Rwanda is often called Le Pays des Milles Collines (the Land of a Thousand Hills) for the endless in this scenically stunning little country. Nowhere are the mountains more majestic than the peaks of the Virunga volcanoes in the far northwest of the country, forming a natural frontier with Congo (Zaire) and Uganda. Hidden among the bamboo and dense jungle of the volcanoes’ forbidding slopes are some of the world’s last remaining mountain gorillas. A beautiful yet brutalized country, Rwanda is all too often associated with the horrific genocide that occurred here in 1994, but the country has taken giant strides towards recovery in the years since.

Any time except mid-March to mid-May when the long rains set in

Visiting the rare mountain gorillas in the dense forest of Parc National des Volcans Soaking up the sun, sand and stunning scenery at Gisenyi, on Lake Kivu, Rwanda’s answer to the Mediterranean Tracking down huge troops of colobus monkeys in Nyungwe, the country’s largest tropical rainforest Exploring none of Africa’s best ethnographical and archaeological museums in Butare, Rwanda’s intellectual capital Checking out the nightlife in Kigali

Read We Wish to lnform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families by Phillip Gourevitch, a brilliant account of the killings and how the international community failed Rwanda in 1994 and beyond

Listen to the queen of Rwandan music, Ceclie Kayirebwa

Watch Gorillas in the Mist-the story of Dian Fossey’s years with the mountain gorillas of Rwanda and her battle with the poachers and government officials

Eat tilapia (Nile perch), goat meat and beef brochettes

Drink the local beers, Primus and Mulzig, or try the local firewater, konyagi

Muraho (‘hello’ in Kinyarwanda) -use unsparingly

The horrific 1994 genocide; Dian Fossey; volcanoes; dense jungles; gorilla tracking; mountains

Tiny, landlocked Rwanda has 340 people per square kilometer; there are thought to be around only 700 mountain gorillas left in the world today

ln Rwanda and Burundi, the period of colonial rule was characterized by the increasing power and privilege of the Tutsi people. The Belgian administrators found it convenient to rule indirectly through Tutsi chiefs and their princes, and the Tutsi had a monopoly on the missionary-run educational system. The result was the result was the aggravation of longs-existing tensions between the Tutsi and Hutu peoples, igniting the spark that was later to explode in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.