Zanzibar!

     The day started with a walking tour of Stone Town - the capital of Zanzibar - it was very hot even though we were near the ocean.

We saw the house where Freddy Mercury grew up.  We went to a market that was held in a building with openings in the walls for doors and windows - so, although technically inside - it was still more or less an outdoor market. I walked in, made it about ten steps through the fish portion of the market, decided it would be rude to throw up on someone's lunch and quickly exited the market. Wow, I just couldn't handle the smell of fish, meat, and unwashed people all mixed in with the heat.

                                                      Our tour guide outside the market
I enjoyed a spa massage in the after noon and a swim in the hotel pool - which is totally surrounded by the hotel but has no roof - so when the sun was shining on the pool it was about 40º.

Our second day in Zanzibar started with a spice plantation tour. Another walking tour in the heat - we saw a large number of spices growing - it was a contest to see who could figure out what each one was. At one time Zanzibar was the spice capital of Africa, making it the sixth richest country in the world at that time, now they only export cloves.

Here's your chance to join in the fun - can you name the spice below?

Did you get it? Actually this is a trick question - the red part is Mace and the black pit in the middle is Nutmeg! The pale pulp is discarded.

     After the spice tour - we finally made it to the beach! I had a wonderful time relaxing and soaking in the beach atmosphere - aside from one misadventure:
     I went swimming at low tide and at one point put my feet down to see how deep the water was - at which point my right foot felt like it was on fire. I floated my foot up to have a look at it, and there were long black spikes sticking out of it! I pulled one of them out but the rest were deeply embedded. I was worried the spines might have some toxin on them and that I might start an allergic reaction in the middle of the ocean.
     I started to work my way out of the ocean - but remember, its low tide and I can't put any weight on my foot, so I ended up crawling a about one hundred meters in the shallow water. Two locals from the dive shop came down to "rescue" me - assuring me they had "medicine" for my foot. I didn't even need to tell them what happened. As we found out on subsequent days, at least one tourist a day has a negative encounter with a sea urchin. I just happened to be that's days "lucky" winner! This is a picture of a random sea urchin - not the one I stepped on.

 So, "medicine" involves poking an unripe papaya with a toothpick and allowing the white, milky fluid to drip over the spines in the foot - this is slightly numbing. Then to pour kerosene over the spot, which does???? I'm not exactly sure but together they did make the pain decrease on a one to ten pain scale from 87 to about 72. It was incredibly painful!!!!!!! When we finally made it back to the hotel - they provided a papaya and some vinegar (instead of kerosene - which made me happy I wasn't going to catch fire from some carelessly tossed cigarette).

The pain lasted about 36 hours and then was just minorly uncomfortable depending on the shoes I was wearing. The spines cannot be picked out, but eventually just wear themselves out. According to a radiologist friend of mine in Prince George - the spines are radiopaque - discovered on another tourist who was as unfortunate as me.
     The trip home took a very long time - we left our hotel at the equivalent of 6 am and got home near midnight the next day - (yes, 42 hours of travel). I was incredibly glad to finally be in my own bed!

A great, great trip!

African Safari - Day 3 - 6

I slept well in my African tent bed, but sadly not long enough - this travelling is making me really tired. I expected Africa to wake me early again but the middle of the Serengeti is a lot quieter than the forest.
     Since we missed our shower last night, we needed one this morning. My tentmate M found the "shower guy" who drew hot water out of a large tank into a five gallon bucket and then brought it to our tent. The shower bucket that holds your water is on a rope and pulley that raises it above the shower level so you have water pressure. However, the rope was stuck and our man couldn't lower the bucket. He called a friend over to help him, and while the first guy climbed the ladder, the second guy put the 5 gallon pail of water on his head so the ladder guy could reach it. Guy #1 pours the water into our bucket - and accidently pulled the hose off the bottom of the shower bucket, which they frantically tried to get stuck back in before all the water ran out. Meanwhile, M is standing in the shower ready to get going and just waiting for them to yell for her to go ahead.
     The water leaks out quite quickly and so after watching the show I ran into the tent and stripped in about 5 seconds so I could get in the second M was done and hopefully not run out of water with shampoo in my hair. That was an epic fail on my part. I had to stand there all wet and soapy while the guys refilled the bucket. Still it was a pretty neat experience!
     Breakfast was an outdoor affair, just like supper, with eggs (imagine that!) made to order and delicious fresh crepes.
     We drove around the plains a lot today, and I mean a lot! My feet are so swollen my toes look like coctail sausages. I spent as much time as possible with them up on the back of the seat in front of me.
     We were as close as 10 feet from elephants, 4 feet from lions and about 30 feet from giraffes.

We saw a giraffe drinking from a pool, which our guide says is only the second time he's seen that in 11 years.

     We briefly saw a leopard - as it moved from one branch of a tree to another. We also saw hippos, cape buffalo, jackels, hyena, impala, antelope and eagles.

And some flamingos.

     Again we are literally staying in the middle of nowhere - but this one is a permanent camp on Lake Masek.

We sat on the deck (enjoying the view above) and had delicious (alcoholic or non) beverages and snacks on arrival and then headed out to our tent - ours is Swala - which means gazelle or antelope - we aren't sure. We finally won the tent lottery - ours is the closest to the dining hall!

     Our tent has four 4-poster beds with suspended mosquito netting and a bathroom that is incredible - it is in the back of the tent behind a wall, although it doesn't have a door. There are twin sinks, a gigantic claw footed bath tub and an outdoor shower behind a 7 foot cement wall.  You can see the sky and hear your neighbors but don't have to worry about inadventent over exposure. There was as much hot water as I needed tonight, no waiting for refills!
     Supper was the best we've had so far - Veronica, the chef, met us on arrival and when I asked about vegetarian options at supper she assured me we would be taken care of. She made us a special vegetable curry that was fantastic, the creme brulee for dessert was super yummy and I topped it off with a glass of red wine!
     My toes are still a mess and the swelling did not go down at all today. It hurts to walk and to put shoes on.
     Day 4
     We had an early morning departure in hopes of catching some of the predator cats out hunting. We saw a cheetah and 4 cubs. We missed the hunt as by the time we got there Mom had already eaten and the cubs were  finishing their breakfast. The mom wandered over to one of our Land Cruisers and rested in its shade - obviously we find them far more interesting than they find us!

     After lunch at the lodge - with banana soup that tasted like mushroom to me - we headed to the Nrongoro Sopa Lodge - on the rim of the crater with a view of the entire crater. It was at quite a high elevation and I had a few breathing issues whenever I had to walk uphill. Of course - our room was way, way downhill from the main lodge! There was a swimming pool but I was far too tired to even try it.
     Day 5
     My blisters have finally healed enough that I went without bandaids today - what a treat!
     We descended into the crater with hopes of crossing the fifth of the big 5 off our list - which we did - twice. We saw two rhino during the day although from quite far away - still they were definately rhino as we could clearly see the horn on their nose.

     We visited an area of the plains where a large group of wildebeast gathered to have their calves. Apparenlty they all give birth early in the morning and then lounge in the sun for the calves to get stronger. The hope is by nightfall when the predators are hunting again, the calves will be fast enough to avoid being eaten.

     We left the Serengeti plains and headed to the Nrongoro Farm House hotel - which is a working coffee farm. We arrived in the middle of the afternoon and had time to just relax before supper - it was a well deserved treat.
     Day 6
     We spent most of the day driving towards the airport with many mandatory "exit through the gift shop" stops. Whenever we stop, even in the middle of the highway, there are guys trying to sell us stuff. Sometimes its a Masai who pulls beaded bracelets out from under his blanket and other times its swarms of teenagers trying to sell us necklaces.  I think we ended up with 50 necklaces among the 6 of us in the vehicle.
     We met up with our stored luggage at the Kilimanjaro airport and boarded a smallish plane to take us to Zanzibar. As we were taxiing for takeoff they kindly informed us that not all of our luggage was coming with us due to weight issues.
     Five of our group ended up without all their luggage and by the time we had that sorted out and boarded the bus to our hotel it was well after dark. It was very warm and humid in Stone Town (the capital of Zanzibar) and we caught a few brief glimpses of the ocean as we made it to our hotel.
     We are staying in the Dhow Palace and our room is about 10 feet wide by 30 feet long - with no windows to the outside - only to the courtyard - perhaps it used to be harem quarters.

     Although there is air conditioning - it is very weak by North American standards and since the beds are swathed in mosquito netting no real air flow happens. Our beds are 4 feet off the ground and it was a long way down in the dark when I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
    

African Safari - Day 2

Somewhere in Tanzania
Sunday, February 17, 2013

     The bed was fantastic! I actually slept for about 7 hours without waking up - a new record for me in Africa! The animals in the bush around our tent start to wake up at 5:30 am - when about ten different animals started making noises - a veritable symphony! Our door faces east and we are waiting to see the sun rise although there are a fair amount of trees in front of us so we might not see it until it gets up in the sky a bit.

                                                      View from the Bar at the Lodge


     After a delightful breakfast  (oh wow - eggs again!) we toured the Nrongoro Park.

 

                                                        View of the Nrongoro Crater


We saw elephants, giraffes, lions, wildebeasts, zebras, antelope, hippos, jackals and hyenas. Again, just meters away from the vehicle. Today's featured animal was the zebra - we all frantically took pictures when we first spotted them, but after seeing about a hundred thousand of them on the plains - we eventually were not quite as excited about them anymore.

Roadside Masai children - who can say "photo - one dollar" in English. We traded some cookies from our boxed lunch for the photos.

We visited a Masai village - we paid an entrance fee per car of people. We were greeted with a traditional welcome song and given a tour of the village - in very good English.

That's me on the right getting ready to dance with the Masai women. It was incredible and a cultural highlight for me. The lady holding my left hand laughed herself silly and yet I felt she was laughing because of my enjoyment of the dance, not laughing at how uncoordinated I was!

We were taken into a man's house and he answered our questions and told us about their life. This house is made of mud and dung - yes, it smelled.

We were given the opportunity to buy jewellery made in the village (remember the exit through the gift shop theme?) and when I commented on this fellow's knife he offered to sell it to me for my son.

After the Masai village we headed out onto the Serengeti Plains (yes...THE Serengeti - can you just hear the guy from Mutual of Omaha doing the narration?).

Here is a picture of the rains on the plains... and contrary to the song by Toto - you cannot see Kilimanjaro rising like Olympus from the Serengeti.

Before we got to our camp - Simba!

     Tonight's accommodations are a temporary tented camp. Our tent has canvas walls and floors, a flush toilet and a "shower" - more about that later.

     Supper was an outdoor affair after dark, under a canvas roof with immaculately dressed servers again. The food was plentiful and passable, nothing really incredible until you realize that everything around us was moved here. There are no permanent structures, no kitchen, no anything - the chef made a darn good meal on a camp stove!
     We had planned to shower before supper but by the time the porter/tent attendant had filled up our bucket with hot water it was time for supper. When we got back - the bucket was empty. A quick sink wash was enough before we fell into bed again.

African Safari - Day 1

Moshi, Tanzania.
Saturday, February 16, 2013 (although I am posting this much, much later than it actually happened, the post was written on paper the day it actually occurred).

     The plan was breakfast and then to meet in the parking lot of the hotel ready to go at 9 am. Sadly, due to continuing effects from the altitude (which means cerebral edema in my room mate and pulmonary edema for me -see Climbing Kilimanjaro Day 4 )- we were very slow packing up. This resulted in us being 15 minutes late for the group meeting. This caused a lot of stress and rude behavior among some of the group - even though the entire group was standing around in the parking lot with gear strewn all over the place. It was at least 10 minutes before any gear was packed into a safari vehicle. I have made the change to African time, others appear to not have been quite so successful at this.
     Our Toyota Land Cruiser with a lift up roof was named "Simba", which I am sure everyone who has seen the movie The Lion King can translate from Swahili into English - Lion, and our driver's name was Armani. He spoke very good English, but we never did get out of him if he was named after a fashion designer or not.
     I've lost so much weight on the mountain that I am having a very hard time keeping my pants up. While we stopped for people to exchange money I tried the street shops for a belt. There was a kitchen store, an electrical store and a toy store - none of which had any belts. Off we went to the grocery store - where I did my McGyver imitation and bought a pair of shoelaces, one of which I used as my belt (I actually had spare bootlaces with me but they were back at the hotel in the stored luggage I wouldn't see again until the safari was over).

                                                    My first view of the Masai people

    Boxed lunch was at a very nice gift shop - you know the old saying, "Exit through the gift shop"? Well, so far we seem to be doing a lot of that! The vegatarian boxed lunch had cold french fries (again - will we ever get hot fries in Africa?), a doughnut, a pancake, a muffin and a banana. Alas, as usual, no protein for the vegetarians. Our boxes are the same as everyone else's they just take out the piece of chicken and put an extra bread in. Also sadly, there weren't enough vegetarian meals to go around. The number of vegetarians in the group did not magically increase over night -so not sure what that is all about.

                                                       The first "real" African animal I saw.


     We went to the Lake Manyara National Park - which is like a game park. We saw baboons, Thompson Gazelles, Impala, storks, elephants, warthogs and zebra - they were as close as one meter away and definately (especially the baboons) within smelling distance! I think each of us took about a hundred pictures of the baboons - just in case we don't see them again!

     We are staying at the Karibu Kirurumu Tented Lodge. Our tent has a cement floor, flush toilet, and shower stall, but outside the canvas walls we can hear the birds and other smaller creatures moving around. Massai warriors guide you through the grounds, to and from your tent, just to be sure nothing tries to eat you!

     Supper was in the dining "room" which is a tented structure with no sides. The tables were all laid with white linen and the wait staff were in pristine white shirts and black pants. The service is incredible. The vegetarian option was sauteed vegetables in a pancake with a sprinkling of cheese - wow! the first time the vegetarians got two protein sources in the same day!
   It was wonderful to collapse into a bed with snowy white linen. We zipped our tent door shut tight to stop any mosquitos from getting in (the staff sprayed our room while we were eating supper), and drifted off to sleep listening to various wildlife singing their songs.