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.