Last Weekend - Kilimanjaro :-)

In no way right now do I feel like blogging - I leave Arusha in less than 24 hours, and the last thing I want to do is sit around blogging and uploading pictures.  However, at the same time, I know it would really bother me to not complete my blog, so here goes a quick recap to my last weekend in Tanzania.

For a final hurrah, Molly, Stephen, Minje, Esther, Maka and I went for an overnight trip to Kilimanjaro.  It took a little over two hours to get to the Kili area from Arusha (which was a great drive out), which is cleaner, fresher, and much crisper than being in Arusha.  We stayed at a really comfortable house (which is rented out to guests like ourselves), had a very relaxing evening hanging out together, and then woke up early to explore the area.  

I know this is terrible, but I am already forgetting names, and maybe one day I will come back and edit this and put the proper names in here, but my brain has very limited capacity right now, so I'll have to do what I can.  Basically, the area where we stayed was called something that started with an M (I think an M), and is home to the indigenous group the Chaga.  So, we first went to the live Chaga cultural museum to get a glimpse of life of the Chaga people.  I must say, it's not a life I would want.  It's very similar to the Maasai, and in no way do the living accommodations of the indigenous people appeal to me. Very interesting, though.  

Next, we walked to the main gate of Kilimanjaro.  We could go in a bit, but to really go into the trails of Kili, you have to pay something like sixty dollars (just to get inside), so we hung around the gate and enjoyed the view.  I must say, going to Kili and seeing where the trails start desperately made me want to come back and climb it, so I'm throwing that on the bucket list.  Anyway, after that we went back to the house, had an awesome lunch (including some sort of local, homemade "beer" but I don't know how to describe the taste, or texture; let's just say that was an interesting part of lunch but not really the awesome tasting part).  

After lunch, we went for a hike to a waterfall.  Actually, right before that we stopped at these cool Chaga tunnel/caves that took the Chaga people 52 years to build.  I didn't take any pictures inside, and am too tired to write about them, but they were really cool.  Moving right along, we hiked down to a waterfall which was really spectacular, amazing scenery (I literally felt like I was in Jurassic Park), and we actually got into the water and swam around.  There is a lot more I could describe, but I have a very long list of things to do before tomorrow, so suffice it to say that it was a very cool culminating weekend in Tanzania.  

I will try to post tomorrow with my final thoughts and maybe some thoughtful reflections on my time here, or you may never hear from me again.  It could go either way right now.  :-) 

Safari Edition: Tarangire & Serengeti

Since I only have three days left and am trying to wrap everything up here, I probably won’t write as much about my safari as I would have liked.  When I initially decided to keep a blog while over here, I envisioned that it would be much cooler and dynamic, but it’s really not met my original expectations.  Anyway, the pictures are pretty incredible (thanks to my friend Sarah, who let me borrow her awesome professional-style badass camera), but really don’t even do it justice.  I saw some of the coolest stuff I’ve ever seen, and I wish that camera pictures could capture it exactly, but we all know that never really happens.   

Anyway, the first park we went to was Tarangire, which actually is probably my favorite park I’ve been to.  Each park has been awesome, and each has its own flavor, and Tarangire was particularly dense on the elephants, which I really loved.  We also saw a lot of lions, and got to watch a lioness climb up a tree and settle down for a snooze.  Really cool stuff. 

That night, I had my first-ever camping experience (I clearly don’t count the time in fourth grade when my dad bought a tent and set it up in the backyard for ‘family campouts’ which never happened).  I was really excited about camping out, and actually really enjoyed the experience (we also travel with a cook as part of the safari package, so it’s really nice when someone is there to make you a hot meal, and who sets everything up for you).

The next day we set out for the Serengeti.  I was actually pleasantly surprised to find out that on the way, we drive through Ngorongoro (which is the crater we had visited a few weeks before).  It’s a really beautiful drive, and from the crater to the Serengeti it’s about three hours on dusty, bumpy roads, which I actually enjoy because I take it as part of the experience (this was also very different from the dusty, bumpy roads we took to Dar because we had 5 people in an extremely comfortable safari car, rather than 25 people packed into a bus).  Anyway, as soon as we pulled into the Serengeti, we almost immediately spotted two giant male lions sitting in the middle of the field.  It was an excellent omen, and we only continued to see other amazing things (although I don’t remember them in any particular order), including a leopard hunting, leopard mom and cubs, a pride of lions hunting, and lines of elephants.  We went for a game drive for several hours, and then headed to our campsite.  Camping in the Serengeti was much different from Tarangire, and was actually a much cooler camping experience.  The campsite in Tarangire was not within the park itself, but about 10 minutes away; the Serengeti campsite is directly in the Serengeti, so you hear lions roaring at four in the morning, and hyenas literally come onto the campsite.  Crazy stuff.  The other cool thing about camping in the Serengeti was that this particular site didn’t have people that set up your tents for you, so we got to be a lot more hands on in “helping” set up (which, much of the time, meant I was taking pictures of the setting up, but sometimes it included some quality grunt work). 

The next morning, we woke up early enough to go for a 6am drive to watch the sunrise over the Serengeti.  I have seen lots of sunrises, and I think they are always pretty incredible no matter where you are, but I will have to say that watching the sunrise over the Serengeti is definitely at the top of the list.  One of the things I kept thinking during the drive that day is how endless and expansive the Serengeti is, and it certainly is huge, and watching the sun rise over that great expanse was really spectacular. 

After the sunrise, we went on another game drive for a few hours, and had a late breakfast, packed everything up, and then went on a final game drive of the Serengeti before heading back home (which we got to stop at Ngorongoro for a picnic lunch on the way, which was also awesome).  All in all, it was an awesome safari experience – the only bad part was that it was only for three days.  It is definitely the kind of thing I know I will do again, and definitely want to go back one day and get my fill of the Serengeti. 

Initially, I had a lot more to say about the safari, but I have a lot to get done to wrap everything up here – only three more days left in Arusha, and tomorrow I have my last soccer game with the Future Stars, and then am heading up to Kilimanjaro for the night to camp and hike around, then come back on Sunday just in time to pack and leave on Monday.  I will try to put up my last Tanzanian blog on Monday before I leave, and then the next time you’ll hear from me I will be in Sierra Leone.  Crazy!

Until then, happy Friday!