Nyakazu Break and the Karera Falls

The natural Forest Reserves of Roumonge, Kigwena and Mugara are in course of development to enable chimpanzees and cercopithecuses to find enough food to stay there and procreate. The thermal waterfalls situated in the Mugara reserve will enable you to lend yourselves to natural massage simply by taking showers under these waters raised from the earth’s bosom. The very near beaches of Tanganyika will welcome you for a well deserved swim and rest.

Rwihinda Lake Natural Reserve - The Rwihinda Lake Natural Reserve is a real sanctuary for migratory aquatic birds which come to the site by the thousands to reproduce. All these now protected birds can nest more and more on these green swamps and islets of the lake. Crested cranes and herons live there a peaceful live. The visitor can drift along on barges to approach many species of birds without risk of frightening them.

Rusizi Natural Reserve - The Natural Reserve of Rusizi will be your first visit in Burundi for the simple reason that it is very near the capital city of Bujumbura. The River Delta extends over 500 ha of vegetation made of Phragmites Mauritianus.

It is a natural shelter for few families of antelopes and hippopotamuses that come here in quest of grazing land. At the end of the track if you are lucky enough you may meet with a few crocodiles fast asleep on the golden sand of the river banks. The Rusizi Palmgroves (situated on the Cibitoke road 10 km away from Bujumbura) is also an exceptional landscape that will no doubt make your mind drift away from your day to day preoccupations.

It offers to the visitor a rich vegetation completely adapted environment gratified by only a few sparse rains, made of euphorbia, thorny bushes and tall palm trees of the “Hyphaena bengalensis var ventricosa” specie. Right in the deepest part of the reserve you will be able to admire the natural ponds left by the Rusizi meanders.

This place is a paradise for birds which come there by the hundred and feed themselves by dive-fishing. If you are patient enough you will be able to see some hippopotamuses paddling in the shallow waters feeling at home as well as on the ground.

Hotels
Hotel de L�Amitie
Avenue de L�Amitie 30-32
BP 18, Bujumbura.
Phone:+257 22 76 92 / 22 61 95 / fax: 21 91 23
Is a very central hotel with 35 rooms, bar and restaurant, prices going from approximately 15000 Burundi francs till 30000 Burundi francs (15 to 30 Dollars) per night.

Agasaro guest house
46 th. Avenue, Muyinga. 15 rooms, bar and restaurant.
Hotel with their own website:Chez.com

Hotel Source de Nil
BP 2072 Bujumbura.
Phone: + 257 22 52 22 / fax: 22 52 05
5 star hotel with 118 rooms and 10 suites, bar, restaurant, pool, sauna, tennis, shop, conference rooms.

Novotel
BP 1015 Bujumbura.
Phone: +257 22 26 00 / fax: 22 26 92.
5 star hotel with 114 rooms and 10 suites, bar, restaurant, pool, sauna, tennis, shop, conference rooms.

Le Doyen
BP 2747, Bujumbura
Phone: +257 22 43 78 / 22 52 85 / fax: 21 49 86
48 rooms, bar and restaurant.

Burundi palace
Boulevard de L�Uprona
Phone: +257 22 29 20 / fax: 21 91 27
28 rooms, bar and restaurant.

Hotel Metropole
8�th Avenue, Bwiza, Bujumbura.
Phone: +257 22 17 14
24 rooms.

Hotel-Restaurant Chez Vaya
Have their own Website

Albatros Hotel
Chaussee� de peuple Murundi, Bujumbura.
Phone: +257 22 91 82 / 22 91 80
22 rooms

Karibu Hotel
8�th Avenue, Bwiza, Bujumbura.
Phone: +257 22 17 14
18 rooms, bar and restaurant.

Rem Hotel
7, Boulevard Mwezi Gisabo, Bujumbura.
Phone: +257 21 59 63 / fax: 21 81 60
16 rooms, bar and restaurant.

Hotel Nikamor International
Boulevard de l�Inde�pendance, Bujumbura.
Phone: +257 22 38 86 / fax: 21 16 04br > 16 rooms, bar and restaurant.

Pacific Guest House
8, Avenue des Palmiers
BP 2604, Bujumbura
Phone: +257 22 45 00
10 rooms, bar and restaurant.

Flatotel
Avenue du 18 Septembre, Bujumbura.
Phone: +257 22 12 74 / fax: 22 80 45
8 rooms, bar and restaurant.

Safari Gate Hotel
Avenue du Large, Bujumbura.
Phone: +257 21 47 79 / fax: 21 47 80
8 rooms, bar and restaurant.

Motel Saint Michel
Avenue de l�Universite�, Bujumbura.
Phone: +257 21 05 09
8 rooms, bar and restaurant.

Le Rossignol
Avenue du 18 Septembre, Bujumbura.
Phone: +257 21 41 45
5 rooms, bar and restaurant.

Hotel Tanganyika
1, Avenue de la Plage, Bujumbura.
Phone: +257 22 44 33
5 rooms, bar and restaurant.

Pyramide Guest House
2 nd Avenue, Mumirwa.
Phone: +257 22 48 89
5 rooms, bar and restaurant.

Banking
The transferral of money, loans and guaranties are essential to al types of buisness development, whether you talk micro economy or big buisness.
Thats why I think it is such a shame that it has turned out to be Western Union who are the fastest and most reliable company when it comes to transfering money, at least on a small scale, not that I am unhappy with their service at all, but I find that when a country has a fragile economy, every possible income counts. And I would prefer to pay the transaction fee to a locally based bank, not a multi national company. However, if you are looking for banks in Burundi, here are the information about a few of them.

Banque de la republique du Burundi: PO.Box 705, Bujumbura, Burundi.
Phone: +257 22 51 42/ 22 39 88 Fax: 22 31 28

Banque commerciale du Burundi: PO.Box 990, Bujumbura, Burundi.
Phone: +257 22 23 17/ Fax: 22 10 18

Banque populaire du Burundi: PO.Box 1780, Bujumbura, Burundi.
Phone: +257 22 12 57/ Fax: 22 12 56

Banque de credit du Bujumbura:
Phone: +257 22 20 91/ Fax: 22 30 07

Rwihinda Lake Natural Reserve

The Rwihinda Lake Natural Reserve is a real sanctuary for migratory aquatic birds which come to the site by the thousands to reproduce. All these now protected birds can nest more and more on these green swamps and islets of the lake. Crested cranes and herons live there a peaceful live. The visitor can drift along on barges to approach many species of birds without risk of frightening them.

Bururi Natural Reserve - The Natural reserve of Bururi is a 3300 ha expanse of altitude damp forest. The town of Bururi offers visitors this wonderful panorama.

In this place there are about 117 different species of birds and 25 different species of mammals have been identified in a forestland surrounding of multifarious vegetation. On a walking circuit along the botanical lanes and trails of this forest the visitor will fully enjoy the wild coolness of our mountains densely covered with trees of many different species.

This region is only 33 km distant from Roumonge. The road through it will drive you from the lakes along miles of hallucinating and breathtaking panoramas

Ruvubu National Park Rwanda

The National Park of Ruvubu lies on both sides of the Ruvubu River and is limited by high rise mountains. It was freed from human inhabitants and returned to complete wild life. The track and length of the path network is approximately 100 km and includes many observation lookouts.

You will be accommodated in a newly erected camp and you will be able to tell your friends when you are back home about tracking buffaloes along their trails where the joyful glee of the songs from all the African bird faunae you may think of it as springing at every winding.

Kibira National Park - Situated at the top of the apex Zaire-Nile, with its 40,000 ha of preserved forest land, is the largest completely untouched natural area in Burundi.

Its wild life constitutes a real shelter for chimpanzees, baboons, cercophitecus (a monkey), and black colobes scattering away to the approach of human beings and defying all laws of equilibrium and gravity.

The park is crisscrossed by a network of 180 km of tracks and paths mainly used by guard car patrols and motorized tourists.

The guards of the park will scout you in the wood undercover where you will be able to discover the fascinating attraction of the primeval forest and the charming songs of birds.

Our mountain chains hide thermal springs, and the access to the park is made through the tea plantations of Teza and Rwegura which count among the best natural sceneries.

History

The original inhabitants of Burundi were the Twa, a Pygmy people who now make up only 1% of the population. Today the population is divided between the Hutu (approximately 85%) and the Tutsi, approximately 14%. While the Hutu and Tutsi are considered to be two separate ethnic groups, scholars point out that they speak the same language, have a history of intermarriage, and share many cultural characteristics. Traditionally, the differences between the two groups were occupational rather than ethnic. Agricultural people were considered Hutu, while the cattle-owning elite were identified as Tutsi. Supposedly Tutsi were tall and thin, while Hutu were short and square, but in fact it is often impossible to tell one from the other. The 1933 requirement by the Belgians that everyone carry an identity card indicating tribal ethnicity as Tutsi or Hutu increased the distinction. Since independence, the landowning Tutsi aristocracy has dominated Burundi.

Burundi was once part of German East Africa. Belgium won a League of Nations mandate in 1923, and subsequently Burundi, with Rwanda, was transferred to the status of a United Nations trust territory. In 1962, Burundi gained independence and became a kingdom under Mwami Mwambutsa IV, a Tutsi. A Hutu rebellion took place in 1965, leading to brutal Tutsi retaliations. Mwambutsa was deposed by his son, Ntaré V, in 1966. Ntaré in turn was overthrown the same year in a military coup by Premier Michel Micombero, also a Tutsi. In 1970–1971, a civil war erupted, leaving more than 100,000 Hutu dead.

On Nov. 1, 1976, Lt. Col. Jean-Baptiste Bagaza led a coup and assumed the presidency. He suspended the constitution and announced that a 30-member Supreme Revolutionary Council would be the governing body. In Sept. 1987 Bagaza was overthrown by Maj. Pierre Buyoya, who became president. Ethnic hatred again flared in Aug. 1988, and about 20,000 Hutu were slaughtered. Buyoya, however, began reforms to heal the country’s ethnic rift. The Burundi Democracy Front’s candidate, Melchior Ndadaye, won the country’s first democratic presidential elections, held on June 2, 1993. Ndadaye, the first Hutu to assume power in Burundi, was killed within months during a coup. The second Hutu president, Cyprien Ntaryamira, was killed on April 6, 1994, when a plane carrying him and the Rwandan president was shot down. As a result, Hutu youth gangs began massacring Tutsi; the Tutsi-controlled army retaliated by killing Hutus.

The frequency of ethnic clashes increased, developing into a low-intensity civil war. A six-nation regional proposal to send troops into Burundi to maintain peace and order was devised in July 1996. Distrustful of the scheme, the Tutsi-dominated army led a coup deposing the Hutu president and installed Maj. Pierre Buyoya that month. More than 300,000 people have been killed in the civil war since 1993, with the Tutsi-dominated army and the Hutu rebel forces responsible for the slaughter. After several aborted cease-fires, a 2001 peace plan included a power-sharing agreement that has been relatively successful: Buyoya, a Tutsi, governed the new transitional government for the first 18 months; then, in April 2003, a Hutu president, Domitien Ndayizeye, assumed power. In Aug. 2005, former Hutu rebel leader Pierre Nkurunziza was elected president by parliament. The peaceful transfer of power to a democratically elected leader seemed to indicate that Burundi’s 12-year civil war was truly at an end. Peace talks between the government and Burundi’s only remaining rebel group continued in 2006.

The government and the rebel group Forces for National Liberation, which was the last rebel group to engage in negotiations, signed a cease-fire in May 2008, signaling finality in the 15-year civil war that claimed some 300,000 people.