Offering an adventurous stay in a traditional rural, Rwandan village that has existed for centuries living with and next to mountain gorillas in Parc National des Volcans.  Gorilla Guardians gives you a rare chance to meet local people, in their environment, with a taste of our culture and traditions. The community you visit will genuinely welcome you as a special guest while they proudly present to you aspects of their traditions and beliefs. This will truly be an experience of a lifetime as you home stay with the community and become part of their family

Itineraries will be tailored according to the interests and wishes of guests, and among other activities;

1. We have a community walk, guided by a community member, to visit different sites within the community. This tour offers an unusual and unforgettable insight into the everyday lives of the village communities.
   
2. Visiting the king’s house replica and listening to all the Kings stories, the meanings of different symbols within the palace guided by a local guide. In this place you can be a king for minutes, hours and days. You will be enthroned and can exercise kings powers as bestowed to you by a village elder through a village ceremony.
3. Eight different types of traditional dances by all community categories; men, women, youths and the children, and other local and traditional musical instruments (i.e. Intore dances, drumming, Ibyivugo, Umuduri, Ikembe, Iningiri, Inanga, Ingoma, Amakondera, Agakenke, etc)
4. The famous SONGS OF THE GORILLAS sang by the famous Ngayabatema, commonly referred to as Kayuku.
5. Visiting a local traditional healer to hear about the different medicinal trees, shrubs, grass and their traditional medicinal uses and how they are administered to local patients.
   
6. Visit traditional clinics and pharmacies, the elderly and hear their interesting stories of pre and post colonial era.
7. Visit local schools and if you are a teacher, you could offer and attend lessons and see how children are taught in schools.
8. Prepare and have a local lunch or diner with local people.
9. Attend a local banana brewery process and have a taste of local banana beer.
10. Exchange of flow of experiences and ideas between local people and visitors (sharing cultural experiences).
11. Ex-poachers ways of hunting /techniques, methods and stories from ex-poachers in particular Batwa (pygmies).
12. Batwa pottery making experience, lessons and engagement
13. Artisans and craft making by women, men and children, etc.
14. Local football matches with tourists, and many more activities. 

The village is fascinating with a variety of cultural experiences it can offer, and probably the best way to get to know the local people, their culture, and their ‘ways of living” is to take part in daily life activities. Agricultural tourism will be part of the wider experience where guests will join local people when they go to their agricultural fields to work and learn about their work, harvest and participate in food preparation and making processes like millet grinding using stones, carrying potatoes and water on their heads, and attend lessons and participate in preparing a local dish i.e. (Ubugari, Igikoma etc).

The wider part of experience is IGITARAMO, where all gather around camp fire, with drums and local dances before sunset, where stories, riddles are recounted by storytellers of the old Rwanda with everyone seated around the fire.

Every evening the village members gather around a campfire and begin a session of story telling and dancing. Most of the time after trekking gorillas, tourists don’t have what to do; this is the utmost time for other activities to supplement tourism outside the park. 

Guidelines: Code of Conduct

By following these single guidelines, you can help us preserve our unique environment and culture of our community.

1.  Use our bins and carry all non-degradable litter.
2. Plants should be left to flourish in their natural environment-taking cuttings, seeds and roots are illegal in our community.
3. When taking photographs, respect privacy, ask the community leader or guide if it is alright and use restraint.
4. Avoid giving to children empty bottles “agacupa” it encourages begging. A donation to the community project is a more constructive way to help, and only give to the community leader.
5. You will be accepted and welcomed if you follow local customs. Use only your right hand when greeting and eating. Its also polite to use both hands while giving or receiving gifts.
6. Respect for local etiquette earns respect. Light weight clothes are preferable to revealing or see-through, skimpy tops and tight fitting action wear. Kissing in public is disliked by local people.
7. Be patient, friendly and sensitive. Remember you are a GUEST to or community.
8. We like to share our culture with you and learn about your culture too, so kindly let us know about your culture, you never know we might have something in common.
9. In case of anything that is unusual to you, ask the community leader for interpretation, it might mean something important.