Iby’Iwacu Cultural Village

Another thrilling moments of Volcanoes National Park is experiencing the hospitality of the people around the park. Just experience the local life presented at certain points. After your long day of trouble and search through the rolling landscapes of the Volcanoes National Park searching for gorillas, then you need something to relief off your load. And this is driving to Iby’Iwacu Cultural village and feel the hospitality of the people of Rwanda.
Beside gorilla trekking, golden monkey tracking, Volcanic hiking, and birding, all need a lot of energy and visiting the cultural community tunes to another version of experience off the wilderness.
The Iby’Iwacu cultural village safaris was local community project initiated for people who were previously poachers around the park, and now they decided to support conservation and protection of mountain gorillas and other wildlife species with the forest.
The initiative was intended mainly to change poachers mind set from their rusty acts of poaching gorillas and other wild animals in Volcanoes National Park. The conservation efforts now turned to towing these local people support conservation struggles in the park. So, through involving the community to find how they benefit from tourism and support their household than looking at poaching as the only alternative.
Iby’Iwacu Cultural village is situated near Volcanoes National Park and mountain gorillas trekking in the Iby’Iwacu village denotes treasures of our home and heritage. The Iby’Iwacu Cultural Village rewards with that unique and rare chance of meeting with local people, in their environment, with a taste of our culture and traditions.

Get welcomed by the community as a special visitor while they proudly present to you aspects of their traditions and beliefs. Here you have a chance to get close to local people, have that unlimited interaction at a moment and also get involved in their daily activities.
The Iby’Iwacu Cultural Experience
This cultural encounters around Volcanoes National Park offers you amazing experiences about the culture of Rwanda. Taking this visit to the cultural village, you will participate in a number of activities like community walks, banana beer making, subsistence farming, and preparation of local dishes, experience a stay for a night in a traditional style Rwandan home.
You can participate in riding a wooden bicycle, grinding millet and sorghum, shooting bows and arrows with the unique Batwa people, be entertained by the Intore dances people and also explore more on banana and sorghum that are used as staple food in Rwanda.
Take the ethno botany safari with traditional healers. This enables you explore important herbs that are used for treatment.

How it looks reaching the cultural Village
The cultural village gives a looks back to a number of years ago when the country had was under the kingdoms. On reaching the cultural village, you will be welcomed by guards protecting a village where you will find a number of huts like in the old times and here you will be in the king’s palace for a day.
You will have an amazing time in the village and if you’re lucky, you will be chosen to the king or queen for the day where you will be dressed in the traditional attire of the king and queens which is quite entertaining. After choosing the king for the day, a fire will be lit just like it was lit during the time when the kingdoms still existed and a medicine man will come in front of you making traditional herbs that were used as medicine a long time ago.
The king and queen will be entertained and also other tourists will be entertained through different cultural dances and plays, traditional marriages will be also be carried out to show how it was done during the old times which is quite interesting once you take part in the activity.
You will also be taught on farming using traditional tools like hand hoes you will be taught how to harvest a number of crops, weeding, you will also be taught how to make banana beer which is a delicious drink that you will have a chance to taste if interested.
Why important to take Cultural experience at Volcanoes National Park
A decision to take a community visit to this cultural village, you become part of the sensitizing and supporting them to realize the importance of tourism towards conservation. The local people get to understand how gorillas and forests around them are indirectly and directly contributing to their society, which is an approach to stop poaching.