have the luxury of time don’t get to participate in the whole process nonetheless, get the chance to work the clay which is the most captivating part anyway.
To sum up, Rwanda is a country that’s blessed with enthralling attractions ranging from the natural attractions to the man-made attractions which create the interest for tourists to visit the country. Don’t miss to explore places furthermore, do activities in this beautiful country to unleash your passion for compelling things and leave the country with total satisfaction.
