Burundi

Burundi sits smack in the center of Africa, at the northern end of the beautiful Lake Tanganyika bordering Tanzania, Rwanda and the rain forest jungles of DR Congo. By a strange stroke of fate, her map emerged fully resembling a human heart; and colloquially, she has been referred to as the Heart of Africa; it must be the bleeding heart of Africa, where years of tribal cultural and political differences have robbed her people of peace and the opportunity for social cultural development at par with her neighbor/peers.Thus except for the areas around Bujumbura the capital, the rest of the 27,834km²country of 10m remains mostly rural and under-development with infrastructure,roads, national parks, accommodation facilities and other tourism facilitieseither inadequate or altogether not available.

Most visitors to Burundi opt to stay in Bujumbura and enjoy the magnificent Lake Tanganyika, the deepest and one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, upon whose northern shores the city sits.There are also opportunities for fun, leisure, beach front and water-sports on Lake Tanganyika as well as sightseeing tour of Bujumbura. If time allows, enjoy sightseeing and cultural day tours to the hinterland. Gitega is popular as the cultural capital of Burundi where one can tour the National Museum and the close-by GishoraDrum Makers workshops and the Cultural Dancers Centre. In the South, you can view the Livingstone Stone and the reputed furthest source of the River Nile whileKibiramontane-forest National Park is home to over 95 different mammals’ species including a family of semi-habituated chimpanzees as well as over 200 species of birds. Bujumbura also provides opportunities for dining out at nice local restaurants where you will mix and mingle with local Burundians as they go about their daily life. Although French is the official language, English is widely spoken and it is relatively easy to get by.