After the beautiful Cormoran Lodge in Kibuye, we drove a few hours northeast to Gisenyi, another city on Lake Kivu. Looking at the photos, this could be a nice resort area in Hawaii or Cancun: nice hotel, modern amenities, champange served a brunch, beautiful beach. But, since Rwanda is in the middle of the African continent it isn't the ocean, and has a few unfortunate disadvantages from Hawaii or Cancun. The lake is Lake Kivu, and it is just a mile or so down the shoreline to the city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We walked to the border, but stopped there - Congo isn't a safe place to be going, but luckily the bad guys seem to abide by the border line (which is, by the way two pieces of twine separated 10 feet apart). We forget the exact date but it may have been 1996 when one of the volcanos just above Goma exploded and ran lava through the city. Lake Kivu also has a lot of methane gas stuck in it - the volcanism of the area releases methane, but the water is somehow "inverting" it and holding it as big methan gas bubbles deep in the lake. We joked about carrying balloons of air around in case it un-inverted, but in reality hopefully it is reasonably safe: they are also pumping the methane (when the pump works, it's been broken for a while) to remove it from the lake and use it for utility power. Another beautiful place!
We also went to a great restaurant on the water with an indoor firepit and outdoor garden seating
One fun geology question that we're guessing at: the shoreline looks like it was sprayed with and inch or two of concrete. We think it's volcanic ash that washed up over the rocky shoreline. In a few areas you can see where the crust is broken and the original rock is underneath.
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