Highlight of the day: taking pictures with a group of children along the side of the road.
After a very peaceful sleep I believe the jetlag is gone. Thanks melatonin. :)
Kibuye is a gorgeous town surrounded by lush mountains and Lake Kivu, which could blow up at any time because of the methane gas that is below the lake's surface. Apparently this only happens about every 70,000 years...it does make me wonder when the last explosion and mass extinction took place.
Catherine and I spent the morning enjoying our lake view and decided to skip the usual white bread and omelette breakfast in favour of tea and fruit. After deciding what we should do for the day we took a taxi (cost $10) into town and had lunch at a small local restaurant that served a buffet of rice, spaghetti, beans, potatoes, (goat?) meat, sardines, green vegetables and some sort of tomato broth (cost $3).
After lunch we walked through the town of Kibuye (approx pop. 48,000). We attempted to bribe a woman carry a basket of bananas on her head for a picture. Turns out the joke was on us and we paid for a large bunch of bananas and didn't get our picture. However, the woman walking past us was quite happy when we gave her all the bananas to take home.
After an hour of walking we tried to get a taxi back to our hotel only to discover that there aren't really any - except if you get one directly from your hotel or you choose to brave the motorcycle taxis, which we were not prepared to do. We walked some more - this time down a looong hill towards a local resort where we thought we could call a taxi. Turns out we went the wrong way and could turn around and walk back up the looong hill or call our hotel to arrange a pick up. Thanks to Jacob the owner of our hotel for coming to our rescue. Yes, we could have done this earlier but we didn't realize we had the number! Oops.
After many years of travelling and after being lost in so many locations around the world, I often have the most fun when things don't go according to plan, and welcome the unknown. This latest incident was no exception. It appeared that the people of Kibuye were just as, if not more fascinated with Catherine and I as we were with them. Throughout the day we overheard "Mizunga, Mizunga" which means white person or foreigner. Unfortunately, many of the kids we encountered would follow it with asking for money. But the kids we met along the side of the road as we waited for our ride were happy to practice their English with us, let us take photos and show them themselves on our digital camera screens, and ask where we are from. At one point I believe there were 20 people (adults and children) standing around us staring.
The adventures of 'Mel and Cath's East African Adventure' continues...
