Road Trip #2-Wow!

It seemed like a busy week.  We returned from the rain forest last Sunday and late that afternoon two unannounced guests arrived.  Since I am now the official tour guide of the orphanage, I showed them around.  They are two German medical students, Bartu and Chris, whom had just finished up a surgical rotation in Butare, a town a few hours away.  I guess there isn’t actually a lot of surgery performed at this hospital due to lack of equipment and supplies and amputations seem to be a popular procedure.  Still, they were ready for some R&R and a friend who was a previous volunteer here sent them our way.  They planned to stay for one night but they stayed for four. 

We finally made it down to Mugonero market with them on Tuesday (it was a day early due to a national holiday on Wednesday that no one could seem to explain), and more guests (two women from Britian) arrived that evening.  That prompted Victor to throw a somewhat crazy little party on Tuesday evening.  I am now quite familiar with Rwandan pop music as well as some European.  At one point in the evening a limbo contest broke out, with a broomstick as the limbo pole.  Let’s just say a good time was had by all.

Our moto taxis arrived at 6:00 am on Thursday to take Janek, Beata and me on our Congo adventure.  I will be upfront here and admit that half the reason I did this was to get the Congo stamp on my passport.  Some of you will understand that (Katlin, if you are reading this I thought specifically of you).  But it was way, way worth it.

We stopped in Kigali to load up on food for the hike and also met Cristina for lunch.  She seems to be thriving in Kigali but will return to the orphanage this week.  Then we were off to Gisenye where we spent the night.  We headed out to the border (Gisenye and Goma are side by side) at 8:00 the next morning and the process to enter the Congo was surprisingly simple and easy.  Our guide from the park met us at the border in what looked to be a huge former military transport truck.  Most comfy ride we have had so far.

The DRC is one of the poorest countries on earth but I did wonder if I was going to be able to detect a noticeable difference from poor to poorer.  But there was no doubt we were in a different country.  The first thing you notice is the amount of barbed wire and also that about every third vehicle is a UN car or truck and there are several large UN compounds just outside of town.  The airport has a wrecked jet sitting at the end of the runway.  I guess it crashed a few years ago and they just haven’t bothered to move it.  The housing is denser and definitely more dilapidated.  The markets feel more desperate as well.  The USAID stamp is everywhere.  And yet, the people were friendlier and less uptight than the Rwandans.  Go figure. 

We had a quick stop at the office where two older American women and a son of one of them joined us.  (Louis works for Human Rights Watch in Kigali but spent over two years in Goma and was quite knowledgeable).  We arrived at the park where we met the rest of the group, four deaf Germans, and after loading up our porters and getting a short orientation, we were off.  Two armed guards/guides with us, of course.

It was a very nice hike up Nyiragongo (the head cold I had wasn’t so nice).  We were slowed a bit as one of the Germans was ill and they would not break up the group, but still a good hike.  I wouldn’t say that loose lava rock is my favorite hiking surface but hey, what can you do.  This volcano last erupted in 2002 and much of the trail is along that lava path. 

We arrived at the top in the late afternoon and settled in and had some dinner.  They recently built some little wood and metal A-frame huts at the top that have two cots and provide some shelter from the wind.  The wind really was nuts during the night so I can imagine how fun a tent would be.  I had taken an early peek at the lava lake but it was nothing compared to want we saw once it got dark.  I’ve searched my brain for the right words to describe it but all I can come up with is ‘It was so friggin cool!!!’  Sorry, I have never been too eloquent.

Mother Nature is amazing.  The lake is a hot pot of boiling lava that looks so alive and powerful.  Fire patches that move about the pool and a ring of fire around the perimeter.  The crater itself is about 800 meters deep (yet you can still feel the heat) and incredibly steep with the lake glowing and growling in the middle.  My pictures will never ever do it justice.  If it had not been so windy and a bit cold, I could have stared at it for hours. 

Not much to do after that but read a bit, try to get warm and turn in for the night.  We were up early for one last look at the lake and then we started our decent.  Did I mention I’m not a fan of loose lava rockJ  But after the steepest part, it was just a long good hike down.  We didn’t get back to town until about 1:00 but Louis recommended an Indian restaurant that was outstanding.  The food in Rwanda lacks a bit of flavor so we were pretty happy to have that opportunity.  A short walk back to the border and we were out of the Congo.  I had promised Janek a helicopter rescue should we be kidnapped so I think he was a bit disappointed that didn’t happen (he wrote his masters thesis on the whole ‘Blackhawk Down’ Somalia incident) 

We headed back to Kigali on Sunday where I left Janek and Beata. There is a concert on Monday night that they want to see but I was eager to get back to the orphanage.  It was a long day but I arrived back at the Hilton (aka guesthouse) just in time for one of Rasta’s excellent pizza dinners, a warm beer and a good night’s sleep.  All and all, a great weekend.