09/04/2012
What to see in Rwanda?
Wildlife / Birds:
Rwanda is home to the vast spectrum of East African wildlife and the wildlife is composed of its flora and fauna because it lies on fertile soils that support a very high animal population. Rwanda’s Akagera National Park, a savanna-dominated area in the north-east of the country that lies in the Victoria Basin, is still its largest, but has been reduced in size by over 60% in the last 10 years. Still, this area holds an interesting selection of species associated with a diversity of habitats: wetlands, woodlands, grasslands, riparian forest and bush country. Indeed, Akagera has one of the longest species lists for any conservation area in Africa: over 525 species have been recorded, with many birds reaching their northern limit here, such as Arnott's Chat Myrmecocichla arnotti, Purple-crested Turaco Tauraco porphyreolophus, Sousa’s Shike Lanius souzae, Tabora Cisticola Cisticola angusticaudus and Bennett’s Woodpecker Campethera bennettii. The park is one of the best places to search for the localised Red-faced Barbet Lybius rubrifacies, which can be seen around the entrance of the recently rebuilt Akagera Game Lodge. Also worthy of special mention are papyrus associated species, most significant of which is Shoebill Balaeniceps rex, which should be searched for along the lake shore.
Museums:
There are different museums in Rwanda and some of these are;
Butare is considered to be the intellectual center of the country with its National Museum, arboretum, and several academic and research institutions. The Butare museum is situated on more than 50 acres of land. The museum contents various types of Rwandan architecture, past ways of living and social organization, traditional clothing, adornment and recreation, prehistoric information, the chronology of the kings, traditional religious practices, marriage and music, handicraft items, geographic and linguistic information about Rwanda.
Rwesero Art museum is a museum in Nyanza, located at the top of the Rwesero hill in the area of Nyanza. It is linked to the Olympic Academy, the Cultural Center, the Sport Museum, the stadiums of diverse sports and lastly the Agora.
Kandt House Museum of Natural History was established in memory of the explorations and the discoveries of Richard Kandt. The goal of the museum is to present a clear picture of the evolution of the ground, animals and plants, and to explain the interdependency between living beings and their environment.
Lake Kivu:
It is the largest of numerous freshwater bodies that shimmer in the valleys of Rwanda. It lies on the border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, and is in the Albertine (western) Rift, a part of the Great Rift Valley. It's shores are surrounded by three resort towns; Gisenyi, the most developed of these resorts that lies less than an hour’s drive from the Volcanoes National Park. Kibuye facilitates tourism activities which are centered on a modern lakeshore guesthouse overlooking pine-covered hills seemingly transplanted from the Alps. Cyangugu is the closest resort to Nyungwe Forest, whose more subdued tourist development is compensated for by a stirring setting of curving inlets winding into narrow valleys.
Genocide Memorial Sites:
* Kigali genocide memorial center has been constructed in memory of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide that took almost 1 million lives in a few days. The Memorial Center is housed in its own new building in Rwanda's capital city of Kigali about 2 hours north of our main museum in Butare.
* Ntarama genocide memorial center is located about 30 kilometers south of Kigali, a capital city of Rwanda in the Bugasera region.
* Murambi genocide memorial center is located in an old school near the town of Gikongoro in the South-west section of Rwanda just about 30 minutes from our main museum in Butare.
* Bisesero genocide memorial center is sited about 31 kilometers from the lake side town of Kibuye.
* Nyamata genocide memorial center is positioned about 35 kilometers south of Kigali in the Bugasera region.
* Nyarubuye genocide memorial center is situated about 35 kilometers from the southern town of Kibungo. It is located in the Goma district.
