1/25-26/14: ARUSHA, TANZANIA and FIRST SAFARI DAY!

1/25-26/14: ARUSHA, TANZANIA & FIRST SAFARI DAY

BUS TO ARUSHA, TANZANIA

We spent the morning with Marissa and family in Nairobi, doing lots of computer stuff.  We successfully google chatted with Micah and Jenny the night before and Marissa showed us how to make free phone calls on the site!  Always a learning curve with computer and new technology.
Google Chat is now the best Skype-style format, with free multiples on the line plus this free phone calls worldwide.  Pretty nifty.  So: Facetime, Skype, Google Chat!

We left for the city bus to get to the Arusha bus.  It was a bit frustrating as the city bus ticket person missed letting us off at the right stop and we sat for 20 minutes until they came back around.  We got to the Arusha bus 1/2 hr early to hear that the Rainbow company had problems and we were to board another company. They assured us that our tour company driver would meet us at the right place in Arusha, which of course turned out to be incorrect. More on that later. 

The bus was not very full, so there was lots of room.  We made friends with two young women from Atlanta bound for climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, one Afro-American and one whose ancestors lived in the basque region of Spain.  The second girl was on a trip around the world for four months.

We also had good conversations with a Kenyan fellow who fixes medical equipment who regularly travels between Nairobi and Arusha.   The border crossing on the Kenyan side was total chaos, but simple and straight forward into Tanzania. The guy at the counter joked about us now having a visa that would entitle us to go anywhere for a year. Perhaps that's why he didn't notice the $100 bill we gave him was pre-2006. Yay, we got rid of it! We caught a glimpse of Mt. Kilimanjaro in the clouds plus an excellent view of Mt. Meru and a beautiful sunset. 

 

Mt. Mere just over the border in Tanzania

And over 15,000 feet

Took a photo of "Barely visible snow above the clouds covering the 19,000' top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, but because our terrible camera puts blotches on sky photos Joanie deleted it.  We have some other photos of Kilimanjaro further on from another vantage point - taken with the IPad, so, no blotches. 

It was dark when we arrived in Arusha.  Arusha is the center where all the safaris and climbs begin.  It has lots of hip shops, nightclubs, western style food.  However, our contact person was not there when we got off - so we gave the bus company Masai Wanderings owner's number but she didn't pick up. Another man had a different number and located Muba, our guide and driver for the trip.  We opted to go to the same relatively inexpensive hotel as the girls were going, Arusha Center Tourist Inn, where Yehudah bargained down the price of our room from $35 to $30, including breakfast.

We had dinner with the girls, but it came just as we managed to Skype with Caleb, Cheryl and Sylvia, which was very fun.  Sylvia read us a few pages of her current favorite book.  We also tried with Micah, Jenny and Russell, but they were in the car driving to swim at the swimming pool.

FIRST SAFARI DAY

At breakfast we managed to Google chat with Raven, Cherree and Dillon in Vancouver, B.C. Dillon had just qualified for the second day at a big Magic tournament.

Muba picked us up at 8:15 am, after which we picked up the other couple who had stayed at a fancy hotel.  They are John and Stephanie, recently married four months ago, and this is their honeymoon! They are both Asian, living in NYC.  John was born in Montreal and Stephanie in Jakarta, Indonesia, of Chinese-Indonesian parents.  We hit it off well and shared our first safari day at Lake Manyara.

Seeing many of the same animals we have already seen but here in greater quantity, plus many birds and butterflies. It is exciting to being sharing with them as this is their first experience in East Africa plus they appreciate that we have some experience.

John has a much better camera than ours, so we hope to receive their photos from which to choose. But right now we will post ours here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By evening we arrived at a very fancy Eco-lodge, Endoro Lodge, where we are sleeping for two nights.  We were greeted with warm washcloths to wipe our sweaty faces and hands plus small glasses of hibiscus and pineapple juice.  The room rack rate for a double during high season is $240 per night, the room we were supposed to be in.  However, the key didn't work, so the Masai who carried our luggage up the path came back with the key to room #1, a triple that goes for $360, just with an extra bed.  We have an elegant poster bed with zebra pillows, other animal skins on the floors, fireplace with wood, a bathtub, indoor and outdoor showers, large wooden closets, many towels.  The cost is included in our safari package. Luxurious!

Our fancy bedroom 

round bathtub

two round sinks, large shower area, toilet behind door - this is extremely luxurious for African standards

Fireplace area

Desk - Joanie is sewing

Exterior of our cabin with private porch

Dining room Deck

Masai Greeters, Schleppers

Dinner was a buffet, with many choices of fairly gourmet food, several salads,  entrees, desserts.  It was hard not to overeat. There was wi-fi in the fireplace, bar area, but not very good.

We slept fairly well, except that I woke up with my nose running and eyes burning in the middle of the night, but went back to sleep to wake up at 6:15 am for a bird walk. Curious about what brought that on, what I was allergic to, and this did not reoccur.