Quest for Beer - Africa (Tanzania)

Ok, getting back to the trip home. The next few days were a blur… There was one last stretch of bumpy, hot, dusty road until we reached the park entrance as we were leaving Ngorongoro Crater. My first thought was to write that the ride back to Moshi was uneventful, but then my memory kicked in and, oh ya, it was yet another adventure. Just riding through the countryside and seeing people everywhere was so interesting.

(Photo from Cindy)

(Photo from Cindy)

There were huge markets going on in some of the small towns we passed through. Lots of Masai in town for these dressed in bright colors - it’s quite the site.

(Photo from Marisa)

Also, all the businesses lining the streets had funny names in english, The House of Lubricants (for an oil change place), Mighty Meaty (for a butcher), etc… I can’t remember them all, but they were funny.

(Photo from Marisa)

Here was a typical street scene.

(Photo from Marisa)

This is a good shot of Kilimanjaro and Moshi.

(Photo from Daisy)

There was some miscommunication on the way back to Moshi. We had planned on stopping at a market to shop along the way. We were in the lead vehicle, so we stopped at a market thinking everyone else would show up soon. So, Mark, Mary, Dillon, Alexa, Brian, and I shopped around for a while, but non of the other vehicles showed up. Then Dillon said he saw our other vehicles go by. We finally convinced our driver that we had the wrong place. So, we go driving back towards town and here is one of our vehicles pulled along side the road - broken down. Luckily another of our vehicles happened by, so we all piled in the two landrovers (very cozy) and finally made it back to town to the market where the rest of our group was. Anyway, we shopped and haggled and then Nickson lined up a bus (not sure how he did that so quickly) for the rest of the ride back to Moshi (so we didn’t all have to pile in 3 landrovers).

Finally, we got back to the Keys Hotel Annex and had showers and cold beer. Some of the group was staying there, some at the Buffalo, some at other places. We all met up that night at Pub Alberto (a disco bar) and ate cheeseburgers and fries and listened to american disco music all night. Most everyone said their good-byes here. We toasted Jonathan’s birthday at midnight with rounds of tequilla shots. Had a very confusing taxi ride back to the hotel - non of us knew for sure where we were heading, but we finally saw some familiar landmarks.

Most of the group either flew home the next day or continued on to Zanzibar. Myself and a few others (Sherry, Daisy, and Francesca) weren’t flying out until the next day, so Nickson and Freddy drove us up to their village where they grew up.

We stopped to get some groceries for Nickson’s family along the way. This was the local beer truck. Hope that guy has good balance. Yes, those are crates full of beer.

(Photo from Francesca)

It’s up on Kilimanjaro near the gate to the “coca cola” route. We met their parents, hung out on Nickson’s porch and had a beer, saw Freddy’s bachelor pad (both Nickson and Freddy have nice houses there and they have houses in town).

(Photo from Francesca)

(Photo from Francesca)

When we drove up through the village in the landrover, all the kids came running out saying “pee pee”. Huh? I guess pee pee means “candy” in Swahili, so Nickson passed out candy to all the kids - they must like it when he comes around. The village was very beautiful. Lots of coffee plants, bananas, corn, and other crops. I couldn’t imaging growing up there.

That night, those that were left met up for pizza at the indoitaliano place. Said more goodbyes there. The next day I went into Moshi and walked around and got hassled by all the shop keepers trying to get me to buy their stuff. Found an internet cafe and sent some emails. I then found the Porter Assistance Project office and met with Zamo (he was an assistant guide on our trip). He lined up a taxi for me to go out to the airport later that evening (saved me about $30). I then hung out with Sherry and Nickson at the hotel courtyard and relaxed until 6pm. It was an hour ride to the airport and my flight was supposed to leave at 9:30pm. The flight was delayed, so we didn’t get out of there until almost midnight! Had a 45 min. layover (stayed on the plane) in Dar eSalaam and then continued on to Amsterdam. With the delay, I only had about 45 minutes there before my flight to Chicago. Then Chicago to Minneapolis and just like that I was back home (whew!). More to come…

Ok, I’m back. Sorry about the delay in the blog updates (just been taking care of some housekeeping).

I think we got to sleep in a bit this morning. Breakfast was in no rush. Breakfasts usually consisted of toast, peanut butter, jam, honey, porridge, breakfast sausage (hotdogs), and eggs. David, pictured holding the big pot, was our cook for the entire trip! Cooking for 28 people, breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 2 weeks is no easy task - he was awesome! The dinners with goat and/or beef were always a huge hit, and it was amazing at how many soups he came up with.

This was a little gem, it seemed everyone thought it was a shower (there was another shower close by and the tarps looked the same - and there were other, not so clean, toilets with a different style tarp - thus the confusion). That’s too much information, I know, but here’s some more. I got to be the first to use it!

Ok, on to the drive. Another long, hot, dusty day in the landrover. We are heading back to Ngorongoro Crater, which meant driving back across the Serengeti. This elephant was out for a morning stroll.

We got very lucky and our driver spotted this leopard up in a tree. You can barely see its paw hanging down.

There were many Masai villages close to Ngorongoro, but it was hard to take photos of them from the landrover, and if you stop to take photos, they run up to you and ask for money. I snuck this photo in, though, although he did come over and tried to sell Mark his spear.

We got to camp around 4pm or so. For some reason we had to set up our own tents tonight - that was a challenge. We played some frisbee for a while and then got interrupted by this guy. He walked about 10 feet from our dinner tables and then proceeded to hang out near the bathroom stalls.

This photo is courtesy of Cindy (check ‘em out, she has some great photos!)

This was the last campsite - one more night of tenting it. Firewood was scarce and after seeing the elephant, we didn’t venture too far away to look for it. Sean H. and I walked about 10 feet past the toilets and he shined his headlamp into 3 sets of glowing eyes that belonged to these huge water buffalos - we made a quick exit and went back to the fire with no wood. Needless to say we partied again that night - it took a while for the fire to get going, but we managed a nice one with what little fuel there was.

(photo from Cindy)

The plan was to get up a 5am so we could be heading down into the crater at 6am (then out by noon - they only allow so many groups for a certain period of time in the crater). I lost a bet to Madhu about the fire being hot enough to melt glass - it actually did melt it, but did not disappear completely.

Jonathan, Adie, Brad, Jen, and Teresa hanging out at the dinner tables after the elephant went by.

Woke up to a beautiful morning - the nights really cool off nicely here, but the days are extremely hot (at least it wasn't so humid, but that made it very dusty). [Continue reading this entry]