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Flycatchers

Monday, June 25th, 2007

Okay, I had no idea about this whole concept until we got to Arusha.  This is the place where most safaris start from.  We took a 9 hour bus ride (should have taken quite a bit less time but we stopped EVERYWHERE).

So we land at the bus station.  We were followed, at one point, by 10 “Flycatchers” – guys that are trying to get you to go to their safari company/hotel/whatever the heck else they’re trying to sell.  And we were really stupid.  We should have just grabbed a cab, but everywhere else we just walked from the bus stations.  So we walked to this one hostel – but they were full – so we were walking to this one hotel and these 2 guys in mini-vans from Victoria Expeditions (it was so funny because the guide from the safari company we actually went with when we were telling him about these two guys goes “I bet it was Victoria Expeditions” – apparently they camp out on top of this hill near Arusha looking for Mzungu’s (white people – oh by the way, did I mention that I’m white here! – so funny!) on the bus.  And then they try to “catch them”.  They were trying to convince us that no hotels were going in the direction we were headed – this well-to-do older woman asked us where we were going – and we told her L’Oasis – and she totally got rid of the minivans and told them in Swahili – something that made them go away – and had a man from in front of the President’s compound (which apparently we were passing at the time) walk us there!  Kindness of strangers!

L’Oasis Lodge – kind of out of the way but it has literally become our oasis – we’re staying in the backpackers annex – smaller rooms with shared bathroom – but they have a bar and pool we can have access to – and the coolest people working there – considering we had to stay here long enough to arrange the safari and take the maximum allowed out of the ATM machine here – everyone wants cash and with us being on the road – not like we carry around that kind of money so we just stayed a few days and took money out every day!  Anyway, the next entry will be about our safari!

Posted in RTW Trip, Tanzania | 1 Comment »

Village trekking

Monday, June 18th, 2007

Oh by the way, the previous post happened on my b-day – I’m the big 35 now! Boy, the difference is amazing…

Anyway, we arranged with the Visitor Center, as per our bible, the Lonely Planet, a 4 day trek through the mountains.

Day 1: 6 hoursish from Lushoto to Lacozie (sp). We went through the rainforest, saw a few monkeys. Lunches ended up being fried bread called chipati (kind of resembled naan), avocado, cucumber, tomato. Dinners were like this really good spinach dish, cabbage, rice, and some type of meat (which I didn’t eat – which I’m REALLY GLAD I didn’t). Starting that day, John was not feeling good at all and ended up having traveller’s diarrhea. Isn’t that great? Just like the day we started the Inca trail in Peru. We stayed at a basic guesthouse that had squat toilets that had a bucket next to them full with water that you put in a cup and threw down to wash the toilet paper down and if you wanted a “hot shower”, they would boil the water on a fire for you and you could take a sponge-bath. There were a few places with electricity, but most of the houses did not.
Day 2: 4-5 hours to Rongwi. The first day was definitely the longest. Since it’s village trekking you go up and down and up and down on these hills. And in Africa they don’t mess around with those cute little switchbacks we have on hiking trails in the states. You go straight up and straight down. Usually with a bucket of water on your head. I think it’s amazing how these women can balance huge bushels of wood, water…I saw one woman with 7 watermelons on her head. After the end of this day we stayed at this mission. It was so cool. A bunch of super great nuns and priests. I didn’t realize how educated you had to be to become a priest. The funny thing is they LOVE BUSH! Probably because they’re being overrun by the Muslims, and they’re of course, Catholic. They had a generator that gave electricity from around 7 pm to 9 pm. We had really good food for dinner including something that resembled pot roast. The nuns boiled us some water for a much needed sponge-bath.

Day 3: 4 hours from Rongwi to Mtae. It’s kind of amazing because as we go through the forest, there are women in the trees cutting down the branches so all the trees have branches only on the top parts of them. Since they don’t have electricity for the most part in the area they need the branches for firewood. What happens when the trees run out of branches? I have no clue…John was having the most fun with the kids. They would say Mzungu (white person) like a chant – but since there aren’t that many white people that come through here they’re a bit scared of us and he tried to get some of them to give high-fives and they’d run away.

Day 4: Bus ride to a bit outside of Lushoto and then a small hike up to Irente Viewpoint. Oh my gosh, the bus ride from *^%#(). It was so rocky because the road was so bad – thank goodness we didn’t eat anything (did I mention we had to catch the bus at 4 am). After a couple of hours we got off outside of Lushoto and went up to Irente Viewpoint which had the most amazing view. We then had a “picnic breakfast” at Irente Farm and then headed back down to Lushoto.

It was an amazing trek and we loved it. The people were soooo nice. The one thing we learned that I just find amazing is that you are taught in Swahili in primary school. If you want to go to Secondary school (which they are working on to make it free, but right now it costs a bit to go to Secondary school) then it’s taught in English. In primary school it’s only 1 subject out of the day and then you have to turn around and go straight to English. It’s so crazy. And the enforcement of kids going to primary school (supposedly it’s mandatory) is not very good. We passed tons and tons of kids but enforcement is at the village level and, really, are you going to turn in your uncle that decided he doesn’t want his kids to go to school? And have your uncle sent to jail. Hmmmmmmm…..

Anyway, we’re now sitting in Arusha awaiting our Safari in 2 days. Yippeee!!

Posted in RTW Trip, Tanzania | 1 Comment »

Lushoto, Usambara mountains

Monday, June 18th, 2007
So after a few days in Dar es Salaam, which is the capital of Tanzania, we headed to Lushoto, a town 5 hours by bus away. The bus station in Dar was CRAZY! Luckily we had a good ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in RTW Trip, Tanzania | No Comments »

Tazara fun

Monday, June 18th, 2007
Hello again! It's been a while, but, well, wow is the internet funky here in Tanzania. Anyway, we took a bus from Livingstone to Lusaka (Zambia)...about an hour in the driver stopped to take a pee. Like a road ... [Continue reading this entry]

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Oops, forgot about the Walking Safari…

Saturday, June 2nd, 2007
So I was so excited about Vic Falls I forgot about the fantastic walking tour we went on a couple of days prior... Near Livingstone, where we're staying, there is a small national park that has animals.  But instead of being ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in RTW Trip, Zambia | 1 Comment »

Vic Falls – okay, way impressed…

Friday, June 1st, 2007
Hello, what's shaking? We hopped an Intercape bus from Windhoek, Namibia to Livingstone, Zambia.  It stopped in a gazillion places (well, considering it was quite the long bus ride, it kind of makes sense) and pretty much dumped off everyone but ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in RTW Trip, Zambia | 1 Comment »