Cultural encounters in Akagera National Park : Experience the memorable Rwanda wildlife safari with cultural tours in Akagera national park, the park famous for its Big 5 African animals. Your encounter to the neighboring local villages could spice up your safari adventure and gives you an opportunity to interact with the indigenous communities around Akagera national park which equip you with knowledge of the Bayarwanda’s.
Cultural tours in Akagera national park are very thrilling and entertaining as well and are done before or after enjoying since of the park activities such as game drives, or boat cruises. Cultural tours in Akagera national park take you to four different areas around the park such as Humure refuge village tour, Heritage which is the culture for cattle’s and Imigongo Art and Craft Centre, local production, that’s beers and bees as well as food and festivities. All of these communities do take you through different activities such as milking, harvesting honey, paintings, making local meals, and traditional Rwandan dances.
Engaging in cultural encounter in Akagera national park is one of the best way to support the local communities who live around the national park. There are different places in Akagera national park where visitors can visit in order to have a worthwhile and memorable cultural experiences.
Cultural encounters options in Akagera national park
Imigongo art and craft Centre.
Imigongo art and craft Centre is one of the most famous cultural site that visitors on a wildlife safari to Akagera national park shouldn’t miss out on their cultural tours around the park. Imigongo Art and Craft Centre was started by Prince Kakira and is currently managed by a group of women who in the suppliant had the same idea of using cow dung to design the houses. Tourists who choose to go and visit imigongo Arts and Crafts encounters get to visit local Arts and Craft shops in the community. Additionally, tourists get an opportunity to learn how to make crafts such as necklaces from traditional beads, straw hats, and traditional mats traditional imigongo paintings among others. Tourists can also visit the local craft shops and buy some of their crafts as a sign of showing support to the local people.
Heritage tour
The heritage cultural tours in Akagera national park is fundamentally for the culture of cattle. Cultural tours here takes you through different cultural experiences where you will engage in different activities like milking cows and you will also get a chance of seeing the different products that local people get from milk such as butter, ghee, cream, and skim milk as well as learning about the cultural rites and rituals in the Rwanda culture among others..
The Humure refuge village tour
Humure refugee village is one of the commonly visited community by visitors that have a safari in Akagera national park. Humure refugee village offers thrilling tour around their small villages where you will have one of the thrilling cultural experience through the different activities that you can participate in to have amazing and memorable tour at the village .A visit to Humure Refuge Village amazes tourists with equal opportunities of meeting local people, visiting their homesteads, observing them carrying out their daily activities like digging, milking, grazing, visit some of the art and craft shops in the area, and in the end get entertained by local traditional dancers. This community is situated about 45 minutes from Akagera national park when using road type of transport
Local Production
Visitors on a wildlife safari to Akagera national park can also engage in local production tours in the neibouring communities. Visitors get an opportunity to participate in the traditional honey collection process and engage in the manufacturing of the local banana beer. While in the tour here , visitors gets a chance to visit honey collective where you will h=get to learn about the traditional and modern methods of bee keeping and honey harvesting process which you will participate in and at the end taste the product. A tourists will also get a chance to witness how the local beer is made where you will get to learn how ‘urwagwa’, traditional banana brew is made.
Activities you can combine with cultural visits in Akagera national park
Game drives
Akagera national park is well-known for the game drives and these are done in the schedule times that’s to say morning or evening hours within the different game path of the park. The game drives in the national park can be done before or after having the cultural encounters and they will give you a chance to encounter different wildlife species such as buffaloes, rhinos, lions, elephants, antelopes, giraffes, zebras, impalas, topis and hippos among others. There are also opt for night game drives in Akagera national park that encoder tourists to night wildlife species such as lions, leopards, and serval cats among others. Akagera national park is Ideal Park for any visitor who wishes to see wild animals.
Bird watching
The national park is home to over 500 species of birds, visitors opting to visit Akagera national park for cultural encounters can join there safaris , birding in the national patch grants you with an opportunity to sight different bird species such as black-headed weaver, long-tailed cormorant, crested barbet, tabora cisticola, souza’s shrike, white-faces whistling duck. Shoebill stock, dimoiphic egret, short-tailed pipit, grasshopper buzzard, slate-colored Boubou among others
Boat cruises at Lake Ihema
Visitors visiting Akagera national park for cultural activities shouldn’t miss out on exciting boat cruises activities that are carried on Lake Ihema. The boat cruise activities carried out here do grant visitors to see abundant wildlife species that wild in water such as hippos, crocodiles, different water bird species like the shoebill stork, papyrus Gonolek, open billed stork, and you will also be able to spot some of the park wildlife like s kike the buffaloes, antelopes, zebras, and elephants near the lake shores.
Perfect time to visit Akagera national park for cultural tours in Rwanda
Akagera national park can be explored any time of the year for cultural tours but there are specific months that are better and exciting to explore this amazing park. The dry months which occur from June to September and December to February are the Best time to visit Akagera National Park for cultural encounters since they are characterized by little or no rainfall, the trucks are dry and not muddy and the roads leading to the communities are drivable.
Where to say during cultural encounter around Akagera national park
There are several accommodation options in Akagera national park where tourists opting for cultural encounters can stay and have unforgettable experience. The accommodation facilities here are a range from budget to mid-range to luxury options and some of them include Akagera Game Lodge, Akagera Resort and Country Club, Akagera Rhino Lodge, Akagera Bush Camp, Magashi Tented Camp, Ruzizi Tented Lodge, Vintage Cottage, Magashi Safari Camp and Lake Kivu Serena hotel among others
