Mutanda Eco Community Centre — Hotel in Kisoro

I had long been fascinated by stories of this place and this time found time to stay a few days. Previously known as "Sheba's Campsite" it is now an Eco-Community Centre. Who cares what it is called? It is lovely if a little basic and run down.||You get here by leaving Kisoro on the Kivu road to DRC. After about 4km there is a junction with a dirt road on the right. Follow this for around 8km, keeping to the lake side and swamp area. You will see the camp ahead on a hill overlooking the lake as you pass a school football pitch and enter a small forest. There is a sign to conform you are on the right track.||Several cabins some on stilts overlooking the beautiful lake. Mine faced that way and I watched Spot-necked Otters fishing whilst Grey crowned Cranes roosted on the tree in front. (Great for wake up calls at 4 am.). A small balcony where the cold water was contained in a can led to a single room where two beds with coronet nets were found. Behind that were two doors. One led to the long drop toilet which was clean and non smelly. The second was theoretically the "shower" room but I think was more of a wet room where you all over washed from a basin. There is no electricity at all so if such things are important, this place is not for you.||The path up is somewhat rugged and slippy in rain so I was 'made' to eat my dinner on the balcony of my hut. If it was too slippy for me to go down how come they could carry my dinner up? African puzzle or just plain honest courtesy to an older person?||Breakfasts I insisted on taking down in the Lapa and they were well prepared and nourishing. Dinners were three course and delicious. Beer was cold. I had no complaints at all.||The staff were friendly and helpful.||The grounds bustled with birds and we had several good sightings of Otters in the lake. If there is a drawback it would be they don't discourage casual visitors. Our peace was disturbed by some very noisy Expat Europeans who rolled up with an inflatable boat and proceeded to mess about without so much as by your leave. They sheltered from a bad rain storm in the lapa and then left without so much as a "please" or "thank you". I am sure they would appreciate me doing that at their home (not!)||A lovely place to spend a few days just communing with Uganda's wildlife. I...

Food can be a challenge here. Goes like this. I like omelettes but not Spanish ones.. I wrote down, omelette with onions, cheese, catsup on the side and fruit for breakfast. Kid comes to my tent and I tell him this is what I'd like. He has a menu. ETrip Africa to their credit has long since pre advised all my accommodations of what I eat, including this one. Half an hour later I am still spelling this out. He goes to write it down. I give him the paper and show it to him once again. ||||Next morning I am handed a platter of fruit with catsup on my pineapple. ||||Go figure. I was in hysterics. ||||Truth is they do try very hard, but if you are in any way off the reservation it proves a big challenge. ||||The setting was lovely. Waking up to the rich smells of blooming flowers, unbelievable. The birds, and the view over the forests, come on man. It's also great fun to watch the kids play and listen to them in the playground in the near distance. ||||By all means spend the fifteen bucks and do the village walk. Charles took me on a lovely long slow walk among the villagers where I was lucky enough to get a blessing from one of the aged women with a big bag of maize on her head. We picked up a man who had been trained as a civil engineer, did a stint as a primary school teacher and had retired to the village where he'd been born. He made great company on our walk.Views from the hills were gorgeous, access to locals, priceless. ||||Learn how to greet people Ugandan style before you walk the villages, this is key to courtesy and it's well received. And be prepared to have kids follow you everywhere with the occasional little one scream in terror if you happen to be white. ||||Do not give out money, candy, anything. Nothing. Acknowledgement goes a long way. In the villages when people come through, what I notice goes farthest is saying hello in the local language. That way people feel more like you're visiting than that you're...

I wanted to spend 5 nights at the eco community camp but after one night I was ready to leave, unfortunately. I appreciate the idea of profits benefiting the community, but a decent product is needed. The first rooms shown were simple tents with either one or two beds, under a roof. No chairs to sit on, nothing but the beds, $50 per tent/room. Then we were shown a cabin that was up sack stairs, (not real stairs with no railings). The floor was lopsided and had linoleum laid on top. Walls had no siding. Shower floor had sharp things sticking out, I hurt my foot on it. No sink to wash hands after using the toilet, or for brushing teeth. Only water was the shower. It was hot. The room cost $40. The food came 1 1/2 hours late, and both our meals weren’t what we ordered. In the morning the hot water we requested came more than an hour late and we had to leave. No device charging in the room, no wi fi, although a device was brought for me to use, only plastic water bottles offered for drinking water. I prefer to avoid the impact of plastic and use either boiled or filtered. This camp has been here for 20 years, I was told, and looked to have never been improved on. Not...