Lake Kivu

(Pictures of Lake Kivu - Top, fishing boats going out at dusk, they are the most interesting looking vessels I have seen, with long wooden arms attached to drop the nets, these three were bound together I suppose to haul a really big net; Bottom, across the lake, with the DRC mountains in the distance.)

After our amazing gorilla hike, we decided to check out Lake Kivu which is along Rwanda's western border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). We were lucky enough to get a ride with our Belgian friends to the lake from Parc National des Volcans.

The Belgians

I initially noticed these two at Lake Bunyonyi because they arrived in their vehicle and had this awesome rooftop tent, then, when we ran into them again at Volcans, we struck up a travelers-relationship. Their names are something like Jorgda and Jouquin. They are driving from Belgium to Cape Town over a year and they had some good stories about their trip.

They explained that in Belgium, companies with 50 employees or more are required to provide 5 years off to employees. Many people take this for having children or sick parents and to travel. While the employee is gone, the company hires someone from the unemployment rolls so the government gets one person off and pays the one who is on the sabbatical their "unemployment" so the public expenditure is not affected. Good system!

It was great to get a ride with them to the lake because the motorcycle ride to Volcans was pain-FUL! It was bumpy and carrying a backpack while balancing on one of those things is a serious ab-workout, like doing a crunch for 20 minutes while squeezing your thighs together to keep your balance. Needless to say, I was very happy to accept a ride.

Lake Kivu

Lake Kivu is a giant lake separating Rwanda's eastern border from the DRC. It is very beautiful but is kept from being a full-resort area because (1) is adjacent to the DRC, (2) some bad stuff happened here during the genocide, and (3) I might be the only one who would mention this, but it is one of the lakes in the world where a fatal limnic eruption may occur. The lake is on top of a large methane pocket and if an earthquake or other geologic event dislodged a large amount of methane, the gas would bubble up, then settle over the lake and the towns, displacing all of the oxygen and suffocating all life that happens to be there at the time. As the Lonely Planet notes, there is nothing one can do if this happens during your visit and the final scent one may expect in her life is a horrible earthly fart.

Two of these eruptions occurred in lakes in Cameroon in the 1980s and killed a couple of thousand people. I was not worried about this during our stay because eruptions had never been recorded at Lae Kivu and the local beer brewery (for Primus beer) was using the methane to power its beer-making, thereby potentially relieving some of the gaseous pressure. What a corporate citizen! (Apparently, the gov't is also studying how they can use this resource which could be a significant source of power for the country and would make the 2 million people who live on Lake Kivu's shores safe from death by methane-suffocation.)

We checked out some hotels in the big Rwandan town on the lake (Gisinyi) but decided to get to a smaller location, another moto ride with giant backpacks on (I am getting used to these, we just can't get the car-taxis to compete on price with the cost of two motos, maybe in Tanzania we will have better luck). We arrived at a place recommended in the LP and were greeted heartily by the staff...until they learned we did not have a reservation. They solemnly explained that they were full for two nights. It turned out it was 40,000 Rwandan francs a night ($80) so too rich for our blood. But, they had les maison available. What? The house? They took us two doors down to a private house, with no sign on it, which was completely empty save a housekeeper who did not speak english or french. It was 15,000 ($30), more up our alley, and the garden sloped right to the Lake's shores, so we put aside our trepidation at being the only guests in the residence and took the room.

It was in this lakeside town that I began to dislike being called a muzungu. This means white person in Kinarwanda, the local language. Walking along the streets of the small town, pretty much everyone turns to look at us. Scott is very friendly, callout Muraho (hello!) to groups that look for a long time, waving both of his giant paws at them. They almost invariably break into big smiles, pleased that we have tried the language and greet us back. Sometimes though, there is a group of older kids who mutter muzungu as we approach to alert their friends who turn and look. I have decided that I must respond with an elbow at Scott and perhaps a giggle before I mutter something like Silly Hombre and point at them, fight fire with fire! One other annoying thing that some kids say is "Muzungu, give me money!". My response which I like very much is "Give ME money" and I point emphatically to my outstretched hand. I did this in Kigali the other day and these construction dudes who witnessed it thought it was very funny, if I do say so myself. These annoyances aside, most people are very very friendly and the kids think we are fascinating, we had this funny walk at one point at the lake where, 4 toddlers saw us from across the street and came running full force at us, with one of them, like 3 years old, landing right into my legs and hugging me with that little toddler-hug that kids do around adult-legs. Very funny.

We spent three languid days at this spot doing very little other than take in the scenery which was very nice.