It just don’t feel like Christmas
on Rose Hardman (Rwanda), 25/Dec/2010 11:04, 34 days ago
Unsurprisingly Pete had a very big lie in the morning after the gorillas. Whilst he was sleeping I went into town to buy breakfast and decided to splash out on Heinz beans. These were the first baked beans I had in Rwanda and they were fab. We ate them out on the veranda spotting all the wonderful birds they have in Ruhengeri. It was so peaceful. We had a leisurely rest of day as I showed Pete round Ruhengeri and we checked out the market. We had wanted to get a toaster as a present for Roisin but after trying to explain to at least four different shops what I was looking for and all of them thinking I was looking for toast and not the actual toaster we gave up. I guess my limited Kinyarwanda of‘machine’, ‘hot’ and ‘bread’ just didn’t cut it.On Christmas Eve we headed to Gisenyi. The journey to Gisenyi has wonderful scenery and it was Pete’s first trip through Rwandan countryside in daylight. When we arrived in Gisenyi we took motos to Paradis Malahide. Half way up a steep hill my moto driver ran out of fuel which was interesting. By picking the moto up and shaking it he managed to find enough fuel to head back down the hill toa petrol station. Paradis Malahide was stunning. It has its own private beach, a gorgeous restaurant and relaxing area with an open fire, and the private beach accommodation is lovely. Private beach at Paradis MalahideChristmas Day started in Hotel Serena where we took full advantage of the all you can eat buffet. I made sure we ate every course- 8 in total! We were so stuffed by the end of it we decided to try and walk it off so took a leisurely stroll to the DRC/Rwanda border. There wasn’t much to see once we got there but it was a nice walk along the waterfront. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel to relax. I managed to read one of the Christmas books that Pete gave me in a day! In the afternoon one of the other guests had chartered a boat so a group of us went on a boat tripto the local islands. One of them has a hot spring where some children were cooking potatoes! It didn’t feel like Christmas day as such but it was a really lovely day.