Arusha

While I was landing at Kilimanjaro airport, I could see multiple dust devils. Pretty normal to see apparently, but I thought it was super cool. I haven't seen any that big before, almost like a tornado.

I took the Precision Air complementary van to the old part of town in Arusha where I checked into Arusha Backpackers. The staff here are amazing. Really friendly and helpful. I had a single room for CAN$8/night too. Great price!

The room was small, but clean. I felt safe here as well. There was always housekeeping staff around, keeping the bathrooms tidy and watching over the rooms. A restaurant/bar was on the roof with an open railing to watch the busy main street below.

After settling in and doing my laundry, I booked my safari. I was to start with a culture tour into a Masai Village on day 1, then spend day 2-6 in the National Parks of the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara and Tarangire.

I spent the remainder of the day hanging out at the hostel and finding the supermarket to buy water and snacks.

My guide met me at the hostel the next morning. I still needed to buy sunscreen, as I couldn't find any at the supermarket, so we ended up spending 45 mins finding some for me. Whew, what a nice guy to help me with that mission. I got to see most of the old part of town. Not easy to find sunscreen, since the local Africans don't use it.

Once that was done, we started our journey to his village. It was almost 6km from town. Villagers were greeting us all along the way and many asking if I was my guide's wife. Funny.

He explained to me the ritual of circumcision with the men. It is a rite of passage for them, to become men. It's performed once they're in puberty. Once completed, they must not cry or show weakness as it's shameful. For the first month they may only see men in their huts, no woman allowed. After, they can go outside, and they wear only black robing for 4-8 months, many with white painted faces. Looks very intimidating. Tanzanian Masai woman don't commonly go through circumcision nowadays.

He tried educating me on the different types of bananas growing, but I could only tell the difference between three. Lots of farming. Green vegetables, coffee beans, bananas, cabbage, sunflowers, and many more.

We walked up a hill to a trickle of water that the people used for a water source. A woman was there who had just finished collecting water into a 2 buckets. I asked if she could show me how to carry the water on my head like her and I'd help her carry it to her house. She was more than happy to show me. Man, it was heavy, even for the small bucket I had. The one she carried would have snapped my neck! I see now why they start these chores at such a young age, need to develop those muscles. The woman here are so strong. I can't believe how much they can carry. Bucket of water on their head, baby wrapped on their back, food bags in each hand... absolutely incredible. I tell you, you don't mess with these babes!

Once we got to her house, she invited me in to see. Her house was made of sticks, mud and manure and grass for the thatch roof. There was an outer wall where her son could sleep to guard the house, then an inner part where she had a 2 cubbies. One for her to sleep, the other for cookware. She had a fire pit used for cooking and warmth. The roof was black from the smoke and her house smelled strongly of smoke, all embedded in the thatch roof. There was 1 cow, 3 goats, a hen and her chicks that were inside as well. Another goat was outside the hut munching on grass with a calf. And what a beautiful view she had up on that hill! Could see all of Arusha.

I see why they spend most of their time outdoors. Such a small home. But, she had her necessities and was very happy. Said she even had a nephew that I could marry as she would love to have me in the family. Lol, sweet woman! After thanking her for inviting me to her home, we headed to my guide's parents house for a home cooked lunch. We had rice with mixed vegetables. It was sooo good! I ate as much as I could. Then he showed me his house, that I saw from the outside and peeked through the doorway. Only enter a man's house if you have the intention of being his wife! That is their culture.

Then, we walked back to my hostel. I packed my belongings for the next 5 days, and had a much needed shower. The roads are all dirt rough roads and with it being so dry, I was covered in dust. Dirt in my eyes, hair, mouth and all over my skin. The wind doesn't help any, makes it go up your nose. Really gross when blowing your nose.

The next morning, I met my safari group. I ended up going with a company called Lasi Tours. There were 4 other people, (1 from France, 2 from Poland, and 1 from USA) plus our cook and driver. We all booked with a subcontractor, who then placed us in a vehicle with people on the same itinerary. Our tour was changed around a bit, as one of the other tourists was a Rabi and couldn't travel on Saturdays. So we had to make sure he was where he needed to be on Thursday. So instead of going to the lake first, we drove all the way to the Serengeti National Park. Along the way we saw many of the Masai herding their cattle, and every time we stopped somewhere,we'd be swarmed by them trying to sell their crafts. Lots of bead, thread, wood, seed or cattle bone jewelry. They'd be knocking on the windows of the jeep, or pop their head in if a door was open, and follow you around if you braved it to walk outside. The were very nice, but persistent. You could also photograph them... for a price.

We stopped at the Ngorongoro Crater Park entrance for lunch. Many baboons hanging around, hoping for some leftovers. Also saw a couple of blue monkeys.

After our lunch, we continued a bumpy drive to the Serengeti. Many animals from there on. We saw giraffes feeding from the acacia trees and ostrich. Zebra, gazelle (both the thompson and grant gazelle), elephants, warthogs, wildebeests drinking at a waterhole, storks, topi antelope and buffalo. So wonderful. And at this time of year, everyone has babies! Our driver stopped frequently to allow us to watch them and take pictures. It was great!

We arrived at our campsite in the early evening, set up our tents, showered (again, very dusty. Dirt all over everything) and then had dinner. It was delicious! The make many kinds of vegetable stir fry that you put on rice. Yummm.

It was a perfectly clear night with almost a full moon. So beautiful. I could see many stars despite the brightness of the moon. The moon was so bright, I could see my shadow.

I woke up once during the night to the sound of hyenas yipping. They too had young, and they were quite chatty. Cute.

We had an early breakfast and hopped into the jeep for our game drive. I liked having the top open, I could stand up and see the wildlife better. The sunrise was colourful. And elephants, giraffe and jackals were active. We saw them all within 5 minutes of each other. Good start to the day. We saw all the same animals as the day before on the way in, but also some interesting birds. The lilac-breasted roller was my favorite bird, absolutely beautiful. But there were lovebirds, many species of herons and storks, swallows, starlings, cranes, pheasants, eagles, vultures, ibises and falcons. Many others I don't know the name of, as well.

We also saw a pride of lions, lying in the tall grass near a watering hole. 1 male, 4 cubs and 4 females. The cubs and 2 females were drinking the water when we arrived, then they walked to the other females and lied down. The cubs were really cute, one head butted the other, rubbed against his neck and collapsed half on top of him, to then slide down his side to the ground. Really sweet. A happy family.

I can't believe the amount of zebra we saw. So many, and they like to follow one another in a straight line.

The buffalo will stop what they're doing to stare at us. They were very intimidating. So muscular and powerful, and I wasn't sure if they were indecisive of whether to charge us or carry on with their business. Glad I wasn't on foot.

We passed a pond and saw numerous hippos. I loved them! They make funny grunting noises and when their back gets dry or too warm, they'd do a somersault in the water. 4 little feet up in the air, lol.

Also saw a mongoose scampering along the road, a lonely crocodile beached by a waterhole and 2 leopards lazing around up in the trees. Lovely spots on their coats.

The landscape was just as I always thought it would be. The tall yellow grass as far as the eye could see, occasional clusters of volcanic rocks with trees and bushes beside it for shade, sporadic waterholes and beautiful umbrella acacia trees. I was in heaven.

When we finished, we had a late lunch back at the camp, packed up and drove to Ngorongoro crater' rim, where we set up camp for the night. And who did I bump into? Pete from the airport. Our tour groups sat beside each other, so it gave the opportunity for us to catch up. We had a late dinner, eating after the sunset, and then I sat around a campfire for a little bit before heading to bed. I heard a commotion and went to see what was happening near the vehicles, and 2 elephants came up to the water tank, suck their trunks in and had a a few drinks. 3 zebra were behind them. Pretty cool. But I'm glad they turned around and went down the road rather than trample our tents :)

After breakfast, we drove down into the crater. It was huge! Amazing to think all this land with trees, waterholes, grass and a salt lake was created by rifts and volcanoes. The animals are free to come and go as they please, but many stay as there's plenty of food and water.

The animals here are quite used to people and vehicles, so they continued with their natural behaviour. It was nice to watch them. In the Serengeti, they were more skittish and would run off (with exception to the birds, lions and hippos). But here, they kept grazing, hunting, sleeping, giving birth and socializing. I loved to see their natural behaviour. Many spotted hyenas were lounging around in the dust, trying to keep cool and we also saw 2 black rhinos! They can be rare to see, so we were lucky to have seen them. More lions, eagles, zebra, wildebeests, buffalo, crowned cranes, warthogs and gazelles. We even spotted a golden jackal resting in the shade of a small boulder. He was cute.

Flamingos could be seen in the distance along the lake's shore, but we couldn't get close enough to them to see anything other than a pink lining along the water's edge. Made breathtaking scenery of the landscape though.

After cruising and observing for 5 hours, we drove out of the crater to the camp for lunch. Then we started our drive to Mosquito River where we stayed the night.

Despite the village's name, there weren't many mosquitoes, thank goodness! We all went for a walk along town to get some exercise but we didn't even get 10 meters before being hassled to buy something. Along both sides of the street are vendors and markets selling art and they're relentless. The worst are the people carrying merchandise on them. Jewelry, postcards and batiks mostly. Those sales people follow you, and will walk for hours trying to get you to buy something, and "no" is not in their vocabulary. They really play up the sympathy card as well, "Papa (or sista, brotha), support me, I have children who go hungry, why not you support me and give me money. I give you good price..." and so on. You can't help but want to help them, but it's the same line, all the time. See, they know what works, and what gets results. They even teach their children at an extremely young age, if you see a white person, ask them for money. They're rich! So, kids who are 5 years, know how to say "give me my money" in English. Some, might know "Hello" or "Bye" as well. I felt like a walking ATM machine!

So after a 45 minute walk that was only 10 minutes outside our campsite, my group went back inside to our refuge to shower and rest. The general public are wonderful and very hospitable... it's just the sales people and those who work in transportation. Argh!

That evening, after dinner, we had a cultural performance. Some locals sang, played local music and danced. It was so fun to see how fast they can shake their booties! On the last dance, they grabbed some of us in the audience to dance with. I had so much fun! Trying to imitate the lady with me. I couldn't move as fast as her, but I gave it my best shot and with lots of laughter, we all enjoyed ourselves.

The next morning we headed to Lake Manyara. Many monkeys here. Plenty of Baboons, Blue and Velvet monkeys. We kept making jokes about the velvet monkeys, we thought they should be named blue monkeys instead... on account of their bright blue scrotum! Ah, yes, the immaturity! But, it was funny.

Again babies everywhere, playing, pulling each others tail and then play fighting. Funny to see the kids wrestle around, somersaulting and flying through the trees, branch to branch, and when they get close to the alpha male, he'd give them a smack. Like telling them to knock it off or play someplace else. The adults would be grooming each other and yelling at the children when they got too close. Comical to watch. They're so much like humans...

The trees here were lovely. Saw some neat ones called finger trees that had an extremely unique appearance. Branches coming out from the ground and twisting in all sorts of directions, like a hand. Pretty cool.

We saw a couple elephants, impalas, a hyena, giraffes, hornbills, flamingos along the lake and my favorite... hippos! There was a hippo pool that had about 8 of them. I could hear them grunt and blow water up into the air like a whale. And across from the pool was another waterhole where 2 parents were sleeping with their 3 babies. Adorable! I could sit and watch them all day.

The rest of the clan left after the lake tour, so it was just the driver, Andrew, and myself. We went our for a couple beers in the evening with a cook from the camp. The 3 of us had a nice time, telling stories.

The next morning, we drove off to Tarangire National Park. I have never seen so many elephants in my life! There was hundreds! Well, ok, maybe not hundreds... but you know what I mean. Lots!! I loved watching them play in the dust or mud. Spraying themselves, splashing with their feet and rolling around in it.

We also saw water bucks, another lioness and her 3 cubs (I saw 22 lions all together), a leopard (my 3rd, very lucky), more zebra, impalas and gazelles, ostrich, a giraffe, a monitor lizard, mongoose and green pigeons up in the Baobab trees. Such huge trees.

The one thing I could have done without were the tik tik flies (aka Tsetse fly). Man they give a wicked bite! Like horseflies... but worse. They carry the disease human sleeping sickness, but luckily, it's not common to become infected with a couple hours of sightseeing. There were blue flags around the park as well, sprayed with insecticide to help control their numbers. There's so many here, in this park, due to all the elephant dung. Nice, right?

After the park, we drove the way back to Arusha town, where I checked back into my hostel and did laundry and showered. It felt so good to be clean again. Even though it's short lived.

This morning, while having my breakfast, I bumped into Ryann, my American friend I met before my safari, and we spent the afternoon together. A nice Israeli girl accompanied us as we took a dalla dalla (mini van taxi) to Moshi. We roamed around the town and had lunch before heading back to Arusha. Quiet night tonight. Just watching all the hustle and bustle on the street from the hostel roof.