Posts in the Tanzania Category

March 6, 2008

Arushatown

Arusha, or “Arushatown” as the locals here refer to it is where Dr. Marvin and I are spending the bulkload of our downtime here. According to all of the guidebooks, it is one of the most expensive and weathy cities in all of Tanzania. It is a tourist town, plain and simple. It serves as the gateway to both Kilimanjaro and the Northern Circuit national parks, where we spent our last 6 days watching baboons passionately embrace each other.

Arusha is reputedly one of the most pleasent cities in the world. Its climate is muy  perfecto –85 during the day, 60 at night. And, the people are extremely friendly. I just walked down the street outside of our hotel in search of an internet cafe and literally 30 people must have said hi–jambo in Swahili– to me. Little kids yell out their hellos in unison.  And, aside from the street touts in the downtown district, no one has asked me for a dime. Everyone smiles all of the time. Its refreshing.

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Africa (2008), Tanzania Comments( 4 )
March 3, 2008

East African Safari: Check it off the list

Alas, our adventure in the bush has come to its conclusion. 6 days. 6 people. 1 semi-shot Toyota Land Cruiser. 90 Mosquito bites on Marvin’s legs. 1 Mosquito bite on my leg. 50 Elephants. 20 lions. 3 different kinds of animals engaged in passionate love making. 80 giraffes. 2 leopard. 40 warthogs. 1.2 million Wildebeest. 1.2 jillion types of Antelopes. 1 sleepy cheetah. 9 toilets in the form of  “holes in the ground”. 2 very tall guys sleeping together in one tiny tent. etc. etc. etc.

The Safari was outstanding. This trip is breaking the bank a bit, but, what the hell. In total, we shelled out just under $1200 bucks for our experience traipsing through the bush.  It was worth every single, solitary penny.

The Safari experience is something that I would like to share with the children that I will have sometime in the extremely distant future. To get so close to such enormous, fascinating, brilliant wild animals is one of my favorite things to do.

I would put this experience right next to Antarctica, which until now was the best place I have ever visited. The Pampas tour in the Bolivian Amazon was great and so was the Galapagos. But, with Africa you really have it all. In the wide world of wildlife viewing, I am firm believer in the “bigger the better”. It does not get any bigger than in Africa.

We lucked out with our group. Marvin and I spent much of our downtime talking about the differences in the culture between ours and that of our new Danish friends, Julie and Stine. We learned quite a bit about Denmark and I think they got a different perspective about America. For 20 year old girls, their working knowledge of the world is very impressive. I guess the 65% income tax that the Danish pay produces quite the formitable  education system. Attending University in the pseudo-socialist society is completely free. Well, free after the massive taxes but you get the point.

Yesterday as we were driving back from town, a street tout trying to sell us African art told us he would give us the “Obama” discount after learning we were American. Everyone we have encountered, from all over the world are talking about the coming  end of the Bush era and this guy named Barack Obama. He is all over the Swahili news here and in the minds of the Europeans we have met.

It seems to me that people around the world are sharing the same “hope” that is electrifying America right now. Regardless, I do not think many of the people we have met realize that Barack still has to get through two extremely powerful machines in the form of the Clintons and the Republicans.

I guess I just threw my mantra of not discussing politics right out the window.

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Africa (2008), Tanzania, Wildlife Tours Comments ( 1 )
February 29, 2008

After Day 4 in the Serengeti

The Serengeti National Park  is plain and simply breathtaking. Rolling plains of high grass surround us for what seems like eternity. This morning we awoke in our campsite, situated smack dab in the middle of the park with no fences, just before dawn. While I was brushing my teeth at the edge of the boundaries where we are allowed to go, I heard a snorting sound. I walked to check out what I thought would be an elephant and was surprised to see 3 male impala standing in the high grass. Just then, out of nowhere, I saw the silloute of a damn, dirty hyena jump and run through the grass less then 25 yards in front of me and less then 50 yards from where we were sleeping in our tents.

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Africa (2008), Tanzania Comments ( 0 )
February 28, 2008

After Day 3 our Northern Circuit, Tanzanian Safari

This is an excerpt taken directly from my journal while on safari in Tanzania.

NOTES (Because, sometimes it is just easier to take notes):

> Donald, our driver, has a serious thirst for knowledge of American slang. So far we have taught him “whack”, “my bad”, “sweet”, and  ”number 1 and number 2″ (bathroom knowledge), and the safari jeep is now “his ride”.

> Marvin and I are finding great amusement in some of the clothes people are wearing in the villages here. Yesterday we saw a young kid wearing a Daunte Culpepper jersey from his days with the Minnesota Vikings. In addition, last night at our campsite one of the employees was wearing a 1994 Michael Bolton world tour t-shirt. I am pretty sure that if this dude actually knew who Michael Bolton was he would jump in front of a stampeding herd of elephants. At least it is reassuring to know that some of the clothes we give away to the Salvation Army are actually getting to Africa.

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Africa (2008), Tanzania Comments( 3 )
February 26, 2008

After two days on Safari

Let me preface this post by saying that I am on a “five dollar per 15 minute” computer on the rim of the Ngorogoro crater. This is satellite internet. It will be a miracle of God if this actually gets published.

This expert is taken directly from my journal:

After a day or two mucking around organizing our safari and experiencing the trials and tribulations of jetlag, we find ourselves in the thralls of the animal kingdom. Marv and I are traveling with Las Tours, a good company with a solid communication problem. Either that, or maybe I should have bought an English/Swahili dictionary. Nonetheless, our guide (Donald) and cook (Abdul) are entertaining, relaxed, and seriously interested in our experience. We seemed to have lucked out with our safari compadres as well. Stina and Julie are from Denmark and I think are about 20 or 21 in age. The duo have been backpacking together through Tanzania and plan to be here three months in total. For the last month or so they have been teaching English and French in Zanzibar, the predominely Muslim island off of the coast of Tanzania.

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Africa (2008), Tanzania Comments( 3 )
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