March 21, 2013
Hotel: Hotel de l'Amite; Bujumbura, Burundi; $40
I wasn't sure what my plans were going to be for the day. I could either spend another day in Rwanda or make a push towards Burundi. Options of getting there are either flying a 1hr flight or taking a 7-hr bus ride. The flight times weren't the most convenient though and I do prefer to travel overland when possible. The buses only left at (I thought) 8AM and 10AM. The post office opened at 7AM so I walked down there from the hotel and mailed off my postcard for 500 Frs. I was up early enough so decided to try for the 8AM bus. After checking out of the hotel and catching a taxi (4000) I arrived at 7:45 only to find out the times were 7AM and 10AM! Oops... so that meant waiting around in the bus station for over 2hrs. I bought the ticket for Belvedere lines (6000). I sat down in the shade of a building to wait. Not too much hassle other than magazine sellers constantly coming by pushing the Independent, Economist and Newsweek magazines. Though for a bus station it was quite mellow and seemed safe overall.
Kigali bus station
I bought some water and a soda and eventually a helper found me and I was able to board the bus around 9:20. The seats were pretty tight and there was already cargo on board.. under the seat in front of me was a huge lead battery. We setoff right on time and I slept most of the way, surprised when we were already at the border by 11:30. This was one of the most efficient border posts I'd been to. The Rwanda and Burundi officials were at windows right next to each other. US citizens (and most others) need a visa for Burundi but it is possible to get a 3-day transit visa at the border for $40 or a 1-month visa for $90. I opted for the 3-day visa (technically 72 hrs) as I would be heading home on Saturday. The officials processed all of our bus in 30 minutes, most of that was just waiting on them to find change for my $100! I changed my remaining Rwandan francs to Burundi francs at a moneychanger across the road. and we were off again.
Rwanda (and Burundi) had originally been part of German East Africa colony but were given to Belgium at the end of WWI. Officially French and English were languages of Rwanda, and I had been able to get by fine speaking only English there. However once entering Burundi all signs were in French only. There are two routes from Kigali to Bujumbura, east and west.. we were on the eastern road which went mostly through Burundi.. we still had a long way to go to Bujumbura. Burundi is one of the poorest countries in the world and I could tell by the houses here. In Rwanda most were concrete/brick while here they were mainly mud huts. There was also a smaller Hutu/Tutsi genocide at the same time as Rwanda but it did not make the news as much as in Rwanda. Rwanda and Burundi were very clean countries. On Saturday mornings there is a virtual shutdown of the country for a few hours as people engage in community service to cleanup roadsides, etc.
The paved road passed by small villages, deep red mud soil and lush green banana trees and rice paddies. About 2PM we stopped at the town of Ngozi for lunch. For 4500 Frs ($3) I had buffet-style, rice, chicken and potatoes. Just past town there was an accident blocking the road with backed up traffic but luckily it was cleared and we continued on. It was still 120kms to Buja and we'd only been making 40kms/hr or so. The road was in good condition but twisty and turny as Burundi is quite hilly. Eventually we started descending the hills towards the Rift Valley... from my GPS we dropped over 3000' by the time we'd reached the valley floor. The huge Lake Tanganyika was spread out below the town and I could see the mountains on the other side of the valley in the DR Congo.
Burundi
The bus station is on the northwestern part of town and it took awhile to negotiate a taxi down to 5000 Frs into town. I'm sure I still paid too much. It was nearly 5PM by this point... making it a 7 hrs trip from Kigali. I checked into the Hotel de l'Amite in downtown Buja. Room was OK enough with a fan and bathroom and free wifi (when it was working). I wandered around town for a bit before it got dark. Buja I'd heard can be a bit dangerous esp at night and is advised to take taxis (mainly because it is very dark). I found a nearby ATM but it did not work. I caught a taxi to a forex bureau (luckily one was still open as it was after 6PM) and headed to Chez Andre for dinner. I was either early or the only diner.. I ended up sitting outside as the weather was nice. I ordered a cucumber salad and fish meurniere and a huge Primus beer. It took forever though for dinner to arrive so the only eating ones were the mosquitos. Eventually the fish arrived, though it was horribly overcooked, oops. The salad though was good and the pickles the served were delicious as well. As I walked out the gate of the hotel to flag down a taxi, a guy offered me a ride right as a taxi was pulling up. It was another 5000 Frs back to the hotel.