Day 62: November 5. The Circle of Life

Day two of the safari started off early! (But only because we wanted it so). We knew we had relatively little time in the crater and that the animals are out much more before the heat of the day. We drove the good hour down into the belly of the crater and arrived at 730am.

On our way into Ngorongoro, Alicia's sister Joce texted on our Tanzanian phone that Obama won! Alicia let out a whoop and we all cheered. It even made Karla feel better (descending was also helping). We happened to pass by some Americans that we had chatted with at breakfast time and shared the good news by shouting it to them as we drove by. They were super excited as well. We told Emanuel to say something over the radio so that everyone else would know. The rest of the day we occasionally heard his name mentioned. Tanzania was very happy.

Today was a great day for seeing a lot of different animals. We were most pleased to see simbas, jackels, hyenas, vultures and hippos up close and personal. Of course there were the usual waterbuffalo, zebras, wildabeasts, ostriches, and antelopes and gazelles around...

The main highlights of the day were:
•Around 9:30, Emanuel stealthily took us to a drying river around which there were herds of animals and safari vehicles gathered. Clearly there was something exciting going on. Just as we were pulling up we saw a lioness in the distance prowling the area. Then, another, and then a young lion! And a grown lion with his alpha female! And another male by the river! It was then that Emanuel pointed out the water buffalo carcass in the distance. Apparently the pride had recently killed it but had lost control of it when the waterbuffalo herd had chased them away. Every time they approached, the herd went after them. Eventually they walked back to the river to wait. It was extra cool because they had to cross the road where the cars were to get there. Some of them would stop and check out the cars while others would lay in their shade. Clearly they were used to seeing cars. The unfortunate (fortunate for us and for our observing purposes) thing was that while the herd chased the lions away, the jackels, hyenas, and vultures moved in on the kill.
•During these two hours we also got to see a giant group of hippos lounging about. It was especially fun to see the baby hippos and the adults when they yawned. They are so big (and cute)!
•Having to stop the car to pee etc. and hope that there weren't any predators around.
•Looking for leopards and rhinos and not seeing any (not a good highlight but important because we spent a good two hours looking).

We were sad it was over when we headed back to the camp on the rim for lunch. It was a delicious lunch, and were pleased.

The next step was to drive to camp Keratu to set up our tents. We got there rather early and so went to the bar that caters to tourists and watched the news on TV, hoping to get more details on the election. We saw Obama's victory speech(amazing), part of McCain's not victory speech (the funniest), and Bush's congratulations speech (also funny).

Dinner was great and relaxing as usual. We were told after dinner that there was "traditional" african dancing and music in a nearby courtyard. The dancing was quite impressive and covered a variety of African styles, but their outfits were a little, shall we say, stereotypical. They looked like the flintones. It must have been for the tourists because we've never seen Africans dress in that traditional style before...

Back to the tents we went. It was a good sleep except that in the middle of the night Alicia was convinced that there was a lion in the bathroom and so refused to go. Hahaha...
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Day 61: November 4. Day 1 of Safari, Tarengire

We were collected this morning at 7:30 by our safari guide, Emanuel, to start our safari in Tarangire National Park.

Yesterday, before we bought the tickets at the office, they took us in our safari car to the bank. We had all piled in and sat waiting for the car to start. When it didn't, the two of us let out a big groan- not again!!! No way. They said it was the battery and took us in another car.

Today, while we were walking out to the car, we saw it being pushed and started as it was manual. We were angry/worried/thought it was not possible. Apparently they hadn't fixed it. Once on the road to go to the office to collect gear etc, Emanuel told us that they would change the battery when we got to the park. Luckily they had a battery and five guys ready to fix it waiting for us when we arrived at the office. It was dodgey for a bit but they got it working fine and dandy. Phew.

It took a few hours to drive there and we all took turns dozing and talking excitedly. We were all trying to recover from a light bout of nausea we had all woken up with. Suzanne had too and thought that maybe something we had eaten wasn't good. Luckily by the time we arrived at the park we were all doing much better.

The park was amazing. The neat thing about Tarengire is that there were plains, rolling hills, trees, rivers, and every thing in between. There wasn't a lake and there weren't any big mountains, but there were many many wildabeast and zebra. Twiga (giraffe), elephants, all kinds of funny looking birds, including an ostrich, many gazelles, buffalo, monkeys galore, and even a lioness in the distance thanks to our guide. Emanuel had superb eyes. His trick is when he sees something or knows something, he'll stop the car and look through his binoculars and wait to say anything until he's sure as to not get our hopes up.

Graham had brought binoculars and good thing he did because we used them a lot. Especially when we were watching two elephant families take their turns mud bathing in the same hole. We had a great lunch break overlooking the park. The fence in front of us with monkeys everywhere trying to steal people's food made it seem like a zoo. We were still getting used to the idea of being out in the wild...

One thing that was great was that mosquitos weren't an issue. Unfortunately the tsetse flies were out to get us. And they can carry sleeping sickness (who knows what that is...)!!! And on top of that, they hurt when they bite! Ouch.

In the early afternoon, much to our regret, we drove out of the park to camp on the rim of the Ngorongoro crater. As we climbed up and up, Karla got sicker. Maybe it was the altitude combined with who knows what else. She had a rough night and following morning, which greatly contributed to her grumpy mood.

Setting up the tents was easy and fun and they were roomy. They looked like they were built to last because they had; since the forties.

Dinner was pleasantly spectacular. Starting off with a bowl of popcorn was a fabulous idea. There was beef, rice, soup, and vegetables. MMMM. Dessert was fresh fruit and hot chocolate.

Bed came soon after as we were all tired and gathering our strength for the next morning. We went to bed anxious about the results of the election. We would know at 7am our time the next morning.
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Day 60. November 3: Taking Care of Business

After breakfast this morning (again with fresh fruit, yogurt, coffee, and home-made bread!), we spoke to a safari operator who was sent straight to our door by Jan. His name was Abu, and while he came highly recommended in terms of knowledge about the animals, he was sub-par from a business standpoint. He seemed unsure of what to charge us, and finally said that we should 'drop by' his office, 4 km from there. We said we'd think about it.

We all got ready, then walked into town. Karla and I tried to figure out flights from Arusha to Dar for Friday (when we're flying out), while the boys talked to more safari companies. Karla and I settled on taking an Air Tanzania flight, but halfway through the transaction, we realized that Air Tanzania only takes cash. Jeez! So we had to walk about 5 min away to find an ATM that deals with more than just Visa, then stood in line for about 7 min to use the machine. But when it was our turn, the ATM didn't work, so we had to go across the street and wait on an even longer line (about 30 min) to use that machine. Luckily it worked!

We found the boys on our way back to Air Tanzania and they told us to wait to buy our tickets, because they found a safari operator that was also a travel agent and could get us a discount. (Don't worry, the operator was recommended by our guide book as a legitimate business!) We ended up being able to plan out our ideal safari with them and negotiate a price below what we'd been quoted before. We were sold! We were scheduled to leave the next morning at 7.

The company took us in one of their safari cars to the bank, then to the airline company to buy our tickets. Our important items of business taken care of, we parted ways with the boys again, this time to do some khanga-shopping. We realized very quickly, however, that our two items of business (khanga-shopping and going to the hospital) were in exact opposite directions, and that we were likely to miss the doctor if we waited much longer. So we headed toward home, arriving at the hospital in the nick of time to see the doctor to make sure we were 100% healthy, and to get a note from him to justify our flight change to the insurance company. Phew.

We walked back toward town, and this time were receptive to a young man who approached us, asking if we wanted to see his fabric shop. It was a bit of a hike, but it we both ended up finding almost exactly what we were looking for, and left happy.

Back at home, we freshened up and helped with dinner. Jan had of course prepared yet another extravagant meal, which we enjoyed with one guest who might be a contact for Graham and Chris to start volunteering. When the guest left, we were all in a jovial mood and danced for a while before packing for the safari and heading off to bed.
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Day 59: November 2. Baaaaah Savenyah...

Today we slept in a bit. The safari yesterday must have taken more out of us than we thought. It was well worth it though. After a brunch of pancakes/crepes, bacon, fresh fruit and banana bread, we set out into town to use the internet machine. We have a few decisions ahead of us. As it looks right now, we are going to cancel our flight from Dar on Monday so we can keep recovering from malaria and take a safari before leaving from Kilimanjaro airport on Friday or Saturday. We will probably still fly into Delhi despite the recent terrorist attack to the east of Darjeeling in the northeast.

After using the internet, we went back to Shidolya safaris to talk about taking a 3-day one again. We got him to a price we liked, then told him we'd be back the next day to finalize and pay him. Which we had every intention of doing until we got home and talked to the people at the dinner party, who persuaded us to compare with more companies, as Shidolya wasn't the best.

The dinner party was really fun - the people in Suzanne's social circle are really interesting! We got more safari advice, and talked to a judge who was making a documentary about the Rwanda Tribunals, a U.S. social worker, a bioenergy engineer from Israel, and some people who worked on the tribunal. It was a great party!

Although we were tired when the party guests left, we had a hankering to watch 'The Lion King', seeing as there are so many Swahil words and names in it (and to get us in the mood for a safari!) so we had a screening before bedtime. Of course Suzanne couldn't help but make fun of us. Asante sana squashed banana...
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Day 58: November 1. Twiga what?

After breakfast this morning, we scrambled around to get ready to go to Arusha National Park. We had to get out of the door in a timely manner because Suzanne was going to a conference practically next door to the park.

After dropping Suzanne off at her conference, Graham experimented with driving on the wrong side of the road, and got us safely to the park! Practically upon entering, we saw giraffes (twiga in Kiswahili) and zebras grazing in the distance. Knowing that we were about to take a walking safari through the park, we left the animals to graze.

If the walking safari had been marketed as a guided hike, we would have all felt better about it. Although Chris was excited to be getting some exercise, it was perhaps a tad on the strenuous side for those of us still recovering from malaria. At least Amari was a really good sport.

Anyway, the only animals we got up-close and personal with on our walk were the water buffalo (can kill lions if provoked) and the warthogs. To be fair, we really were comforted by the ranger with a gun when we were close to the water buffalo! The other thing worth mentioning on the walk was a beautiful waterfall.

After our little hike, we ate lunch before venturing off on our own (with the car). This was much cooler! First of all, we went the wrong way out of the parking lot, and just as we were about to turn around, we spotted more twigas literally right next to the road. We were so excited!

Once we found our way, we saw a whole little community of animals, including warthogs, twigas, water buffalo, zebras, and water bucks. We got out of the car (but not too close!) and noticed that they were just as interested in us as we were in them! A mari did a cart wheel at some point and sent the zebras running. They are beautiful.

Next we headed toward the lakes. There we saw flamingos and hippos! On our way to the crater, and then out of the park, we saw 3 kinds of monkeys - colobus monkeys, baboons, and one unidentified species - and guinea fowl, as well as many more twigas just chillin by the side of the road. It was so majestic!

We headed out of the park, picking up Suzanne along the way, and going home for a short time before heading back out to the Colobus Club (again with Amari) to see a Russian guitarist play. In reality, although the guitarist was quite talented, it was overzealous of us to go after a loong day of safari-ing. We didn't even make it through the first third of the performance before we all started falling asleep. Luckily it was Amari's bedtime, so we all had an excuse to go home. Sometimes it pays to hang out with a 12-year-old!
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Day 57: October 31. Dalla-dalla bills y'all

Once again, again, breakfast was a very welcome site. We might start getting used to this and never want to leave! Luckily, the two of us usually feel uncomfortably restless when we start feeling too comfortable.

Shortly after the cozy meal we got ready for the day. Today we were going to meet up with Mathew, aTanzanian lad about our age who was recommended to us by Jan. He was going to take us to a beautiful lake outside of town (close but far enough to get really lost without him). We followed him to where we took a Dalla-dalla to Tangeru. It was Graham and Chris's first local bus ride in Africa. It was packed and Graham had to half stand half the way. Despite being much less discrete when traveling in a group, I feel like the local Arushans are much more accustomed to having white people around and even tried to catch the American football that Graham threw at them. Throwing it back always turned out interesting. So we slowly made our way towards the lake, paid an entry fee which we of course had to bargain down, and started walking.

The lake was beautiful and we had a great view of Mt. Meru, the second highest mountain in Tanzania. I believe it was then that Chris committed himself and Graham to climbing it before they leave in December. Soon after, we saw a monitor lizard slide into the lake and disappear. Then we passed by some white people catching spiders for research. When we asked them if they'd had any luck they grumbled a yes and carried on ruffling through the leaves. Must be rough for them. A little further down the path Mathew was leading and Karla was behind him. Mathew heard a rustling, paused, and let a rather large and deadly green mamba slither by. After holding our breathe a little waiting for more animals, we stumbled upon a bar that served flat Coke and ginger Stoneys. Soon we got hungary for real and headed back to Suzannes for lunch after a moment of, "maybe we can try this tiny restaurant...ok maybe not, it doesn't look safe.". We ended up walking to town to have a cheap but yummy meal with Mathew near where the dalla-dalla dropped us. When we got back to the house, Amari was there to greet us. It was a Friday and he had just come home from being at boarding school for the week. He's 12 and in the process of being adopted by Suzanne. He is fluent in English and Kiswahili and is a great little translator

It was Halloween night and Suzanne was going out for a party and we were unfortunately too tired to join her. Instead we had leftovers and watched 'My Best Friend's Wedding .' It was nice to relax on a comfy couch!
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Day 56: October 30. Market

Today we got off to a slow start again. We woke up and ate breakfast before lounging around for a little while and going right back to sleep! It was the perfect way to do the 'bedrest' ordered by the doctor.

When we got up for real, we decided that, since it was market day, we should go! Luckily we stayed away from goats this time. It took a few tries to find it. No one really knew what we were talking about when we asked where the market was, which is hard to believe because it was quite big! It was packed with everything from kitchen-ware stores to fabric stores to fruit and veg stands and of course, butchers. It was Graham and Chris' first market and third/fourth day in Africa but they didn't seem fazed. We were delighted to walk through and realize that no market is quite the same as the next. We were in search of khangas- we were addicted to finding the right ones. Yet, we all grew hungry and weary before long and headed to grab a bite at the local Muzungu eatery. We met Suzanne there at Via Via (which we later found out was designed by Jan!) before she hurried back to the UN building where she has worked with the Rwanda Tribunals for nine years.

We started our walked home to relax and shower while Chris stayed behind to use the internet. We stopped in to check on flights to Dar es Salaam briefly on the way.

When we got back Suzanne asked if we wanted to go a movie with her. We said yes before we knew what it was. It turns out that it was about Jonestown. It was quite the experience. Some of us knew less about it than others and we all came out of the movie feeling either sad or depressed, but it was overall very informative. Suzanne offered to take us to dinner after and so we drove just a little further down the street to Stiggy's. Here we had very interesting and emotional conversations. The night ended with a few tiffs but in the end we all learned a lot from each other and about each other. We were definitely tired out from the long day.
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