5 DAY REMARKABLE RWANDA GORILLA REAL EXPERIENCE.
Remarkable Rwanda is one of the world’s most captivating and sought after destinations. From near destruction in the tragic 1994 genocide to a never before seen reconciliation, recovery, and period of peace and stability.
On this 5 day remarkable Rwanda gorilla real experience and Diana Fossey research center tour, you realize by yourself that Rwanda has highly improved in the sector of tourism. Rwanda is now considered a leader in the region and is an innovative developing country, which bans plastic bottles, is the 7th safest place to walk alone at night in the world, and has the world’s highest representation of women in Parliament.
Rwanda is home to some of the most special animal encounters on the planet. You will get to trek and spend time with rare and endangered mountain gorillas and the unique and playful Golden Monkeys in the Volcanoes National Park.
Your visit wouldn’t be complete without a local cultural experience, which often surprises us as being one of the most memorable parts of a tour.
Rwanda truly earns its title of being “Remarkable”
DAY 1: ARRIVAL AT KIGALI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
Welcome to Rwanda!
Upon arrival, you will be met by our expert tour representative and driver-guide. After clearing customs and collected the luggage, you will be transferred to your accommodation and provided with a detailed briefing of the itinerary. Your tour guide will help with check-in so you may freshen up and relax with the hotel facilities. Overnight stay at your accommodation.
DAY 2: KIGALI GENOCIDE MEMORIAL AND TRANSFER TO VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK
After breakfast, your driver/guide will you at the reception at 8:30 am to check out of the hotel. The activity for today, 1/2 day Kigali City Tour, which includes the Kigali Genocide Memorial.
Kigali Genocide Memorial.
This is an extremely moving, challenging, educational, and ultimately inspiring memorial and a great place to understand the cause, tragedy, and successful rebuilding post-genocide.
The reconciliation and rebuilding have been miraculous and these memorials are built to inform, educate, and prevent such a tragedy from ever occurring again.
The tour is very transparent and educational but somber and humbling when you realize that over 250,000 deceased are buried on the site of the memorial. Guaranteed to feel every emotion during this visit.
The most common question that goes through a visitor’s mind is, “would I be capable of that level of forgiveness if I found myself in this situation”. That’s a true inspiration.
After the visit of the memorial site, you will be transferred to the historical Hotel Des Mille Collines commonly known as “Hotel Rwanda” for Lunch.
After lunch, embark for a scenic 2.5 hours transfer to the Northern part of Rwanda, which is the gateway to the great mountain gorillas. Upon arriving, you will be welcomed by the experienced team who will assist with check-in.
After a brief freshen up, we will provide a unique, informative, and amazing activity that goes behind the scenes with The Gorilla Doctors and hear about the conservation work of protecting the gorillas since 1986.
The professional veterinarians and conservationists play a huge role in ensuring future population growth by treating injured and sick mountain gorillas. With only 1063 left in the world and none are in captivity, these animals could be wiped out by one devastating and unchecked illness that could spread throughout the population. They will show a presentation of their history, work, and achievements by educating you on the behaviors and language of the mountain gorilla. This adds huge value to your trek tomorrow.
After the presentation at your Lodge, you will head for dinner and overnight at your accommodations.
DAY 3: ALIFE TIME EXPERIENCE, MOUNTAIN GORILLA TREK
Today, experience a trek to be up close and personal with the rare mountain gorillas. There are only around 1063 of these magnificent creatures left in the world with 1/3 in the Volcanoes National Park.
After an early breakfast, you will be met and transferred to the park headquarters for check-in. Here you will be educated about the trek, gorilla behavior and divided into groups of suitable fitness. The trek can take between 2-6 hours depending on the movements of the animals. This is considered one of the great natural animal encounters on the planet. The rangers/trackers will lead you deep into the forest, which will take you up and down the rugged terrain until you finally meet these harmonious creatures. After the trek, return to your lodge for lunch and relax for the afternoon to share stories and photographs. Dinner and overnight stay at your accommodation.
DAY 4: GOLDEN MONKEY TREK AND IBYIWACU CULTURAL VILLAGE
After an early breakfast, you will leave for the Golden Monkey trek at 7 am. Golden Monkeys are very rare and nowhere in Africa is there better access to large habituated numbers than right here in Rwanda.
The trek to the Golden Monkey is easier than to the gorilla trek and these unique, playful, and beautiful creatures will entertain for a good hour. Returning to your lodge for lunch, you will then proceed to Iby’iwacu Cultural Village, which is at the foothill of Volcanoes National Park. At the Ibyiwacu Cultural Village, you will experience the traditional lifestyle of the Rwandan pre-colonial period. The village is fascinating with a variety of cultural experiences and probably the best way to get to know the local people and their ‘ways of living” is to take part in daily life activities. You will be taught millet grinding using stones and a brief introduction on how to preparing a local dish i.e. (Ubugari, Igikoma, etc).
The wider part of the experience is IGITARAMO, where all gather around a campfire with drums and local dances before sunset.
After the visit, you transfer back to your lodge for a hot dinner and overnight at your accommodation.
DAY 5: THE DIANA FOSSEY RESEARCH CENTRE AND TRANSFER TO KIGALI AIRPORT
After lunch, check out and transfer to the Dian Fossey Research Center and visit the Karisoke Research Center. This center provides an interactive look into gorilla conservation.
The Karisoke Research Center, founded by the late Dr. Dian Fossey almost 50 years ago, has been housed in a variety of facilities over the years and is currently located in the Rwandan town of Musanze, outside Volcanoes National Park where the gorillas live.
This past summer, the Fossey Fund staff have created exciting exhibition space at the Karisoke building. It is now open to the public and provides a variety of information, photographs, videos, historic objects, and interactive activities about gorilla conservation and their work.
The Karisoke exhibit has been designed to complement the experience of gorilla-trekking that draws many visitors to Rwanda and is also meant to help enhance the Fossey Fund’s expanding conservation education programs for local students and the surrounding community. What’s in the exhibit:
The Karisoke exhibit consists of seven sections:
* Gorillas: Overview, behavior, life history of mountain gorillas
* Dian Fossey and the history of Karisoke
* Conservation and challenges
* Biodiversity: Other animals and plants in the forest
* Working with local communities
* The Virunga mountains
* Grauer’s gorillas in eastern Congo
All of the exhibit’s sections include panels and posters filled with information and photos, and many also include iPads with videos. The gorilla section teaches you about their diet, behavior, and social structure complete with skeletal models and audio recordings of gorilla vocalizations.
The Dian Fossey section: Includes original artifacts from her cabin and a variety of historic photos, while actual snares can be seen in the conservation section. The biodiversity section includes skulls of buffalo, bushbuck, and duiker, as well as an elephant jaw.
The most “high-tech” section of the exhibit is the “Virtual Virungas,” which was built in collaboration with the Center for GIS and Imaging Lab, in the College of Design at the Georgia Institute of Technology. It is a 3D model of the volcanic Virunga mountains, using satellite imagery projected onto a bed of sand, while a variety of controls are used to apply historic mountain gorilla ranging data and topographic maps showing how the gorilla habitat and ranging have changed over time.
Later after this amazing activity, we will start our 2 hours scenic transfer to Kigali for a fun farewell dinner with the Silverback Luxury Tours Team at Khana Khazana Restaurant, one of the best in Kigali. After Dinner, you will be transferred to the International Airport for your outbound flight back home.