Rwanda is a beautiful country, only problem is seeing the gorillas will take 500 US dollars from your wallet. I have been travelling around different area’s of Rwanda for about a week when I heard that you could see gorillas in Congo. Not only that but Congo host thousands of miles of untouched rainforest, massive active volcanoes, and a little bit of danger to make it exciting. A couple other Canadian’s I met in Uganda just arrived in Rwanda a few days ago, I asked them to come to Congo with me for a bit of extra security and they agreed (and on of them speaks French!!!!). We woke up early the following morning, packed our bags and were off to the bus station. The ride was incredible to the border. The luscious farm land slowly made way for pointy volcanoes , thick jungle, and very high mountain peaks.
Arriving into Gisenyi is where the excitement begins to build, the feeling you are entering a country that most backpackers rarely step foot into. The border was a straight forward hectic African border, the other Canadians with me forgot there yellow card thus having to bribe some random gentlemen behind the border. Then they informed us our visas will cost more … just because, we argued but she explained in French we don’t have to let you go to Congo… so we paid our 35 US dollar. Immediately after crossing the border the roads turn from smooth paved Rwandan roads to dusty black lava rock roads of Congo. The city name changes to Goma and what a change it feels like too. You get the sense very quickly you have entered a place not seen by to many tourists, there is barbed wired on every wall and road, beggars are usually amputees as well, and its very dusty from all the volcanic ash (not to mention all the stares you receive). We followed our guide book map to the shabby remains of what could have possibly been a great hostel at one time. The rooms were expensive going for 20 US dollar a night and we had to share. The owner informed us that there is to be no men sleeping in the same room because any detection of this would be hostile, also that in the previous week the kitchen had been blown up by a grenade. We asked the owner if he had any previous backpackers, he responded no but he had a journalist last year but she disappeared. So being a little scared we decided to sleep to settle our nerves.
The next day the weather was great and we had more confidence to explore deeper into the Congo. We followed our guide book to the down town core to find the “Go Congo” tourist agency. After passing by numerous amputees and UN workers we found the Agency. The owner was asleep in his chair and his worker asleep on the bench. After waking them we asked about Gorillas, they informed us due to the low number of tourists and the amount of dangerous land to get to them, there will be a charge of 500 US dollar to do this. We were very disappointed hearing this news, but he also informed us he could take us in a secured jeep further into the Congo for 50 US dollar a day. We took this amazing opportunity and set back to our “hostel” to prepare for the next day. That evening hunger set in place, the only place in town safe enough for foreigners was called Chez Dogo, it was still daylight so we walked to our destination. Chez Dogo was an interesting place it was a very tropical looking bar with very expensive pizzas. We all ordered are own individual pizza and relaxed with one of Congo’s home made beers. 9 o clock rolled around and it seemed that the lights dimmed and the music started pumping, not only that many UN workers arrived and what looked like a line of prostitutes. It was time to leave Chez Dogo, we paid our bill and set out, but the Guard informed we cannot leave the place without moto taxi, he said men were everywhere with guns and we must cover our face and hands so they don’t see. Either smart idea or good tactic to make us take his cabs, regardless we took them.
Early the next morning our jeep arrived and we left our hotel for new adventures. First our guide took us too the Goma volcanoes research facility, that’s where they explained to us the streets were covered in lava just two years ago when the volcano erupted, he showed us that cool pointy needle that jumps up and down when the volcano is gonna blow. Well he said he had never seen it move this much in a wile…. Yikes. After the research centre our jeep took us down to a bustling Congo market, it was selling everything from fruit to hats…. I didn’t see a lot else. In the market we were allowed to get out and take pictures but you didn’t have the feeling you were in a safe area. We took off once again and in numerous parts of town our guide told us to duck our heads because of safety precautions. We drove far out of town into some thick bush and finally arrived at the foot of the active volcano. There was so much volcanic rock everywhere and the steam from the volcano was directly above us. Here we noticed many Congo people were building walls and homes out of this volcanic rock. Our day finished here and we headed back to our hostel of course having supper at Chez Dogo firstly.
We were awoken once again bright and early by our guide, we quickly showered and hopped in our jeep. Today was the day we were driving deeper into the Congo. We left Goma behind us and made our way through very thick jungle for many hours. Our driver/guide pointed out many refugee camps from the war that had happened two months ago. He told us a story about how the Pygmy tribes were fighting back at the rebels, by hiding in the tree's and shooting bow and arrows. After what felt like forever he pulled over at a small African village. The village was great, its buildings were all made from banana trees and we quickly were swarmed by a large group of excited kids on our hike up to the towns lake. The lake was equally incredible, it looked like a giant hole in the earth with a large pool of water in it. We spent a few hours in the town before our guide took us to and even larger lake. At this point our guide told us he wont go any further because its not even safe for him. So we returned to Goma and spent our remaining day exploring Goma’s back streets.The next day we explored some more of Goma, We found a shop selling masks from all over Congo, I bought a rebirth mask and a witch doctor masked ( no store would allow me in it with my masks… must have been an evil mask). We returned back to our hostel and began hearing gun shots and yelling from outside, the noise continued all night, none of us slept good that night. In the morning we were informed that there had been fighting in town and on the border and we should leave. So not thinking twice we packed our bags and ran towards the border. The border guards quickly pushed us through and we were back in safe territory in Rwanda. Congo was a Amazing country and i really wish i could have seen more. I'm sure in the future i will be going back to see more of it's wondeful people and incredible raw African sights.
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