Rwanda Tourism Info

Rwanda Tourism Information
Rwanda a “land of thousand hills” like it is usually referred to has put in place measures to help improve and boost the tourism industry. It has a number of features ranging from attractive beaches, Lakes, mountains, rich game reserves, favorable climate, rich cultural heritage of arts and crafts and the national museum.
Some of the well known attractive features include; Lake Muhazi, Lake Kivu, places like Chyangugu, Butare, Kiniji, Kigali and Gisenyi, the Kigali memorial center, Ntarama church and Aziz life experiences Rwanda.
There are 3 national parks each with varying attractive features namely;

Akagera National park
The covers 1122 square kilometers of land and located in the eastern part of Rwanda. It has some of the breezy cultivated hills that characterize much of Rwanda and harbors some herds of elephants, buffaloes, the Giraffe, the Zebra, the chest nut coated impala, secretive bush buck and some of the largest antelopes.

Nyungwe national park
This park covers about 1000 square kilometers of land and located in the south western part of Rwanda bordering Burundi and Lake Kivu. It has Africa’s largest protected mountain rain forest and the park is a source of many Africa great rivers. Recently canopy walks were introduced in the park to view the bio diversity of this rare rain forest. It also has about 13 species of primates including the Angola Colobus, golden and owl faced monkeys and others. There are 280 species of birds, the myriad orchids, butterflies, moths and other fascinating insects.
The community groups around the park are involved in making handicrafts, doing music and dance plus other artisan skills and in addition networks of walking and hiking trails have been made in this park.

Volcanoes national park
Gorilla park covering about 7800 square kilometers of land located in the far North West part of Rwanda helps protect the steep slopes of the magnificent mountain ranges, a home of the rare mountain gorilla and has some rich mosaic of the montane ecosystem. There are also some colorful birds and some golden monkeys in the area.

The main safari Activities in Rwanda include;
– Chimpanzee Tracking
– Wildlife viewing

Gorilla trekking.
This is a prominent activity in the volcanoes national park. These are mainly the silver back gorillas that are peaceable and tolerant to visitors. Some of the gorilla families of interest include; Susa with 41 gorillas, Sabinyo which is led by a powerful silver back, Amahoro with 17 members, Group 13 with 25 members, Kwitonda with 18 members, Umubano with 11 members and Hirwa that is a mixture of Sabinyo and Group 13 group members.

Birding.
The albertine rift, dense forests and mountains create a unique and remarkable environment for the eco tourist to enjoy.
Some of the bird species include elusive shoebill stork, red faced Barbet, Wood peckers, Caruthers and Taboracisticolas mainly in Akagera national park.

Music and Dance performances.
These range from demonstrations of bravery and excellence to humorous dance styles plus lyrics to artistry based on traditional agricultural roots.
The Rwandese people also make traditional handi crafts that include ceramics and basketry to traditional wood carvings plus contemporary paintings. These are available in the Caplaki craft village, Ivuka Arts, Atrac craft village and others. The Imigongo or cow dung paintings are found in Nyakarambi village.

Events calendar activities.
Some of the events like “Kwita Izina” which is an event where a born child is named including the newly born gorillas by the rangers or concerned authorities attracts people from all destinations of the world. This is a practice that has been ongoing for close to 3 decades.
There is also a pan African dance festival that was set up by the 67th council of ministers and is held every two years where people meet and discuss issues pertaining the cultural, political, social and economic development of Africa which also attracts several people to Rwanda.