Unique And Authentic Experience With The Locals

 Rwanda has long been seen as the premiere destination for gorilla tracking, but today more than ever there are dozens of reasons to extend your stay. Visit a Community-based tourism, where you will have a glimpse into traditional life, and, most importantly, where management and benefits remain with the community.  Community Based Tourism is a source of complementary income that local use to improve their standard of living and to preserve their culture and eco-systems. Go beyond the car window and experience what life is like for the local people                                                                        A small village deep in a gorgeous valley located at 15 km away from the Uwinka in the heart of Nyungwe National Park Forest. This village represents ideal locale where people have lived for more than 50,000 years.  The community gives tourists an opportunity to realize the enriching cultural experiences at the heart of contemporary Rwanda where you will be welcomed by cheering and thrilling blowing up of interlock beats and entertaining traditional songs. The tours provide guests the opportunity to participate in activities such as local food tasting, basket weaving maize-grinding, medicine-making, and if you’re lucky, you might able to attend a traditional wedding ceremony.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GUARDIANS (IBY’IWACU CULTURE VILLAGE)                                                      Gorilla Guardians Village is a fascinating culture experience where guardians are reformed poachers who once made their living poaching the country’s amazing mountain gorillas. A visit to Gorilla Guardians Village will give you a rare chance to meet local people, in their environment, with a taste of our culture and traditions.  A guided community walk through this village will reward you with unusual and unforgettable experience as you visit different sites in this community. Visiting the king’s house true copy and listening to all the Kings’ stories and meaning of all items within this house graced with the theatrical ceremony of enthroning you as the king by the village elder, will give you nothing but a flavor and immense experience of a real African royal for a moment. Listen to interesting stories about traditional medicine from a local traditional healer and get to know how medicinal trees, shrubs, grass are used to cure local patients, Attend a local banana brewery process and have a taste on local banana beer, Explore the Batwa pottery making experience, lessons and engagement. Take time to listen to the famous songs of the gorillas sang by the famous Ngayabatema as you sit back and meditate upon the conservation evolution of this endangered ape in the Virunga. Although it is mainly used to provide day trippers with a ‘cultural experience’, you can also stay the night, and that’s when things get interesting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

KiTABI ECOCENTER                                                                                                                     Located at the eastern edge of Nyungwe forests, Kitabi EcoCenter offers a spectacular, panoramic views with neat terraced farms hovering on endless hills; light green tea plantation, the dark green trees of Nyungwe Forest and a seemingly endless sky. Kitabi cultural village has a variety of cultural encounters that include a model of king’s palace museum, traditional camp sites and restaurants. Visitors get a chance to learn and take part in different activities such as attending, local food tasting, traditional milk preservation traditional bow-and-target shooting, dance ceremonies, and banana beer production.

 

                                                            

 

 

 

 

Unity and Reconciliation Village (Igiti cy’umuvumu)

As Nelson Mandela put it, “it always seems impossible until it is done.” In Unity and Reconciliation Village named Igiti cy’umuvumu (Sycamore Tree) survivors of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi lives alongside the perpetrators, those that butchered their loved ones. Besides the harmonious union in villages where the survivors currently live with no fear, next to the perpetrators, they work together, eat together, but most of all, they have embraced reconciliation through intermarriages. Unity and Reconciliation Village is located in the Bugesera district of Rwanda, about 40km south of Kigali city. Visit Unit and Reconciliation Village and eyewitness what seems to be impossible.