Sweating to Arusha
Day 272
Yesterday we caught the ferry back to mainland Tanzania and spent another night at the Safari Inn in Dar es Salaam. We learnt our lesson last time here and spent the extra $3 on an a/c room. A/C made the room feel like luxury, although the room still looked like any you’d find in a typical African dive budget hotel. We also had some amazing Indian food here last night. This morning we had the choice of the Safari Inn’s cold toast breakfast, we passed over it and made the walk to the Scandanavia bus company’s station.
Sometimes I look at a map and think, “OK, easy walk and we’ll save a taxi fare.” I remembered the taxi ride when we had arrived from the bus station was short so I figured we could easily walk it this morning. Just before 7am we left the hotel and walked onto the quiet streets, I thought it would still be a few hours until the heat of the day hit. Maybe it was the a/c that made me forget how hot it was here? Whatever it was it was already hot, damn hot. We sweated our way to the station which was also much further than I had thought. Near 30 minutes later we arrived, our backs covered in sweat from the weight of our packs. I never knew my back could sweat as much as it has over the last few months. At least we saved that taxi fare.
We boarded the Scandinavia bus to Arusha. Doesn’t that sound like such a nice name? It brings images of a cool and clean bus, run with Scandinavian efficiency. Well it’s not exactly like that but they do have assigned seats and even include a free bottle of water and a biscuit. I almost forgot I was still in Africa. That is until I bought an english newspaper, always a good way to bring you down in Africa. Today the feature story was what the paper called the “biggest social ill” facing Tanzania in the new year, killings of Albinos. Apparently hundreds of Albinos have been killed or mutilated in 2008 for “potions” that would make someone rich. Witch doctors are selling Albino skin in Congo and apprently fishermen on Lake Victoria put Albino hair in their nets for luck. So often i’ve read stories like this here, about something I had never heard of before coming to Africa and it just leaves you shocked, such little value on human life. It was a chilling story and made even more so since Jordana and I had recently commented on the number of Albinos we’d seen here.
The bus ride was much more pleasant than the newspaper. It was hot and sticky but outside the scenery was just how you would picture this part of Africa to look like. Savannah stretching forever only to be interrupted by red rocky outcrops. Every so often we entered a dusty village and people would run at the bus hold high their buckets and tubs filled with drinks and food. It was a fantastic scene, very African. About 1 hour outside of Arusha we caught our first glimpse of Mount kilimanjaro. The snow covered peak was covered with cloud and we could only see the black, rocky lower slopes before the mountain dissapeared into the clouds. I had hoped to climb the highest peak in Africa but with the cheapest climbs coming in at $1000 U.S. I think I will save it for another trip.
We arrived in Arusha just before 6pm and took a taxi to the town centre. Instead of walking around with our packs looking for a hotel we just went into a cafe where Jordana had a tea and I set out to find a room. This is our rountine now, it’s easier this way and with Arusha having the reputaion for the worst touts in Tanzania it would be better if we didn’t have our packs on. Almost to easily I found the Naz Hotel just down the street. A nice room that even had a tv for $25. Back at the cafe we had a horrible dinner, some supposed curry and a dreadful lasagna. I’m not sure why Jordana thought she was going to get good lasagna in East Africa? We headed off to our room for some BBC news and sleep before searching out a safari in the morning. The only reason to come to Arusha is to start a safari from here and most companies are based out of the city.
Tags: Africa, Arusha, Buses, safari, Tanzania
Michael Coroneos
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