Nate and Shelly’s Travel Blog

Shelly in front of our first lion, which is taking a nap

 After 2 days in Lake Manyara we drove about 4 hours to Ngorongoro Crater, which is the remnance of an anchient volcano and home to an incredibly dense amount of wildlife.  Animals do migrate in and out of the crater but some never leave and live their whole lives in the crater.  One of the rarest is the Black Rhino and there are only 19 in the crater.  We were lucky enough to see one up close and it was my favorite animal on the trip. 

Our one and only encounter with a black rhino

After a long day of game viewing we spent a night at our best campsite of the trip.  Our tents were located on the rim of the crater and we had a spectacular view of the morning sunrise and the surrounding mountains.  We were also joined that night by two unexpected guests.  Before dinner a hyena was spotted near the tents and was easily scared away.  We were also joined by a Tanzanian guard armed with an AK-47 assault rifle.  Our guide told us that he was there to protect us from the animals and the animals from us (i.e. poaching).  We only saw him for a few minutes before he disappeared into the bush, probably to take a nap.  

A shot of the zebra and the crater floor and one of our best pictures of the trip

A view of the crater from our tent that night

After 3 days on safari, relaxing before dinner (Kilimanjaro beer not pictured)

For the first leg of our safari we spent two days in the Lake Manyara Man and Biosphere Reserve.  The lake and surrounding area is home to many of Tanzania’s big game animals including elephants, giraffes, hippos, olive baboons, and warthogs and we were able to see them all.  Besides the game, our first two days were really spent getting used to life under the stars.  Our trip was a 7 day “Authentic Camping” safari, which meant our home for a week was a tent and our meals were served around a campfire.  There were six of us on the trip (2 Americans, 1 Canadian, 2 South Africans, and 1 Brit) and we were supported by 1 guide and a 4 person crew.  The guide and crew were responsible for driving us around the game parks in a Land Cruiser, setting up camp, cooking our meals, cleaning up the camp, and even doing our stinky laundry… it was really roughing it.

Olive Baboons blocking the road… and later keeping us up at night

What made Lake Manyara stand out most was the wildlife activity after dark.  We were camping in a jungle environment and when the sun went down the animals came out.  On our first night, we had some Olive Baboons banging on the back of our tent and the jungle seemed, and was, alive.  Not only did Shelly push our two beds together, she also made me switch beds so that I was closest to the tent wall and she was in the center.  My hand was also used as her personal stress relief and I suggested she take an Excedrin PM to help ease her nerves, which she immediately did.  Within 15 minutes she was sound asleep and my hand was once again mine. 

Shelly’s Warthog remained safely out of our camp at night    

Some of the many giraffes we saw during our safari

Shelly and I in front of the hotsprings that feed Lake Manyara

We departed Nairobi, Kenya this morning and are currently in Amman, Jordan waiting for our flight to Delhi, India.  Since our last post Shelly and I have had an amazing time, took some amazing pictures, and have some great stories to tell.  Unfortunately, the internet connection we’re using is very slow so it may be another day before we have a chance to get everyone caught up and share some pictures. 

We want everyone to know that Shelly and I are safe, healthy, and survived the safari with no warthogs in our tent 🙂  We also enjoyed our brief stay in Nairobi and there were no complications with our travel.  We’ll try to get everyone caught up with our travels soon, once we’re on a good internet connection.   

PLEASE ALSO NOTE: bootsnall has made some changes to their website so from now on we will be posting thumbnail pictures (like in the Arusha post).  Just click on the picture to get a larger view.

After a brief layover in Nairobi, Kenya, we made it safely to Arusha, Tanzania. We’ll be here for one night before heading into the bush for our 7-day tented safari. Tonight, we are staying at a beautiful private lodge on a coffee plantation where everyone has their own cottage and beds with white mosquito nets—-very ‘Out of Africa’.

While we were in Nairobi, we were pleasantly surprised to talk to locals and hear that the violence had subsided and that things were ‘good’ again, according to all of the airport workers and travellers. Therefore, we are moving forward with our original plan to spend 2 days in Nairobi after our safari en route to India. However, we are viewing it as an opportunity to just power down to rest, get our laundry done, and enjoy the ammenities of the hotel. In case anyone is worried, fear not, as we are staying in one of the nicest hotels in Kenya.

This will be our last opportunity to connect to civilization until we reach Nairobi again on February 15. In the meantime, happy Valentine’s to everyone! Our goal will be to try to keep it just the 2 of us in our tent on the big day, instead of 3….as warthogs and other animals are known to wander through camp periodically. I’ve also instructed Nate that we’re going to merge our two single beds into one double bed so that I have some protection from any intruding animals. I feel confident that Nate’s extensive military training will serve me well during this endeavor.

People say a picture’s worth a 1,000 words, this one’s worth 2,000…

It pretty much sums up our 4 day Nile Cruise and we had the most amazing time. The people, Egyptian sites, and experiences will stay with us forever. We could write pages about the sites, but instead this post will be dedicated to the people that made Egypt special.

Our trip wouldn’t have been the same without Shelly’s “mini-me” sisters, Frida and Mika. Seeing them together in one location was pretty funny because they were exact images of each other, just at different stages in a person’s life… 3, 7, and 32 years old. Mika, the youngest, couldn’t get enough of Shelly’s name and was constantly shouting it from across the dining room, sun deck, hallway, and anywhere else Shelly was spotted. They were very funny together and the three of them were instant friends.

Another person that made a big impression was Robert, our friendly guide during our stops in Luxor, Edfu, and Aswan. He gave us a private tour of all the sites, haggled with local merchants on our behalf, and even arranged our morning wake-up calls. However, the best time we had with him was when we met his cousin, her husband, and their two boys at a coffee shop in Aswan for a taste of local culture. It was great to sit down and talk with them about daily life in Egypt and was the best learning experience Robert could have given us.

Lastly, our trip wouldn’t have been possible without the countless taxi drivers, carriage handlers, and felucca (it’s a boat) captains during our trek. Below are pictures of our favorite Egyptian transport specialists. The first was the owner of a horse named Prince who took us from our cruise ship to the temple in Edfu. He was kind enough during our return to find an Internet Cafe and wait before taking us back to the ship. His generosity gave us a quick 10 minute internet session to let everyone know we were alive and doing well. The other picture is of our two felucca captains, with Nubian treasures for sale, that guided us around the Nile for an hour. They didn’t say much but had the skills to sail into the wind, which seemed pretty cool to me.

Lastly, Shelly celebrated her 32nd birthday on the ship and the boat had a party for her. Both the boat crew and guests gave her gifts, which was very nice. The boat was also kind enough to bake her a cake and play some Nubian music on her behalf. Unfortunately, though, I forgot the camera (I know, bad Nate) so there’s no documented proof of this birthday. You’ll just have to take my word for it, it was the best birthday she could have had.

As with all places, we’re going to be sad to leave Egypt behind. I think it’s safe to say that this has been the most enjoyable part of our trip so far. We can’t say enough good things about the people and how welcoming they are to us.

Tomorrow we depart for Arusha, Tanzania and get ready for our African Safari. We’ll try to make one more post before heading into the bush. If we don’t then our next entry will be in mid February. We hope everyone is doing well back home and take care.

After our relaxing stay at Le Meridien Pyramids Hotel near Cairo, we flew to Luxor via EgyptAir after a very early morning which started with a 3:30am wake-up call in order to catch our 6:30am flight.

Unfortunately, we realized that we had left our entire itinerary and paperwork for the Nile Cruise from Luxor to Aswan at home in Seattle. We weren’t quite sure what to expect, but were happy to see a man in a business suit holding up a sign for ‘Mr. and Mrs. Kurtz’ at the Luxor Airport. En route to the boat, all we could think about was how nice it would be to just sit on the boat all day, relaxing in the sun in our swimsuits and getting some rest. Our boat was beautiful and our anticipation built as we were welcomed with a refreshing glass of cranberry juice and seated in comfortable couches in the lounge. However, our dreams of cocktails and poolside lounging soon vanished as we were introduced to a personal guide and whisked back off the boat to go tour the sites of Luxor, without so much as seeing our room or eating breakfast. Little did we know at that moment that we would have a full 12-hour day ahead of us, with not so much as a moment on the sundeck. In fact, we learned that our boat didn’t leave until the next morning and that our first day and night in Luxor was just for sightseeing. We also didn’t realize that our travel package came with a guide–not to mention a private guide just for us. We had a huge air-conditioned van with a private driver and private English-speaking Egyptologist assigned just to us. Throughout the day, we kept saying “Maybe they think we are someone else? Everyone else is touring in large groups of 10-30 and we have a guide and private driver all to ourselves. How did we get so lucky?” It was definitely a luxury to have that type of personal attention and our guide Robert was really knowledgeable about all aspects of ancient Egypt. It was very helpful to get some context and perspective about what we were seeing besides just great photo opps. But, it was a very physically and mentally exhausting day to say the least. Our senses were fully overloaded with so many amazing sites and incredibly detailed explanations by Robert about all of the history of the various Egyptian pharoahs, structures, and gods. Even our noses were overstimulated by the smells of ancient Egypt as we toured a perfume factory to learn about the essential oils and perfumes that the Egyptians created. All of that, plus an alabaster factory, and a lightshow at the Karnak Temple, with very little sleep, and spinning heads, not knowing what was coming next.

But, it was all worth it to see the things we saw and do the things we did. We were able to see the tombs of many kings including Ramses II, Ramses IV, and even King Tut—-his unwrapped mummy and all!!! Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed inside the tombs. But, here are a few pictures from some of the sites in Luxor and Edfu (further down the Nile).

A statue for the Egyptian God Horus, God of Protection

Luxor Temple in Luxor

A statue of Hatshepsut (a female pharoah, who took the thrown and ruled as a man)

After a 10-day stint in France and Italy, Shelly and I arrived in Cairo, Egypt, to start the Africa leg of our trip. It’s very hard to describe everything we’ve experienced, but we’ll do the best we can.

We spent our first few days in Egypt about 10 km south of Cairo in the town of Giza. Our goal was to quickly check out the Pyramids and spend a couple days resting by the pool and drinking Sakkara beer. From our hotel room, we could step out on our balcony and get a full few of the pyramids. It was amazing. To think that just last month we were in Machu Picchu and now at the base of the Egyptian pyramids was a pretty cool thing to have experienced.

For our only full day in Giza, we spent about three hours touring the pyramids. Our hotel offered to get us a car for the day and a guide but we opted to head out a take the pyramids on our own. After dodging through traffic, past persistent taxi drivers that hung out outside of our hotel, and through the dozens of camels and donkeys, we made it to the pyramids unscathed. It was great to see them up close and it’s hard to imagine how the ancient Egyptians could build them. After walking around the pyramids and taking some action shots (see below) we walked down to the Sphynx and back to the hotel. That night we went to a local “sheesha” bar and smoked apple tobacco out of a hooka… which is basically a three-foot water pipe. We sat with a bunch of Egyptian men who were puffing furiously on their hookas as they watched a local soccer match on T.V. When in Egypt, do as the Egyptians, I guess. The next morning, we caught a 6 a.m. flight to Luxor on EgyptAir to begin our 4 day cruise down the Nile River.

Our impression of Egypt is that it’s a place rich in history and the people are extremely friendly. As a whole, they are probably the nicest we’ve met so far on our trip. Everyone is generous to us and they all have a smile. We are constantly talking to random people and everyone wants to tell us their story and talk about their family. Most surprisingly, everyone in Egypt loves Americans and loves America. Unbelievably, we didn’t see any other Americans although there were a few other Westerners (British, French, Australian). Therefore, we were a bit of a treasure to the locals as their eyes would light up with happiness upon hearing we were American.

Hello everyone, we’re finally back online. I’m going to rewind things a bit and conclude our stop in Italy before telling you about Egypt. There were two reasons for the long delay between posts. First, we have been traveling down the Nile River for the last four days and there was no Internet onboard. Second, when we arrived in Cairo last week, we learned that the entire country lost its Internet connection. Apparently the fiber optic line that connects Egypt to the Internet was severed so everyone was without the Internet for several days. That’s life in Africa, now back to Europe…

We had a nice time in Rome and were able to mix taking care of personal business (laundry, Nate got a haircut, etc.) and seeing the sites. For the first time on our trip, we stayed at a bad hotel. To keep things fun, we kept telling each other “it’s perfect” in a sarcastic tone. We learned about the Hotel Nardizzi Americana from a Rick Steves’ Italy book we picked up for free at our hotel in Venice. Based on Rick’s recommendation, we booked at the Nardizzi in Rome and were sorely disappointed. Our room lacked a telephone, a safe, a shower door, towels, an Internet connection, and several other things promised when we booked the reservation. The best part was that our room wasn’t even located in the hotel, it was in another building mixed with residential appartments. When we checked out, Shelly handed the hotel clerk our “punch list” of things that needed to be improved and he immediately launched into why it wasn’t their fault. He took us to the wiring closet to show us that they had phones connected, just that our room wasn’t connected yet. He showed us a dirty room with a safe to show us that most rooms had one. This tactic was a waste of our time and we still don’t understand why he did it. In the end, we didn’t even get 1 Euro knocked off the price, but hey “it’s perfect”. When we get a chance, we’re going to drop our fellow Washington state resident, Rick, an email asking him to remove the hotel from his guide books. We should have known we were in for trouble when Rick’s personal Christmas cards from 2006 and 2007 were prominately displayed at the front desk. They clearly are living off of his recommendation and care little for their customers.

Aside from our hotel issues, we did manage to work in seeing the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Vatican (which was our favorite site), and the Colosseum. We enjoyed our time in Rome and actually found it much more enjoyable than some of the other parts of Italy. My haircut was also an interesting experience. My barber didn’t speak English and I can’t speak Italian. We did a pretty good job of communicating through hand signals and I managed to escape with a decent cut. So with that, here are some pics from our last days in Italy:

The Trevi Fountain

The Colosseum

… and finally the Spanish Steps

Sorry for the absence of blog posts. We are in Egypt on a Nile River cruise having an amazing time seeing the sites of ancient Egypt with our guide Robert. The last few days we have seen the Pyramids of Giza (near Cairo) along with many other ruins dating back over 3000 years. We promise to post pictures when we are able.

We’re a few hours away from catching a train to Rome, which will conclude our brief stop in Europe. We spent the last few days walking around Florence, seeing Michealangelo’s “David”, and eating lots of good Italian food.

We ate two of our best dinners, thus far on the trip, in Florence. The first night we ate at a local establishment called Osteria Vineria Brincello. We were served by these two crazy guys named Max and Gabry. Max, unfortunately, had to say goodbye the day before to his girlfriend from Spokane, WA. He was a little sad when we got there but happy to meet someone else from Washington state. The food was simple, fresh, and tasty and was just what we were in the mood for.

For our second dinner we ate at “All Aqua al Due”, which has two restaurants in the world… one in Florence and the other in San Diego, CA. They’re known for their balsamic steak, which we each had, it was good but was a little tart after eating the whole steak.

This morning we went to the Accademia Gallery where the David is on display. I didn’t know what to expect, but I have to say it was amazing. My only suggestion would have been a loin cloth for David since he was a little overexposed for my taste. Shelly and I just sat there and looked at the statue for a good 15 minutes. If you are ever in Florence, I would recommend a quick stop to see it.

O.K., we have to run because my Internet session is about to run out of time. We’ll post again after spending some time in Rome.