Back to Arusha

Andy said that there's this point where you realize that you're going to survive your vacation where it suddenly speeds up. For us, that was after we survived the first night with the hyenas. The last day of vacation came far too soon! We got to sleep in a little, and then had one last bike ride. The days after Ngorogoro crater were all on paved road, the last day being the longest at 40 km (about 25 miles). I was really sad that it was the last day of the tour, and that I was going to have to leave Africa and come back to reality. Also, I kind of developed a crush on the really hot tour leader who spent all his time with me (later googled and found to have a wife and 4 kids, and since he's Christian, that's it). So, I was a little sad to leave hot-tour leader too.

The biking started out pretty hard because although it was flat there was a strong headwind. We took a break after a while and everyone else was saying they thought it was hard too, and how it was messing with their heads, and so I started to find it easier and more enjoyable. We saw some good stuff on the last day - a group of Maasai playing soccer (I was confused as to how you know who's on which team. There's no shirts and skins with traditional garb), a truck of the standing variety loaded to bursting with passengers in colorful clothes, cows and people drinking from the same water pool (it was pointed out to me that Americans let their cats lick their faces, and that's not really sanitary either. But my cats have such clean tongues!), a last herd of zebra crossing the road, cows with huge humps of water on their backs, schools with kids in uniform....  It was a tough ride, but I managed to do the entire thing!  After we chilled for a bit and headed back to the city.  We did the tips and had a little thank you, but I was kind of teary and couldn't talk. Sad.

The vacation was everything that I was hoping for. It definitely pushed my comfort zone in good ways. I saw amazing wildlife, the big 5, the ugly 5, I saw a lion kill a zebra, I biked about 150 miles, two thirds on bumpy dirt roads, I snorkeled in the Indian Ocean, I danced with the Maasai (though I was somewhat unclear about what was going on), I helped make coffee the traditional way, I biked down a dirt path through a banana farm, I saw lion cubs, baby elephants, baby monkeys, puppies, baby goats and tortoises. There was definitely some suffering involved too; pit toilets, intense heat, swallowing dust, bumpy roads in a big bus for hours, having to push my bike up hill and being last, and of course the hyenas. I was so filthy that I thought I would never be clean again and I gave up on my hair and braided it.

The trip home took about 38 hours from door to door. It was killer, but all worth it. Note to self, take more vacations. Life is short, stuff is irrelevant, sunset in the Serengeti and dinner overlooking the Indian Ocean is priceless.

Mosquito Village

From Karatu we were able to ride our bikes to the next location where we stayed in African Igloos for two nights. I really liked the igloos, though I did wake up in the middle of the night thinking I was in a beehive. Mine was nice and cool and cozy, I felt like I was in a hobbit hole. Some of the other ones apparently got really hot.

The ride there was 25 km, but there was this crazy long 3 km hill that I had to walk part way. When I got off my bike to walk I was in the lowest gear, and when I went to get back on I couldn't start peddling because the gear was so low, so the tour leader (who of course was with me because I was last) gave me a push to get me started. I felt a little bit like a 5 year old. It must take a lot of patience to lead tours.

After we showered we went on a game drive in Lake Manyara park, which is well known for birds and monkeys. There were so many baboons, monkeys, flamingos, pelicans, and the occasional giraffe and hippo. It was pretty nice.

The next day we went on a cultural tour with two local guides. The Igloo camp is located at the top of a plain, and so we were able to ride down to the valley (fun!) and to the town. The town is called Mto Wa Mbu, which translates to Mosquito Town. Fortunately, it isn't mosquito season. I didn't see a single mosquito the entire time I was there. Mto Wa Mbu is famous for it's good climate and excellent soil. There are many different tribes living together in the village, so we were able to ride our bikes to meet people from a diverse range of cultures. We started by riding our bikes on dirt paths through banana plantations. So cool! Banana trees take 6-9 months to mature and they only produce one crop of fruit. The farmers harvest them when they are still green so the monkeys don't eat them. We saw a few different varieties of bananas, and people were able to try banana beer (my stomach was a little funky and I didn't think banana beer would help it, so I just smelled). We also visited a family of the Justin Beiber tribe (OK, not really, but they had a very traditional mud and stick house, with a Justin Beiber sticker on their door. It was out of place), a rice farm, and then the cultural center for lunch. Africans eat with their hands - or, I should say, with their right hand. Since I'm left handed, that's tricky. I made an effort. The food was really good and I wished my stomach was less funky so I could have more.

Later in the day we visited a Maasai Village. Village is a bit of a misnomer in my opinion, because it was really one family - dad and his 13 or so wives, plus all the kids. There was a traditional dance, they sold us some bracelets, and then we watched as the cows and goats came back from the fields. We were meant to watch the cows being milked, but it got dark. One thing happened in the Maasai Village that will stick with me for a long time - I was wearing my fitbit, as I always do. I must have moved my arm, and it lit up. The kids all gathered around to look at it, and I demonstrated how you could tap it and the display changed. All of the kids thought that was so cool, they all wanted to tap the fitbit and watch as the numbers changed. Of course, they had no idea what the numbers meant and we didn't speak a common language. But, I was trying to imagine how I would explain to a group of 8 and 9 year olds who spend their days in 90 degree heat tending cattle what a fitbit is, and why I wear it. I don't think a common language would help. It made me see how spoiled I am that I have to make an effort to take enough steps in a day and I need a tracker to help me count them.

Ngorongoro Crater

Ngorongoro Crater was definitely the trip highlight! I know I said that about other places, but seriously, I'm happier knowing that the crater is still out there, with all it's wildlife going on about it's business inside.

The day started with a long drive of the worst African Massage type. We left the Serengeti early, looking at wildlife on the way out. For most of the morning drive, though, it was just hot, bumpy, and not very fun. At one point I really had to pee, and there wasn't a single bit of brush, plus there was the possibility of lions. So, I had to go behind the bus. Just after I finished a couple of jeeps appeared. I have to say, I have good peeing luck - it seems like I frequently just finish and someone appears.

Anyhow, we got to the crater and I looked down thinking "well that's not really so exciting." For the trip we went in a 4x4 instead of our bus, so we switched vehicles and drove on down. The first thing we saw was a huge elephant with the most enormous tusks! I can't imagine how an animal walks around with those growing from its face. Once we got to the bottom, our guide was off like a shot. I didn't really understand at first, he was speeding past everything - zebras, buffalo, warthogs, gazelles, birds.... But then it turned out that there was a rhino in the distance that he wanted us to see!  I could kind of make it out clearly through the binoculars, though it was pretty far away. That completed the Big 5 for us. After we could slow down and enjoy more.

We went to a picnic area and were able to get out of the car. The picnic area pond was full of hippos (as so often happens). Most were just hanging out, but there were a few swimming. One of the swimmers tried to join the hangers, and there was a bit of a hippo fight. Cool! Poor swimming hippo lost and swam off.

We drove around admiring the animals - more ostriches, some elephants, giraffes, all kinds of grazing animals. And then there was another traffic jam, lions!  The lion scene was amazing. At first we saw just this male lion lying next to a buffalo carcus, pretty much in the same way that I lie around after Thanksgiving dinner. That lion was stuffed. All around him were the scavengers waiting for their turn, 4 jackles and 2 vultures. At one point one of the jackles tried to muscle in on the lions food, and the lion got up, walked right over to the carcus, and collapsed right next to it. It was kind of hilarious.
Our guide noticed another male lion right by the road, which was a bit surprising because males don't hang out together, and because males are so lazy - killing a buffalo is a lot of work. We drove closer to the other male. When we finally got really close to it, we saw that there was a female there too, she was napping in the middle of the road, with that same Thanksgiving overeating exhaustion. Everyone had to drive around her, but she didn't care at all. Eventually she got up, walked a bit, and collapsed again. Our guides were like "lets wait a few minutes and see what they do." Sure enough, the second male and the female put on quite the show for us! As they finished, they both roared :)  Then the female came right over to our jeep and sat down next to the back tire. Having a lion curled up next to your car sounds cool, but actually isn't the safest thing apparently, so the driver tried to move, which lead to the lion giving out another roar. She could roar, that's for sure!

As we drove up the crater I took a bunch of pictures because it seemed so much cooler and more amazing than on the way down.

After the crater, we changed into our biking gear for a short 15 km bike ride to our camping destination in Karatu. The ride was "undulating" which meant "hilly." But it was only 15 km, and not too bad. I was excited when we got to the campground because I wasn't that far behind everyone else, and it was a pretty easy ride. Plus, there was a nice fence and no hyenas!

Two days in the Serengeti

Today I saw a lion kill a zebra. And now I'm sleeping in a hyena infested camp. The safari was amazing. We saw a bunch of elephants, tons of zebras, giraffes, wildebeests, antelope, all kinds of Serengeti life. One of the guys on the truck spotted a lion, and then we saw another, both female. On the other side of the road were a group of zebra who crossed the street and were headed towards the water. Our guide said that the lion was after the zebra, and we should wait and watch. Sure enough, the lion was watching the zebra and had made up her mind that it was dinner. We could see the lion creeping closer and closer - at first I had to move my binoculars from lion to zebra, but eventually I could see both at once. At that point, the lion gave a burst of speed and was on the zebra, which saw the lion but too late. There was a second female, and the two of them finished killing it and started eating. It was powerful. It was a really strange feeling looking at this beautiful zebra innocently eating, knowing it was about to die. After the zebra went down, the other zebras stood around for a while, paying tribute to their friend or seeing if it would make it out? Then they ran off.

(as far as I know, this zebra is still living)

I loved the elephants the most. There was a family handing out by a river eating. You could see them relating to each other, touching one another with their trunks. It was amazing to see them just hanging out, being elephants, totally free. I don't think I will ever be able to go to the zoo again.

This morning at breakfast there was a monkey on the roof eyeing our breakfast. Africa is awesome.

Except, there are no fences around this campground. Our guide says there will be hyenas tonight looking for food. But they are safe and not to worry. Growth experience.

The hyenas didn't kill me last night, though they did wake me up with laughing, sniffing and rumbling through the trash. Today there are a ton of noisy Italians, so maybe they will stay away.  We started our safari very early, with a 5:30 wake up. This allowed me to watch the sun rise over the Serengeti. It was amazing! Things we saw on safari: lions mating, a family of elephants very close with big moms and little babies, a cheetah, a leopard in a tree, an owl (that brings bad luck if it comes to your home, and for a bit I thought it had cursed me because I saw it first), lion cubs eating a giraffe, two adult lions with two cubs, zebra, giraffes, hippos, all sorts of deer-like animals, jackels, warthogs, vultures, ostriches, and really ugly storks. When the elephant family crossed the street, the biggest ones were looking at the jeeps and acting as guard, with this "don't mess with the babies" kind of attitude. We also saw baby elephants nursing.

Wasso

The ride to Wasso was the hardest, and I totally bailed on it. I'm not completely sure how long the ride was, I know I did about 30 minutes and was miserable for every second of it. The heat was killer! I was worried I would push myself too hard and get sick. As a result, though, I spent the entire day in the bus, which really wasn't much fun.

It was interesting to see more of Africa, as we rode out of the valley we could see the landscape changing from dry dry dry to more green and some fields. We left the Maasai tribe and came into the land of a different group. When we got close to Wasso we could see people coming into town for the local market where they were selling cows and goats. It was so interesting to see the mix of people, some in western clothes, some in traditional with their stick and shoes made of old tires.

It's so lame, but in town we went to the market and bought Pringles. I mean, WTF? I never eat them! I think it's the salt, they were so good.

The campground we stayed in was really pretty. As we went to bed I notice someone sitting guard, which I assumed meant that we would be safe for the night. Turns out that the place was owned by some former big shot in government and that's who was being protected, not us. Ha!  Andy was really disappointed that he didn't get to talk to the big shot about government and our only interaction with the guy was when he helped guide the truck into the compound.

Lake Natron and Waterfalls

No biking or driving for a day, but still well worth a blog post. This was an amazing day - we went on a tour led by a Maasai teenager to Lake Natron and to this waterfall in a canyon. The whole area around where we were staying was so dry and desolate, it was hard to believe that we would be touring watery places, but there was a lot of water to be found!

Lake Natron is high in acidity - there are a bunch of rivers that feed into it, but nothing that feeds out, water just evaporates. So, you can't really swim in it. There are flamingos that are adapted to the water, you can see hundreds of them eating. We drove there in a "jeep" which was actually more of a truck with bars in the back so you could stand up while someone was driving. It was really fun, but definitely not something that would pass US standards. On the way to the lake we saw more giraffes, and our first wildebeasts.

The women make money by selling crafts, and they are very persistent. I bought a pretty bracelet at Lake Natron. As we went to get back in the jeep, all of the women and girls who were selling things packed it up and followed us, surrounding us and trying to sell more. This one guy, Steve, was the weakest link - at one point he had like 20 bracelets on, and was completely surrounded. He wound up buying 4 of them.

After lunch we hiked to the waterfall. It kind of reminded me of hiking in Utah, you had to walk back and forth through the water. Fortunately I had some good waterproof shoes I just bought, it definitely made it easier. The hike was one of my favorite parts of the trip, there was a lot of rock scrambling, river crossing, and at the end this amazing waterfall and pools to swim in. I had been so so so hot all day, going for a swim was such a nice relief. Our guide was really cute helping us across. He wore traditional Maasai dress, but once we got to the water crossing he hiked his robe up and he had these yellow shorts under. And under the yellow shorts he had a bright blue bathing suit. His ears had been stretched in the lobes, and he wrapped the lobes around the tops of his ears to keep them out of the way. It was a little disconcerting at first, but then kind of cool.

To Lake Natron

This was probably my favorite day of biking, at least in retrospect. I biked 51 km (32.6 miles) on bumpy dirt roads. A lot of the ride was down hill and I could just focus on the road and go. Bombing on down into the Great Rift Valley, with acacia trees on either side, the clouds so low you feel like you could touch them, and no one around for miles was truly awesome! There were a few times when I couldn't really feel my hands and feet, they were pins and needles from the bumpy road. And there were definitely times when I was scared I would fall and really hurt myself, which added to the adventure.

We stopped riding at this really nice tree, where we sat and had lunch. It gets really hot there in the afternoon, not surprisingly, and once I stopped biking I realized how hot, filthy and hungry I was. After lunch we had an unpleasant surprise when we found out that our campground was about 80 km away and it would take us about 4 hours to get there!  This is when we learned about the "African massage" which is how our trip leader described driving over bumpy roads on the bus. It was pretty bad. I felt sick at first and worried that I would get a migraine because I was hot and exhausted. I spent a lot of time distracting myself by taking pictures:

Longido

The second day of the trip was the longest in terms of biking miles - 65 km or a little over 40 miles, the first 17 km (10.5 miles) on bumpy dirt roads, the rest on paved. By the end my butt and back were killing me! I had to stop and walk a couple times over hills, and to rest. The last 8 km were particularly killer, but I figured I was so close, I might as well finish it up. I was pretty psyched with myself for making it, I'm not going to lie.

When we got to the lodge where we were staying (we being me and the tour guide who was with me for most of the way since I was last), these kids came running over and demanded to be allowed to try our bikes. It was pretty funny playing with them because the kid on my bike wasn't close to reaching the pedals, but he wanted met to let go of him. I don't think he totally got gravity. I was so tired, after 10 minutes we were done.

Later I went to take a shower. There was a shower head that didn't work and an spout that was about knee high. So, I took a cold-knee-high-shower. And it actually felt pretty good.  Since this is a budget trip, we all help with a few things, like the dishes. To wash the dishes they have three buckets which we creatively call "first bucket," "second bucket," and "third bucket." First bucket is soap and sponge.  Second is first rinse and quality control. Third bucket is very hot water for a final rinse. If you're on third bucket you need to use tongs to start. The clean dishes go in a dish rack and then they are flapped dry. If you are on flapping you take a plate in each hand, for example, and wave them in the air until they have dried. It makes sense, but the first time I saw Maura waving plates around, I was so puzzled.

Although it's exhausting, I'm glad I'm doing the bike tour. All of the kids come running to say hello and wave at us, and I feel like a part of Africa, not like I'm just being driven around from animal to animal, trying to spot things. As we went through town kids were hi fiving us and yelling hello across the fields, even some of the adults were waving. I felt like a movie star with all the attention.

Biking Safari! Meru

There was very little internet for the duration of the bike trip and safari, and by the time I went to bed each night I was exhausted. But, it actually was exercise and blog-worthy. So, I am blogging with some notes that I wrote during the trip and some that is retrospective.

Our group wound up being 6; me, Andy, Maura, 2 Australians guys and a British guy. Sadly, for most of the trip I was the slowest biker, though actually it worked out OK in some respects because I really liked the tour guide, and he had to stay with the last person (usually me). So, aside from the fact that I was embarrassed and had to push my bike up hill a lot, it was OK.

We started the trip with a coffee farm tour which was really interesting. I was expecting a large farm, but it was a small educational center down a dirt road (most of the roads were dirt it turns out). The tour included seeing the coffee bushes, learning about how the beans grow and are picked (by hand) and then making coffee! The beans need to be dried in the sun for a few days. Then you use a mortar and pestle to crush off the husks, roast over the fire until they are the color of coffee, and then grind in another mortar and pestle until it's ground, then boil and drink. It's a lot of work for a cup of coffee, but it was delicious.

Our first day of biking was through Arusha National Park. I think there's one main road through the park, and we biked it. It was a reality check for me because the park is in the shadow of Mt. Meru, which isn't as large as Kilimanjaro, but is pretty darn big. So, of course the route that we took wasn't flat. There was a ton of uphill, and I did a lot of walking. I had a few moments where I questioned my judgement in coming on a bike trip instead of sitting in a nice jeep.

There were some pretty awesome moments, our first giraffe, zebra and monkey sightings. Biking through town and all the kids running out to greet us and yell hello ("Jambo" in Swahili, though the guide taught me that you can say "mambo mambo" to the kiddies and they will respond "poah" - which is like "all good?" "yup!"). It took a little getting used to having everyone yelling and waving hello - there should be an interim stop between Boston and Tanzania to allow New Englanders to get used to the idea of friendliness. Seeing people with cows and goats was fun and different. There was one point where there were three goats drinking from a river, and all I could see was a line of goat butt. The ride was about 30 km, or 18.6 miles, though it seemed much further. I didn't get to finish the entire thing because it got dark. I'm not going to lie, I was happy to get onto the bus.

One of the best parts of the lodge where we stayed was the shower - it was a room with no ceiling, just a bucket attached to a shower head. For your shower, a guy climbs a rickety ladder with a bucket of warm water and fills the bucket overhead and you flip a switch to turn the water on. The top is opened and you can see a million stars. It was so nice, the water was warm, I was really grubby.

They also had the "Kilimanjaro toilet" which I didn't use. It was an outhouse with one wall missing. Apparently during the day, from the seat, you could see all the way to the mountain. Some of the guys used it and said it was delightful.

To Arusha

Arusha!

Travel days aren't the most fun part of vacation, but they are necessary. So today we traveled. I had Ali call the cab dude for 10 for Andy and Maura, and 10:15 for me. I packed last night, so I had enough time to go for a quick breakfast at this place that was recommended. The spiced coffee was really good, and I had a couple bready pastry kind of snacks. They had other food, but it was octopus and such, which is a little much for me at 9 am. When the time came to go, I gave Ali a $20 tip - I felt a little cheap since he found my luggage and my vacation would have been significantly less fun without it. Plus, I had been having all this first world guilt about the guy having to just be there all the time. His face lit up like a Christmas tree, he was so psyched! I hope he gets himself something nice with it. He said no visitors for a few days, so he gets some time off.

The airport in Tanzinia was hot and crazy. For some reason the woman at the airline desk wanted to see my credit card that I used to pay for my ticket, but the stupid credit card company cancelled it because I bought the ticket. Finally she said she would be ok with a copy of my passport. Thankfully I had one. No idea what the deal was, but they let me through. Once inside, it's tricky to figure out where to go. It's one room with 4 doors ("gates"). There are no signs about the planes, if they are late, which one is currently departing, nothing. This guy just announces the flights, in English and Swahili via a crackly mike. Then you go though the gate, possibly onto a bus, and climb the steps onto your plane (in our case another prop plane).

At the airport this woman from Israel apparently told security something to the effect of "I don't have two half-drunk bottles of cheep wine in my carry on", when in fact she did. They tried to take it away from her, and she was arguing about it. The next thing, they took her out of the security area to another part of the airport. First, being from Israel, you would think she would understand the importance of airport security. Second, who argues with airport security in a third world country??? Esp over cheep wine?

We're only in Arusha for a couple days, which is ok. It seems crazy and chaotic. We went out to dinner and after this guy said he was a taxi driver and knew where our hotel was. Well, he didn't kidnap us, but he also didn't really know where the hotel was. He took us down the wrong dirt road, bouncing along, nearly killing bikers and pedestrians, country music blaring, and it turned out to be the wrong place. So, out we went. At the end of the road he called a friend and, as we were sitting there, suddenly he locked the doors. But he was just scared by the people outside. From now on, whenever I hear "you picked a fine time to leave me Lucille" (which I guess won't be that often) I will try to think of bombing through Arusha, lost, driving way to fast, almost hitting pedestrians walking behind us....

Tomorrow we have our safari orientation!

Prison Island

Tanzania day 4

It's hard to believe 4 days on Zanzibar are over and we are leaving tomorrow. Today was definitely the BEST day here. We went on a boat to Prison Island which is the most beautiful former-but-never-used prison in the world I think. The island was made as a prison, but then used as a quarantine hospital for people coming to Zanzibar from India. I'd want to be quarantined there. Even the cells are beautiful. Now the island is used as a breeding ground for sea tortoises. The oldest one there is like 172 years! They're huge! We got to feed them some sort of turtle greens which they were super excited about-this mammoth fellow came zipping over at what was a pretty fast speed. They have a turtle breeding program, the turtles lay their eggs and then the folks on the island hatch them, bring the little ones into a turtle nursery and then a bigger area for 3-10 year olds. Then they are allowed out with the big ones. They aren't native to the area, so I guess it's ok that they are kept in a confined space, anyhow, they looked like pretty happy tortoises.

Next, we went snorkeling at a coral reef in the Indian Ocean! It was so awesome, I wanted to stay forever! I saw this giant clam that kept closing up when I went over it, fishes, crazy fluorescent corals and sea urchins. Definitely one of those "I can't believe this is my life!" moments. 

Before dinner we watched these crazy boys jumping off the sea wall into the ocean. They would get a running start and dive in. Some of them were really good, if they lived in the U.S. their parents would be training them for college scholarships. I watched again after dinner in a different spot. I bet it was about 10 feet down, to get out they climbed on a drain pipe then mantled up and over the wall, probably a 5.9 climb at least, and they were doing this for an hour I bet.

Tomorrow is a travel day to Arusha. I'll be staying at the same hotel as Andy and Maura there. IDK about the airbnb thing. On the one hand it saved me about $400 over what I would have paid to stay at Andy and Maura's hotel and $180 over a different hotel. But,  it's definitely not as nice, I don't feel like I can go out alone at night because of the part of town it's in (though I don't know where I would go anyhow), and it's much more complicated if there are problems. Also, it would have been harder to arrange the tours if it weren't for the fact that Andy and Maura could. On the other hand it's kind of cool to stay where people really live, and to hear the sounds of real life outside my window at night. IDK if I would go this route again in a 3rd world country.

I'm sad to leave Stone Town and the beautiful Indian Ocean, but excited for the big animals and safari!

Zanzibar day 3

Today we went on a tour of a spice farm and to the beach. It was so amazing! And really hot. The drive there was about 20 min in a really packed mini bus. We passed some of the poor areas of the island, one restaurant that was pretty funny was called The Return of Bob. The spice farm is a small one that must be just for tourists because it's all different spices planted together, so we could see all sorts of plants - vanilla, cinnamon, termerrick, cumin, chocolate (not a spice, but still there), chives, pepper, and all kinds of oranges. I bought some fresh spices from a man who calls himself Mr. Cheepcheep, some soap (that mostly because I felt bad for the soap selling guy, he looked so hopeful), and we had a really tasty lunch at someone's house that I don't thing will kill me.

After, we went to this cave where they kept newly captured slaves in the 1800's. Zanzibar was big in the slave trade. It was really sad, a small place that was full of people, no food and very little water.

The best part was the beach! It was so beautiful and warm like a bathtub. Definitely not New England! We our first wildlife, monkeys. And, there was a school field trip so there were a ton of super cute kids there. Andy tried to teach them how to throw a frisbee further and Maura and I just hung in the water. Tomorrow hopefully snorkeling! (We're going somewhere called Prison Island where there are turtles and perhaps we snorkel. It's hard to know exactly what you are signing up for, but today was awesome, I'm sure tomorrow will be too.)

I've been feeling all this guilt about the fact that the guy who works here at the airbnb is here all day and just watching TV. But it sounds like he has a friend over now and they are making dinner. I feel better. All the poverty is sad, and yet people don't look sad, they just look like people. Still, it's a good reality check about work. Most people here could only dream of having my problems.

I woke up at 4:30 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep. Prob due to the 12 hrs of sleep the night before. Now I'm pooped!

First two days on Zanzibar!

Tanzania Day 1

I'm finally in bed at the air bnb. Day one was super long and kind of stressful. I'm thinking about having a migraine just a little, but I think it's going to go way because I'm in Africa!!

I did very well not being anxious on the plane. I mostly slept and watched some tv but it took so long to get here! And then the left our luggage in Kenya, which was sad. I have no change of clothes, no shorts, no deodorant.... Also,  the airbnb I'm staying at is like impossible to find. I need to leave a train of bread crumbs!

At the airport everyone had their yellow card for yellow fever and, of course I didn't. The customs woman moved me to the side and I was nervous - she asked "no yellow card?" And I said "my doctor said I didn't need it." And then she let me through! Wow, who knew it would be so easy. The visa was easy too, only the luggage was hard...

But it's nice and authentic in Stonetown I'm so tired. Must sleep.

Tanzania Day 2

So this isn't exercise at all, but I decided to add it to my blog because, why not? As my post from the first day notes, it took forever to get here, and even longer for my luggage. My suitcase came on the plane after me. My brother and Maura are staying at this amazing hotel and their stuff was delivered first thing, but mine took forever due to me not being at a hotel. There's a guy here who helps the guests (who I feel bad for because it seems he can never leave) but he doesn't speak much English so we used google translator. When he typed things in for me it said stuff like "monkeys hijacked your luggage?" So, not perfect. But it worked because I got the suitcase in the end.

Yesterday I figured out how to find the place. It's actually quite easy, just two turns, but walking through the town at first it didn't seem that way, the streets are too narrow for cars and are a maze! I had cheese and date crepes for lunch. We went shopping in the markets and I bought spices and a bag to carry my change of clothes for yoga. We went swimming in the pool at Andy and Maura's hotel (it's so nice there, they have a balcony with a view of the Indian Ocean and there's a swimming pool that's beautiful. There's also a pool table.) Then Ethiopian food for dinner. 

Zanzibar is majority Muslim. It's super hot but only men are wearing shorts, I saw one female tourist in shorts. Even if you wear a dress, it seems like you should cover your legs. Everyone is so friendly- "jambo" means hello. Unfortunately there are a lot of people who have a brother or cousin with a tour boat that they will tell you about after jambo. They are really persistent, they'll follow you for several blocks. So it's hard to know if you should engage - are they a butterfly or mosquito? The call to prayer is really loud from my place. It happens at like 5:30 am, but still I kind of like it. It adds to the other worldliness of it here. It's so exotic!