Rwanda

Rwanda is the most densely populated country in mainland Africa, and you feel it - not in crowding, but in cultivation. Every hill terraced, every valley planted, the land bearing the full weight of the people and returning it. Kigali runs cleaner and quieter than cities a tenth its size. In the north, the volcanoes rise into cloud, and in the forest below them, the gorillas go about their lives with magnificent indifference to yours.

Our guide is being written from the ground up, with the time this place deserves.

We are still gathering the notes that make a guide worth keeping: gorilla permits, Kigali's quiet restaurants, hilltop guesthouses and the memorial sites that should not be skipped.