experience
we crossed to a peninsula
born of fire
and softened by time
The Twin Lakes The next morning, we met Chriss, an aspiring Field Guide, who drove us the 40 minutes east from Kwitonda, through Musanze’s downtown, past the Agakiriro — a handicraft centre housing over 600 artisans, woodworkers, and metalworkers — and then out through towns, villages, and sorghum and banana plantations to the shores of Lake Ruhondo, one of the Twin Lakes. Along the way, he told us about the cooperative model Rwanda’s government is promoting, where smallholder farmers pool land, resources, and labour to scale their operations, access financing, and enter broader markets. He spoke about rural access to water and electricity, and the education drives democratising opportunity across the country — something I share not only out of praise, but out of awe.
At the village of Gahunga, we turned onto a rural road lined with rukarakara — traditional mud-brick houses — and people carrying their harvest to the local market, before reaching the lakeshore at Gikoro. The Twin Lakes were formed when ancient lava flows blocked the Nyabarongo River, creating two lava-dammed bodies of water free of crocodiles and hippos. This makes them some of the few lakes on the continent where you can swim, and where birdwatching and fishing draw as many visitors as the scenery itself. We boarded a wooden motor-sailer and crossed to Gashaki, the peninsula home to Chef Dieuveil Malonga’s Culinary Innovation Village , sharing the placid waters with dugout canoes and other motor-sailers jetting between islands.
Left The gentle waters of Rwanda’s Twin Lakes are held on all sides by hills and forest, and in the distance lie the volcanoes that drew you here.
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