Monday, May 28, 2018

Drive back to Kigali

May 27, 2018

I drove back to Kigali in the morning to return the rental car, completing my circuit of northwestern Rwanda. Again, I was pleased to have a 4X4 with high ground clearance, as the road was rough at times.

I dropped off the car and checked into a hotel. A walk down the hill brought me to the Kigali Genocide Memorial, built on the site of a mass grave of an estimated 250,000 people. My heart leapt to my throat when I heard the number.

A walk back up the hill (1) whet my appetite. As I dined on a balcony, I watched the sunset over the western hills as the headlights of the moto-taxis bounced up and down the dirt roads. 

(1) Rwanda is known as the land of a thousand hills (mille collines (a)). I think that figure represents a drastic undercount.

(a) Also the name of the fanciest hotel in Kigali and the subject of the movie: Hotel Rwanda, about the Genocide.

On the road from Kibuye to Kigali
Arch, common in Rwanda, in lieu of "Welcome to" sign
Kigali
View from hotel to the west

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