Mambo!

We are back in Arusha tonight after an AMAZING 6-day safari!  We visited Tarangire, Serengeti, Norongoro Crater, and Lake Manyara.  Although we managed to see a sleeping, standing, walking and peeing black rhino in the crater, our favorite park was Serengeti.  It is difficult to describe the vastness of the Serengeti.  To sit in the midst of the zebra and wildebeest migration was awesome.  We easily spotted all of the Big 5 plus so much more.  Some of our other favorite times were watching 14 lions sleep restlessly under a small bush to escape from the hot sun, watching a mother leopard and her cubs play with their reedbuck kill in a tree and finding ourselves in the middle of a herd of 30 elephants -- one of which decided to explore the antennae of our jeep with his trunk and tusks.  We might be biased, but we think our guide Isdory, from Team Kilimanjaro is the best guide ever!  He always found us the "proper position" for viewing animals (even if it required butting in front of other jeeps), made lots of lion noises to get animals to move, told us to be patient when needed (like waiting for the sleeping rhino to wake when the sun got too hot) and tolerated our camp songs and interpretations of Swahili guide discussions.  We will miss him tomorrow when we're wandering around Arusha looking lost.  

We still haven't managed to see Kilimanjaro yet - it has been cloudy here in Arusha.  I'm sure it will look intimidating when we finally do catch a glimpse of it.  On Saturday morning we'll be headed up the mountain.  Before we leave Arusha, I'll post the link so that you can track our progress.  Until then, I hope you are all "cool like a banana in the freezer".