In Rwanda!

After about 18 hours of travel, I have arrived in Kigali!  I met up with Erin and Stacy in Amsterdam, as well as Janet, Patte, and Lori from Plan US.  The flight to Kigali was scenic and uneventful, aside from an apparently epic snorer that the whole front half of the plane could hear.

It was very exciting to fly into African airspace.  We entered over the northwestern corner of Egypt, and I'm pretty sure we could see Libya out there in the brown expanse of desert.

The edge of Africa!

After many hours, the sand dunes and rocky ridges of North Africa yielded to the greener jungles of equatorial Africa.  As the sun was setting behing the rainy season thunderheads, I noticed a lot of smoke trails stretched across the jungle by the wind.  In some cases I could see the fires, which matched the gorgeous orange of the setting sun.  Hard to see in the photo below, but there were an amazing number of them. 

We finally landed in Kigali just after 7 pm local time (which is +2 UTC, or +6 US Eastern Time).  I was surprised that it was fully dark at that time of night.  

We were greeted by our in-country guides and driven to our accommodations at the Lemigo Hotel.  The hotel staff is wonderful, and after dropping off our bags, we enjoyed a late dinner and local beers on the pool balcony to the slightly-less-than-mellifluous sounds of a live singer and keyboard.  Singing skills aside, she got major props from the gang for covering Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, and Tina Turner all in one night.  And the power only went out three times.

The beautiful pool and courtyard of the Lemigo Hotel

We are off to a terrific start, and I am more sure than ever that this is going to be one spectacular trip!