Why Uganda is Called the "Pearl of Africa"

Ugandan Crater Lake

Aside from Churchill's comment that Uganda was the Pearl of Africa, more recent visitors have marveled at its beauty...

Imagine my surprise and joy to be greeted by an email from a friend who asked someone she knew about a recent visit to the country and others, including Kenya, Tanzania and Burundi (text from the email cut and pasted below):

"here's what we did in uganda and we really enjoyed it:

go to kampala (the capital!). it's one of the best e. african capital cities we went to and we enjoyed riding all over the place on moto/boda boda motorcycle taxis and enjoyed the city. we also walked everywhere there (very different than nairobi or dar...even at night!).

we also went to jinja, which is where your friend could do the white water rafting down the river nile. really, really amazing experience!!!!!!! if she wants input on specific companies to go with, let us know. it's kind of pricey, but totally worth it!!!!! jinja itself is a really cool city to explore. they also have nile brewery tours there, but we weren't able to go because the day they had the tour, museveni was being sworn in again, so everything was closed that was gov't run (even the brewery...what crap!).

we did not see gorillas, but have heard that was fabulous as well (just couldn't fit that in our budget).

but, one place we would HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend FOR SURE is the sipi falls area by mt. elgon. we stayed at the crow's nest, which was started by peace corps volunteers, but now run by locals. it's a fabulous place that is just breathtaking. she could stay about four different places there on the main road and have a great time. we hiked to all three major sipi falls and then did a day trek on mt. elgon.

we could also hook her up with some friends/NGO's in kenya, tanzania, or rwanda, if she happens to be going to any of those places, too."

Wow.