Ana Lake Kivu

This might have been the perfect day.  Waking up to birds singing seems like the most relaxing and natural alarm clock possible.  After having breakfast outside on the water, Cynthia, Amy, Tommy, and I decided to walk to the hot springs about 1 km up from the hotel.  We knew that we had to be back at 11:30 when Emmy would pick us up for lunch, so we went straight after breakfast.   We practiced our Kinyarwanda as we walked along passing people on the roads, and I even got to practice my Taekwondo moves with some cheeky young boys smiling as they acted like martial arts masters trying to engage us in combat.   They finally conceded while running away smiling and laughing as my trained white-belt form degraded into the last ditch strategy of a crazy white woman wide-eyed screaming while kicking and punching.  It was hilarious and they were clearly amused and shocked that I engaged and played with them. 

In years past, you could walk right up to the hot springs and see the locals bathing and washing things in the steaming hot water as it bubbled up through the ground.  I’ve even heard about, but never seen, that people will bring potatoes to cook in the boiling puddles.  This year was different.  In the true spirit of entrepreneurship, the community has developed a co-op, built a bamboo fence around the hot springs, and has begun charging 1000RwF (Rwandan Francs) to visit the site.  

We gladly paid for the visit since the money goes back to the local community, but were also pleasantly surprised to find four local Rwandans ready to receive us and put our feet in warm mud, sit us down for foot and arm massages, and rub medicinal herbs all over our exposed white skin.  It was quite the amazing experience rivaling a recent trip I paid hundreds of dollars for in Calistoga, California for the same treatments.  They were enthusiastic to pamper us with their treasured local resource and they actually did a fantastic job exfoliating and massaging.  We all agreed that we were perfectly relaxed afterward and gladly paid another fee for their services.

We walked back to the Paradise Malahide and met up with Emmy who planned to take us to a California inspired local restaurant called Calafia.  The food was welcomed familiarity with amazing salads, sandwiches, and fish tacos.   After lunch we found ourselves in a local bar lined up in plastic chairs amongst many local men facing a large but solitary television set airing the Arsenal v. Hull City soccer game.  We were all so full and heavy from lunch that we left at halftime with half empty beers left on the table. 

Again back at the hotel, we debated between taking naps and doing a lawn yoga session led by a San Franciscan yogi via a podcast on Amy’s phone.  Thankfully we all chose the latter.  It definitely made us all less tired and heavy and somewhat energized to shower and come back to hang out for drinks and dinner.  Sitting by the water, we chatted while drinking beer and wine in between a red and grey sunset and the full yellow moon.  The food was great and we are all in our rooms early preparing to get up early in the morning for a 5am departure so the three others can start their gorilla treks in the volcanic mountains of Ruhengari.

Ana