Tanzania Wrap-up : Haggling and Hanging Out - March 3

But Corinne, how did it get to be March 3rd?

Because I spent 20+ hours confused about what time it was on a plane, that's how.

Alisa and I spent our final day in Moshi attempting to spend all the shillings in our pockets - and managed to spend most our dollars too. Tanzania shillings aren't legal tender outside the country, so except for the few (thousand) that were taken home for commemoration, we needed to spend them.

One USD is about 1600 Tanzania shillings, so converting while trying to bargain was always fun. $25 equal 40,000 shillings, but mostly they are just a lot of zeros and I start getting confused when I have a 1,000 and a 10,000 shilling note in my hand. 

We didn't have to check out of Springlands Hotel until 10:30, even though we were up at 5am with the call to prayer and then again at 7am when we got hungry and it was light outside. So we hung out in the room, read, took our fourth shower in fourteen days (in true CS major fashion), and got our buffet breakfast. (Neither of us had the porridge - shocker, I know.)

I had some gifts and souveniors I wanted to buy, and Alisa was always interested in looking, so we took the $1 shuttle a quarter mile into town and started wandering.

There was a row of shops, and the first we stopped into gave us pretty decent prices up front, so we didn't do much haggling and came out with some hand-carved stuff. Both Alisa and I wanted Christmas ornaments, so we found some keychains made of cow horn that could service, but we didn't want to pay more than $1.50. The first shop, we talked them down to $2, but weren't satisfied with that. The next shop, we asked for prices and the girl started them at $10! It is always more fun to haggle when you know that actual valuation of what you are trying to buy.

None of the shops would go down that far, but we stumbled upon one with beautiful beaded and metal animal ornaments, so scooped up those instead. I'm hoping that using the Masai blanket I bought there too as a picnic blanket isn't offensive...

Traveling back to the hotel, we saw Thomas again and said our hello-goodbyes again. Other than that, the next 24 hours were hotel-airport-plane-airport-plane-airport. I got a few hours of sleep in there, watched some movies, and was driven crazy by the guy behind me tapping on the touch screen right behind my head while playing a game.

We did run into another couple that we had sat with at dinner, then again at breakfast, then again on the way to the airport. In Addis Ababa, we played cards for the duration of the layover, so it went pretty quickly, thankfully. All of the international departure terminals were much nicer than the international arrival terminals, so we weren't sitting on the floor being hot and sweaty.

We made it to Dulles, where a friend (who I'm highly indebted to for getting to the airport at 9am on a Sunday) picked us up to take us to my grandparents' house. Alisa's car was still there (yay), and we went our separate ways. During the trip, we did figure out that I'm headed to Pittsburgh in two weeks anyway, so it isn't going to be long until I see her again anyway.

My day was seeing Rosie (who is headed to a conference for a week, so needed to make sure I said hello-goodbye to her) and trying to stay awake and failing. I don't think a 5-hour nap is going to help me sleep soundly tonight, but I'm still tired and ready for bed - so here's to hoping that jetlag isn't as bad going west!

Safari Day 3 - Family Groups : March 1

The Octagon Hotel, where we spent the last two nights, was pretty snazzy. Each room was really a hut and had two double beds with netting over them. The bathroom and shower area curved around back, though the water never got warm so we only took one shower. The bar and restaurant were in the middle of a garden with cacti and birds (and bullfrogs, or something that sounded like them). Overall, a nice place, except for the lack of Internet and the blackouts. And the mosquitos, but I covered that yesterday (and covered myself with a mosquito net).

We negotiated to get an extra hour at the Tarangire this morning and left after breakfast at 7:30. Or, you know, African 7:30.

The Tarangire was an hour and a half away, though the roads weren't too bad. The park itself was grassland with a river and trees around, unlike the crater, which was just grassland, and the lake, which was just forest with some clearings (and a lake, of course).

There were some zebra and impala grazing with a bushback right inside the gate. Two dikdiks jumped across our path down the road a bit, and then it was just birds for a drive further into the park.

My goal today was to see a giraffe, since rhinos, cheetahs, and leopards are pretty rare. So, after the ten minute drive, a pair of giraffes were feeding about a hundred yards away. Goal achieved!

Those were two of the six giraffes we saw today, so not a large amount, but what we missed in giraffes we more than made up for in elephants.

The first family we saw had a few young ones, and was slowly meandering away from the shade of the baobab tree and towards another across the road. We waited and got to see the whole family cross the road twenty yards in front of us.

We drove to an overlook with a view of the Tarangire River (which never dries up) and another herd of elephants approaching it from far away to drink. We took in the scene (which included impala and ostrich) before heading that direction.

This group had finished crossing the river by the time we got there and was hanging out under a tree by the road. We got to see the smallest baby nursing as well as some elephant-trunk-on-tree-trunk scratching action. We were both thrilled, especially when they passed within a few yards of the Land Rover.

There were some mongoose and hardbills and "Zazu" birds (from "The Lion King") and more ostriches. The elephants were definitely the highlight.

The low of the day was driving all the way back to Moshi. We felt rushed at the end (he started driving us out of the park without really letting us know, then we ate lunch at a boring picnic area at the entrance instead of while watching any animals, or at least a pretty scene). We were told at the beginning we would get lots of choices, just tell our driver what to do, but we didn't know the choices enough to tell him to do anything differently than what ended up happening.

And so, he asked again if we wanted to go to the snake zoo (again, no), and then we jangled our way back for four hours, arriving well before sunset.

Safari Day 2 - Herds : Feb. 28

I woke up with a surprise this morning. We had heard some buzzing around at night, but I didn't think much of it until I woke up and my eyes felt really heavy. Well, not both eyes. Just my left one.

My face had been attacked last night. There was a bite in the middle of my forehead and one on my left cheek, as well as the one that caused my eyelids to no longer crease. I guess I learned the lesson about the mosquito nets hanging around the beds.

Alisa, while not feeling 100%, was a trooper and decided we should do the safari today anyway. Today was the Ngorongoro Crater National Park ("ngorongoro" being the sound cattle bells make as they are being herded).

After breakfast (pancakes!), we headed out with Abu for about an hour's drive to get into the crater. At the rim, we could make out a lot of dots, which came into focus as zebra, wildebeest, and even warthogs (all of which had mothers roaming around with their babies!) Apparently, wildebeest and zebra take care of each other, because zebra can sense danger and wildebeest can sense water.

There was at least one zebra that didn't sense danger well today though. We found a pride of lions that were being lazy but attentive. Abu said that it would take hours, so we moved on to the hippo pool.

I learned hippos can roll over. And over. And over. And just hang out upside-down if they are feeling hot. What the wild teaches you. (Don't worry, there were babies.)

On our way to our lunch spot, we saw a hyena or two and a jackal running through the grass. That was, again, amidst wildebeest and zebra a plenty, a few warthogs, Grant's gazelle, and Thompson's gazelle - and those were just the mammals. There were lots of ibis, bustards, and cranes, and some ostrich pairs now and again. The lake in the middle had a pink band of flamingos on the far side.

There were hippo bumps in the water at lunch, but we were warned about the hawks that would swoop in and steal food, so we ate (or napped, in Alisa's case) in the car. At least hawks didn't climb into the car like the baboons at the park gate threatened to.

The zebra-lion incident I mentioned earlier we found after spotting some cape buffalo and a lone elephant in the far distance. The pride was teething at the carcass, and we waited around to see if there was going to be any action from the hyenas that were circling. I was falling asleep when we decided to move on, and found the rest of the hyenas just down the road.

Hyenas live in groups, and there were six to eight adults and about four young clustered around the entrance to their den they kept peeking in and out of. Even though they are villianized in "The Lion King," they were some of the animals I enjoyed most during the day.

There were any surprises left except for a warthog and her triplets. And the rain that followed us to the park gate before abruptly stopping.

Alisa had been picking at parts of her lunch all day, but the whole-hearted attempt to eat it when we got back was rejected by her stomach. If only we had soup and porridge!

Thankfully, dinner was hanging out with the other Zara folk and not either of those. Pork and chicken and more delicious avocado salad. Dessert (besides the chocolate that I had bald at the room) was some "pudding" that was basically a cake. Coming back to the room to see Alisa in a better mood too was a fine way to end the day as well.

Safari Day 1 - Blue Monkey in a Troop of Baboons : Feb. 27

I woke up before 7am today, and not just because of the call to prayer. It was weird, though, because our room was much darker than a tent would be at that hour.

We had two hours to eat and sort our safari stuff from our hiking stuff. Pretty much, we just took out our toiletries from our disgusting, dusty duffel bags and tried to shove our day packs back into them.

We waved goodbye to our crew one last time, then headed out to a waiting Land Cruiser with Hussain, a softer-spoken older guy. We put our bags in his car, and started to pull away.

Except that we were stopped by some of the Zara people. They had us get out of the car and introduced us to Abu, our real driver. The bags were switched to his car and off we were for real this time.

It was a long drive to get to Lake Menyara. Alisa has been having an upset stomach since yesterday, and the lulling of the car made us both take naps.

There was a few kilometers of construction that had us driving on gravel paths that weren't very comfortable. The trade-off was no air in the car or dusty air. And some pretty intense speed bumps.

There were some interesting things to look at along the way, even if they weren't wild animals (yet). We passed through some areas with Masai, an African tribe that still maintains a lot of their heritage. One of their rites is that they have boys in their early teens cast out to sustain themselves for a few months. The boys wear black clothes and skeleton face paint and often bans together for those months. I saw about half a dozen walking along the road as we drove past.

Once we were through Arusha, it was mostly rural, with fewer people alongside the roads, but many still plowing or herding or toting things here and there. There were bands of kids in uniform coming back from school that we waved to as well.

Lunch was a packed box that we ate outside a big gift shop. There were mini bananas, per usual, but I got Abu's, since he said he didn't like them. Someone else said they were allergic, and a third person wasn't hungry enough. By the time it was all said and done, I had enough bananas for a troop of baboons!

It still seemed like forever before we got to the park, but we finally did around mid-afternoon. Alisa still wasn't feeling well, so I walked the little interpretive trail before starting our game drive.

It was dirt roads, but winding through jungle, and the anticipation that an animal might jump out at any minute!

Our first sightings were of baboons (of which the park had a lot, we came to realize). We chilled with the family group, saw some babies and some baby-making (apparently they do it for fun too), and then moved along toward the Hippo Pool.

There was a stopped vehicle in front of us, so we checked out the red-backed deer (or something like that) before determining there wasn't a lion behind it and moving on.

Right in the clearing ahead of us were six elephants grazing (including a baby!) They ambled along, grabbing grass with their trunks and shoving it into their mouths. Apparently, they spend 18 hours a day eating.

One gray lady looked like she was trying to pass in front of our car, but another car was blocking her way. She ambled around and continued eating.

We watched the elephants for a few more minutes until they has passed the car, then continued on. We could see herds of wildebeest and cape buffalo in the distance, but we'll see a bunch more of them tomorrow. The final patch of forest before the pool had some baboons running around, so I assumed the other brown things running were baboons as well. Turns out, two warthogs crossed our path instead. Pumba!

At the Hippo Pool, Abu said that it was hard to see hippos when it was sunny out, since they don't have sweat glands and need to stay in the water to keep cool. However, the hippo in the pool 50 yards away yawned just then, and we got to see the first of the beasts.

More pool and hippos were a bit farther away. As we were looking there, a mom and her calf came lumbering out of the water! Another baby! They were out for just a minute, but it was exciting nonetheless.

At this point, Alisa's stomach was really starting to bother her. We decided to head back toward the hotel, and along the way managed to see zebras, gazelle (with babies!), a mongoose, guinea fowl, and a single blue monkey in a troop of baboons.

The hotel was another 45 minutes away, but Abu did a great job of zipping us there as quick as possible. The landscaping is great, and we have our own little safari hut.

Alisa hit the bed and is staying there. Her bug is really biting back, so I'm really hoping tomorrow dawns bright and healthy. I had dinner with another couple that did Lemosho, so we traded Zara and Kili stories all evening. But, on Kili time, 8:30 is bedtime, so we tried to chat a little later, but bedtime it is.