Tazania Day 5

Thursday May 5^th, 2011

We left the Serengeti hotel to head to the Ngorongoro Crater hotel.  We saw quite a few animals on the drive out, including the tiny ears of our first lion!  We stopped at an authentic Maasai village, which was probably a highlight of the trip for me!

We were met by the chief’s son, Noel, to take us around.  We paid him $50 (per car) to be able to photograph freely, which is so nice since normally you have to pay each person you photograph one or two thousand shilling.  They greeted us with a traditional dance between the men and women.  They even put traditional necklaces around our neck and pulled my mom in to dance (jump).  I got great photos and video! 

 

After, Noel showed us around the village, including the tiny huts they live in temporarily. They are nomads and are constantly moving locations.  They were all very friendly and open.  There was this little girl named Nima who was such a personality!  She danced with my dad, grabbed me by the hand and led me around…she couldn’t be over 2 years old! I wanted to take her home with me! 

After the tour, they made us walk around and look at their jewelry and other crafts to purchase. It was obviously a little commercial but I didn’t mind because they were quite genuine.  My mom bought a necklace while the other girls bought some other items.  We left there and headed to Old Dupai.

 

 

Old Dupai (also known as Old Duvai due to a typo that was publicized internationally) is a plant but also the name of the gorge area where one of the earliest human remains was found!  Correct me if I’m wrong but they had items dated back 2 million years!  The remains weren’t quite as old as Lucy, who was found in Ethiopia recently but close!  They also had skeletons of extinct animals on the wall and a lot of other history.  We stayed long enough for a lecture and a quick walk around.  Very interesting.

We got to the new lodge by 2pm and had some lunch overlooking the crater. It was an amazing view!  My dad remembers eating lunch with the same view from 50 years ago!  I bought internet for 24 hours ($25) so I could upload some stuff for clients and actually get some other work done. I spent the rest of the evening playing catch up, save a break for dinner.  I got to bed around1am, which was a bummer since our call time the next day was 630am!

Tanzania Day 4

Wednesday May 4, 2011

I woke up bright and early to get on Skype with Jason.  Just before  I talked to him a baboon came and sat right out my window for a few minutes!  After, I had a quick breakfast and we were on the road by 8pm for our first full day of game drives.  We saw a leopard again early on along with a ton of giraffe and elephants.  The highlight of the day was seeing a herd of Wildebeast and Zebras (they are friends) come running through a valley. And I when I say herd, I mean thousands of them!!  We were right in the middle of them and it was awesome.  The zebras were braying which was something I’ve never heard before.  Shortly after we stopped for a picnic lunch provided by our hotel.  

Our driver, Lyimo

We got back on the road and kept our eyes peeled for a lion. No luck today, hopefully tomorrow!  We got back to the hotel around 3pm and went swimming for a bit.  We were lazy the rest of the night, had dinner and I got some work done!  The internet was down completely so that was a total bummer!  After dinner they had an acrobatic show put on by the same dancers as the night before.  They were amazing!  Doing tons of flips and tricks and even some fire limbo!  Their bare feet kept slapping the cement, my mom couldn’t handle it and had to leave.  It was pretty intense. 

Tanzania Day 3

Tuesday May 3, 2011

Happy Birthday Dad!!   We woke up early and got some breakfast at the hotel.  I was able to skype (no video) with Jason for a bit before we left on the morning game drive.  We went to the local Menyara National Park and immediately saw some baboons like the day before. One even climbed on our land cruiser!! It was extremely lush and tropical so spotting animals was a bit hard.  I pointed out the first elephant! We only saw the ears but it counts!  We saw giraffes, hippos, other monkeys, zebras, warthogs, some antelope among other smaller creatures.

At noon we went back to the lodge for another buffet lunch.  We got back on the road for a 6 hour drive to the Serengeti.  We drove over the Ngorongoro Crater and down some crazy dirt roads.  We saw a ton of Masai villages and I cannot wait to go in to one and photograph the people.  The Serengeti is way flatter than what we had seen and became more lush the more we drove. We saw all kinds of antelope, hyenas as well as some more giraffes close up.  I got some amazing photos!  We also some some buffalo and stalked 2 leopards in a far away tree for a bit.  Leopards are the hardest to find/see so I’m stoked we got that done the first day!  Tomorrow I hope to see more elephants and big cats.  We made it to the lodge just after dark.  Its raining off and on here with some crazy lightening in the distance. We cannot walk to and from our rooms without a security guard because of the wild animals in the area!  Scary!  We had a nice dinner and watched a cultural dance show put on by the staff.  Kimberly (one of the girls in our car) got pulled up there by a dancer and showed off some awesome moves!  We retired to the room to rest and look through today’s images. 

Ida and Marcella

Tanzania Day 2

Monday May 2, 2011

We had the morning and afternoon to wander around Arusha before we left at 2pm.  I stayed in the room to Skype Jason while my parents had breakfast.  I joined them shortly after and then we checked out of the hotel and met up with Kimberly, Marcella and Ida.  We started walking towards an open market but took a wrong turn at some point. We got hand written directions from a large hotel and made our way to the market. It was…interesting. I found a few trinkets right away and bought them after some bargaining.  This is their low season so things are a little cheaper.  All of the stalls are very close together and pretty much sell the same trinkets.  Each person stands outside their shop and calls to you to come in.  “Sister! Karibu!” (Welcome)  “come see my shop rafiki” (friend).  Its quite overwhelming!  I didn’t enjoy the hustle at all, although I did buy a bracelet made of giraffe hair after the guy bugged me enough.

We left the market and headed back in the heat to the hotel.  We loaded the Land Cruiser and started the 2 hour drive to Lake Menyara.  Nothing too exciting on this part of the trip except seeing the different towns and Masai villages.  Some people get mad if you try and take their photo and will even flip off the camera or chase after  you.  Mostly they want money.  I kept my camera to myself most of the drive.  Just before we reached the lodge we came across a family of baboons!  They were sitting just off the road.  We got out of the car but that scared most of them off.  I got some awesome photos though!

We got to the lodge around 5:30 and it was stunning! It overlooked Lake Menyara and had the most amazing infinity pool!  We got out suits on immediately (ok after taking some photos around the property!) and drank a beer in the pool.  The staff came down to the pool and performed some African dances for about 30 minutes so that was cool to watch.  The light over the national park was beautiful.  We got cleaned up and met everyone for dinner.  We went back to the room to make it an early night.

Ethiopia Day 4

Saturday April 30, 2011

I couldn’t sleep so I was up at 4am.  I just got some work done on my computer and played a million games of solitaire on my iPhone.  My parents woke up around 7am so I went downstairs to check my email and upload some photos on their ancient machine. It was pouring outside and we are near some tin roofs so it was very noisy! After we walked to the local pastry shop to get breakfast.  I got hot chocolate and a chocolate croissant.  After, we went to the internet café where the international phone was and I got to chat with Jason for 30 minutes.  Still no news on my car. 

Back to the hotel to rest up before lunch with Shibabaw at his home.  While we were resting, dad’s former student Abdul-Rashid called and said he would be downstairs in 10 mins. Okay!  This is how Ethiopia works I guess.  He wanted to take us up to the mountains even though we told him we had lunch plans at 2:00.  He said no problem.  We drove through busy Addis and then up a mountain to the country side where we pulled over so they could make a phone call. And then back down the mountain again. Pretty views.  We saw a lot of old women carrying items on their backs...charcol, straw, wood, eucalyptus branches and water.  We stopped so I could photograph one woman and we paid her 3 birr to do so.  Its customary to pay to take a photograph of someone.  I just did it with my iPhone, but still.  

  

My dad with Abdul-Rashid

The old woman we paid to take her photo

Rashid was driving us to Shibabaw’s home and he took us through the Mercato area.  At one point a beggar reached for my door and tried to open it and it freaked me out a bit.  Rashid had to stop for a supply of Chat, which is a type of stimulant (drug) that they chew here.  You chew the leaves directly.  Dad says its an illegal narcotic in the states but is widely used here as a relaxation method mostly by the men.  

We got to Shibabaw’s house late and he was waiting for us at the bottom of his apartment. He took us up in the oldest elevator ever! I was so scared to go up plus it smelled like urine. Yuck.  Upstairs, his maid had cooked a glorious homecooked Ethiopian meal of tibs, doro wat, injera and more!  Some of the best tasting food I’ve had.  We washed it all down with a Pepsi!  She even traditionally washed our right hand for us right there in the living room. In the background was the Ethiopian version of American Idol.  They had even copied their logo and format.  It was singing or dancing acts of all ages, very interesting to watch.  We hung out there and talked awhile before getting in a taxi to Dunbell center to try and find Ethiopian Airlines office.

Getting my hands washed

Ethiopian Idol

making traditional ethiopian coffee

the scary lift!

Dad and Shibabaw

No luck with the office but we found a travel agent who represented them.  We booked our flight to Lalibela and then Gondor for the week we get back from Tanzania.  Lalibela was on my “must do before I die” list so I’m very excited.  I always knew what it was, but the first time I saw it was in an Amazing Race episode and that is when I knew I wanted to visit.  We taxied back to our hotel and tried to steal wireless internet (its almost non existent here) from the hotel next door with no luck. 

Back up to the hotel to pack and get ready for our early flight to Tanzania tomorrow! We fly in to Kilimanjaro airport!

 

Ethiopia Day 5 & Tanzania Day 1

Sunday May 1, 2011

Woke up super early again and got some work done.  Finally got out of bed around 6:30am to check my email and make sure our flight was on time. It wasn’t, delayed 20 mins.  Packed up our final things and headed to the airport early because we heard they had wifi.  Caught a taxi out front and said goodbye to the hotel staff for now.

We got dropped off at the wrong terminal so we took the long walk over to the domestic one.  We were the first in line to check in and it was a pretty easy process.  We got upstairs and sat down to eat some food.  Lo and behold, there was the free wifi!  It was coming from the other terminal but it was still relatively fast. I got to talk to Jason for awhile and also to Lindsay for a bit.  I caught up on some emails, games of Words with Friends and upload photos to my blog and facebook.  WooHoo!   The food was just okay but the mango juice I ordered was divine.  We had to rush to the gate because the screen said it was boarding…and it wasn’t.  Oh well. 

I love all the typos i find in this country!

Not sure what mountain this is!

The plane ride was uneventful, I watched Little Fockers.  We got to Tanzania and it was much more green that Ethiopia!  It was also much warmer.  We were met by a guide at the airport and found out that 9 other people on our flight is also on our tour with us.  After proving we got our yellow fever shots, paying $100 for a Visa (ouch) and getting our bags (someone stole my BCBG baggage tag (Boo) we were headed to the hotel in Arusha which was an hour away.  

 

We were in the van with three nice ladies from Philadelphia.  We saw alot of the countryside of Tanzania, women in colorful headscarves, young boys tending cattle, beautiful greenery, etc.  They have a ton of crops here, seemed like we passed so many fields of "something".  They even grow roses and supply to most of Europe!

 

We arrived a the hotel, The East Africa All Suite Hotel and was greeted by fresh orange juice.  The hotel is very nice!  Much different than where we have been staying in Ethiopia.  This is a high end luxory tour that we booked.  My parents wouldn't normally do something like this but they are appeasing me and my wish to go on a safari.  Turns out the lower end ones were just as pricey as this one!  We lounged around in our air conditioning (first we've had on this trip) and then swam in the pool for a bit, while enjoying an African beer, Tusker.  We met some more lovely ladies from our tour group and had a nice chat.  

We got cleaned up after the pool and walked a little ways down the road.  I think we took a wrong turn because we ended up at a traffic circle and nothing else!  We headed back toward the hotel and decided to try out a restaurant in a neighboring boutique hotel.  It was called the African Tulip and it was so beautiful!  Very high end, even more than our hotel.  We sat outside at the pool area and had pizza (chicken, corn and onion - yum) and another beer (Safari Lager this time).  The whole meal cost only $14!  Wow!!  We walked back to the hotel and enjoyed the free wifi I had been missing. :)