Having fun in Huye

Huye's Post Office

The nearest "big city" to my site is Huye. Huye (formerly and sometimes still known as Butare) is Rwanda's second largest city, and home to the National University of Rwanda, NUR. In Huye you can also find soft serve ice cream, the National Museum of Rwanda, my often lonely postal box (hint, hint), some banks, and a couple not-so-great-but-passable-after-several-weeks-in-village western restaurants.

If you're planning a trip to Rwanda and are short on time, Huye is a city you can skip. Visit the gorillas in the Virunga Volcanoes, the monkeys and cimpanzees in Nyungwe National Forrest, relax on the lake in the calm 'city' of Kibuye/Karongi, or enjoy yourself in the slightly livelier town of Gisenyi/Rubavu. In case you happen to find yourself in Huye, here are some notes to help you around:

Orientation

Huye is located in Southern Rwanda. The city is about a two hour easy car ride south of Kigali, about two and a half or three hours east of Nyungwe National Forrest, and about 130 kilometers from Bujumbura, Burundi. 

The residential areas of the city are spread out, but the center city is rather small and easy to get around. If you are coming north from Kigali, the first thing you will see is the National Museum of Rwanda before entering town. Once you're in town you'll notice the main road continues south towards the University (and eventually Bujumbura). The other road to notice intersects and leads you towards the market (west) or the cathedral (east).

Huye Market

Lodging

Huye has a range of hotels that vary drastically in price and services. If you want to go dirt-cheap I recommend Procure Guest House. It's located just a few steps from the cathedral and is run by nuns. A single bed can run you as cheap as 2,000 RWF (around $3) per night. For this price, you will be escorted to a large building that has been split up into cubicle-style rooms with single beds, separated by very thin wooden sheets (I wouldn't go so far as to call them walls). The bathrooms and cold showers are communal. I recommend earplugs. 

For a bit more comfort and less noise, I'd recommend Beaux Arts Guest House, which is located just before the main market. Here you can get a double room for 7,000 RWF (around $12) with a private bathroom, still no hot water. 

If your wallet is padded, I'd recommend Barthos Hotel, located right next to the National University, or Hotel Ibis, smack in the middle of town. The cheaper rooms in these hotels run around 16,000 RWF (around $27). Ibis is very centrally located and has been around forever, Barthos is nice and has good food.

Inside Hotel Ibis

Food

Most bars and restaurants in Rwanda are painted blue on the outside

The food in Huye is nothing to write home about. For western style food you can visit Ibis Hotel (the food is overpriced and passable at best, however the atmosphere is generally calm and the outdoor patio is great for a relaxing, overpriced beer), or Cheers (located across the street from Ibis, slightly less overpriced and slightly more passable food). There is also a Chinese restaurant called "Chinese Restaurant" (behind the gas station next to the market) that is sometimes open, and sometimes serves delicious noodles that arrive two hours after you've placed your order. 

For local food I recommend Barthos Hotel (the chicken is delicious), Gracia Resto/Bar (a few steps down from the Chinese Restaurant, also serves delicious chicken and is a popular among University students), or what I like to call "the jungle restaurant" (on the right side of the road when you're heading south towards the University, you'll recognize it for the numerous plants on the sides): a local buffet restaurant that's always packed and has the very best chapati bread I've had in Rwanda for only 100 francs ($0.17). 

As I mentioned, Huye is also home to Rwanda's soft-serve ice cream shop Inzozi Nziza. The shop (located on the main road south, just before the University) opened a few years ago with the assistance of Blue Marble Dreams, an ice cream shop in Brooklyn, New York. Inzozi Nziza (which means "sweet dreams" in Kinyarwanda, although Rwandans seldom use this expression) has been featured in Oprah Magazine and received lots of international press, which makes the shop very popular among Western visitors (I rarely see Rwandans here). The ice cream is good when you haven't had ice cream in a long time. I would caution visitors against the sandwiches and coffee. For coffee, visit the locally started Coffee Connection shop on the same road as Inzozi Nziza, a bit further up. The service is incredibly friendly, the coffee is good and very cheap (less than a dollar for a cappuccino!). 

Entertainment

There's not too much to do in Huye town. As I mentioned, the National Museum of Rwanda is located near the northern entrance to the city. I haven't been inside the museum, but the landscape around it is beautiful and a popular place for Rwandans to take wedding pictures-- so if you're visiting on a Saturday (particularly during the month of August) expect to see large parties in the gardens. Fellow volunteers who have taken visiting family members have always had positive things to say about the museum. 

National University of Rwanda campus

I recommend taking some time to stroll around the National University of Rwanda's campus and potentially catching a glimpse of some of the monkeys that roam around (I often wonder if NUR students visiting Cornell would be as shocked by squirrels as I am by the monkeys). There are security guards at all entrances to the University who ask for identification before entering, however, I have never been stopped. 

with friends at the NUR graduation

Being a college town, Huye has a bit of nightlife, although not much. Hotel Faucon (the first building on the main street when you are coming into Huye from the north) has a nightclub inside which requires what I consider to be a ridiculous cover charge (generally $2) but the music is sometimes fun and as a female, I appreciate that very few creepers that are allowed in. There used to be a night club behind Cheers restaurant called Space Place, but it was recently closed. I hear rumors of a fun University Club close to campus, but I haven't been there personally. 

On a hot day, I'd recommend grabbing an ice cream at Inzozi Nziza and crossing the street over to Credo Hotel to hang out at the pool. Warning: if you are a single or group of young women, expect a lot of attention and chest beating from young men here-- mostly in the form of these guests doing push ups and sit ups in front of you while wearing boxer briefs. Despite this awkward distraction, the pool is relaxing. 

A few weeks ago, some friends and I decided to walk from my site to Huye. The drive takes less than an hour in a private vehicle, two hours on the bus, and took us two days walking. It was a lot of fun and a great way to enjoy the beautiful scenery without being squeezed in a bus.

After two days of walking, we finally hit tarmac! 

To conclude, my favorite piece of American influence on the intellectual city of Huye...