Posted by Jason Hussong on Thursday, July 22, 2010,
The 1,040 square mile surfaced Lake Kivu makes up the western border between Rwanda a  nd the Democratic Republic of the Congo. On the second-to-the-last day on our tour of Rwanda, our day would be spent cruising south from the town of Gisenyi to Cyangugu, where we'd reunite with our drivers and head to the Nyungwe Forest Lodge for the night. Of course, when I say "cruise," I mean it in the loosest sense in this instance since our ride was by dual engine speed boat. We sped south,... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jason Hussong on Wednesday, July 7, 2010,
I wrestled with the idea of hiking to see the gorillas of the Virunga Mountains in northwest Rwanda. On one hand, an African safari was high up on my bucket list and going to see the gorillas in their native habitat would be nothing short of spectacular. On the other, what would happen if one of these critically endangered animals acted in a way that's only natural if, for some odd reason, they felt a member of their group was threatened by one of us?
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Posted by Jason Hussong on Monday, June 21, 2010,
One of two big events that our group was to partake in during our trip to Rwanda was the baby gorilla naming ceremony - Kwita Izina. The other, a trek to see the gorillas in the mountains, w  ould take place the next day. And everyone in the group was nothing short of excited for both events as we knew they'd be the two biggest highlights we'd take home as memories in an amazingly wonderful country. The sixth annual naming celebration was taking place in conjunction with World Environment Day...
Posted by Jason Hussong on Thursday, June 17, 2010,
The drive from Kigali to Ruhengeri in Rwanda is nothing short of spectacular. And for once, while traveling, it paid off to be tall since I was able to commandere the front passenger seat for the drive. After all of those years of trying to squeeze my big legs into a coach seat on a flight, I finally was able to put them to good use and have the best seat in the car for the beautiful drive - where we emphatically learned why Rwanda is known as The Land of a Thousand Hills.
The drive wen...
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Posted by Jason Hussong on Thursday, June 17, 2010,
Late one night while relaxing on the couch I caught the movie Hotel Rwanda on television by chance. I had never seen it before, although always having been keen to do so, and felt that this was the sign I needed to know that this trip was meant to be. It was surely a sign, in my min  d, that I should travel to the heart of Africa and learn more about what Rwanda has to offer. So, while I waited to learn where the group would be staying, I held out hope that it'd be at the actual hotel, th...
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Posted by Jason Hussong on Monday, June 14, 2010,
On our first morning together as a group in Rwanda we took a brief city tour before heading over to the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center. I knew it was a necessary stop on the trip, but I really had no desire to see once again how brutal one man can be towards another; my trip to Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany was quite enough. Still though, I went with the g  roup and toured the center. We didn't have much time to tour the museum as we were on a bit of a budget when it came to t...
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Posted by Jason Hussong on Thursday, June 10, 2010,
I wanted to post stories while in Rwanda, but the group was so busy that there was hardly time to do anything but eat, sleep and see the sites. But now that I'm back from the trip eight time zones away, I plan on giving a full report on everything we saw. I want to start here though with a  brief overview of what we did in Rwanda, and then go into each stop in more detail later with adding various tips and suggestions for anyone traveling to Rwanda; there's just so much to write that it's i...
Posted by Jason Hussong on Tuesday, May 18, 2010,
I'm done with my immunizations for my trip to Rwanda, and I can't help but feel a bit like a human pin cushion after only five shots. My nurse did the best she could when administering the shots, but she confessed that the needle was a bigger caliber than normal as I'm a bigger guy and supposedly it's necessary to get through my skin. Personally, I took it more as a reminder that I'm lucky not to regularly go through that type of crap and should be happy with just the occasional shot for t... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jason Hussong on Tuesday, May 11, 2010,
Had you asked me a week ago if I would ever go to Rwanda, I probably would've said no. It's not that I didn't have a desire to go, I'd actually like to go most everywhere, it's just about the means and purpose. The means would certainly come at some point, although I would've thought years and years down the road, so the big issue was the purpose. Why would I ever want to go to Rwanda, a tiny landlocked country in the middle of Africa that's most infamously known for the genocide of the 19...
Posted by Jason Hussong on Tuesday, December 1, 2009,
I love seeing things in person that I feel are things that can be dubbed as "you only see in books." I think that's part of why I love traveling so much. I love to go places and actually see these things in person to know what it's all about, opposed to just turning the pages in anoth  er book. One of the greatest kicks I've had in traveling though was when I was at Saqqara in Egypt with my friend Brian. To explain, I read at least one book about the history of a country I'm visiting befo...
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Posted by Jason Hussong on Thursday, September 24, 2009,
The Cairo Tower was my first stop on my trip to Egypt with my friend Brian. We checked into our hotel right across the Nile River from the 610 foot tall structure, dropped off ou  r bags, and made for where the best views of Cairo can be found. And we were anything but disappointed. Before my trip to Egypt I read that the Cairo Tower, which looks like a lotus with its latticework design, was the second most visited site in Cairo. I found this hard to believe with all of the wonderful things ...
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Posted by Jason Hussong on Tuesday, August 18, 2009,
I had a hard time thinking on where to go after Antarctica since I knew anywhere it'd be would most certainly be a let down. Only three places came to mind as I debated. They were China, Peru and...
 Egypt was a really interesting country and not totally what I had expected. But, when only seeing Discovery Channel specials and reading about it in magazines and books, I had a very narrow view of the country and wasn't totally sure as to what I should expect.
I knew I'd see amazing things like t...
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