I have made it safely home. Although I did not really think I was tired, after my chips and salsa fix (thanks Mom and Dad) I went to bed at 4 PM yesterday and did not wake up for almost 15 hours! I'm pretty sure I've not slept that long since I was a baby. I think may actually be more hours of sleep than I got during my whole Kili trip.
I had an amazing trip! I am thankful I had the opportunity to travel with good friends AND to meet so many new friends along the way. People were so warm and welcoming everywhere I traveled in Tanzania. I experienced things in Tanzania that I will never forget. Some experiences are easy to describe and others cannot be easily be described by words or pictures.
Thanks reading my blog and following along with me during my adventures in Tanzania! I hope to post a link to pictures soon.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Zanzibar
Greetings from Zanzibar!
Our pace has changed significantly since our adventures on Kilimanjaro... We have spent the last 2 days splitting our time between the pool and the beach. The water is beautiful shades of blue and turquoise and almost too warm for swimming. When the tide is out (way, way out) the women are busy harvesting sea weed and the men appear to be busy with their boats. During high tide the beach practically disappears.
This morning we went a spice tour. We learned more about spices than we thought possible. Did you know that vanilla is actually a parasite? How about that the leaves, bark and wood from a cinnamon tree smell like cinnamon but that the roots smell like Vick's Vapor Rub? We all became spice queens - adorned with palm crowns, necklaces, bracelets, rings and hand bags. We also had tiny star fruits stuck to our foreheads and our faces decorated with red paint from "lip stick fruit."
Tomorrow we are going to go snorkeling and then the next day we leave the beach and head to Stone Town. All of a sudden our travels seem to be winding down... Although I will miss my daily adventures in Tanzania, it will be good to see family and friends and get back to the routine of work. Drinking water right from the faucet, sleeping in my own bed and eating chips and salsa are things I'm looking forward to. See you soon!
Our pace has changed significantly since our adventures on Kilimanjaro... We have spent the last 2 days splitting our time between the pool and the beach. The water is beautiful shades of blue and turquoise and almost too warm for swimming. When the tide is out (way, way out) the women are busy harvesting sea weed and the men appear to be busy with their boats. During high tide the beach practically disappears.
This morning we went a spice tour. We learned more about spices than we thought possible. Did you know that vanilla is actually a parasite? How about that the leaves, bark and wood from a cinnamon tree smell like cinnamon but that the roots smell like Vick's Vapor Rub? We all became spice queens - adorned with palm crowns, necklaces, bracelets, rings and hand bags. We also had tiny star fruits stuck to our foreheads and our faces decorated with red paint from "lip stick fruit."
Tomorrow we are going to go snorkeling and then the next day we leave the beach and head to Stone Town. All of a sudden our travels seem to be winding down... Although I will miss my daily adventures in Tanzania, it will be good to see family and friends and get back to the routine of work. Drinking water right from the faucet, sleeping in my own bed and eating chips and salsa are things I'm looking forward to. See you soon!
Friday, February 18, 2011
Kilimanjaro
After starting our summit bid at 12:07 AM we made it to the summit of Kilimanjaro at 8:50 AM on February 17th! It was a long, long, long ways up. Sometimes it looked like the trail of headlamps both above us and below us was never ending. Our hike from Gilman's point to the summit was amazing! After battling rain, sleet, ice and snow for several days, we were greeting with clear skies for sunrise on the roof of Africa. As we approached the summit, the snow was bright and the glaciers were spectacular.
It took a whole crew to get us up the mountain. We were so happy to have such attentive people watching after us. Our guides would pull down our hoods and tuck in our mittens while we were hiking. Each morning we were awoken with hot water/coffee in our tents - not a service were used to having at home. They also made sure we always had plenty of toilet paper in our 2 potty tents!
Day after day we would ask our guides "Will it be sunny today?" We didn't learn too quickly because the answer was always "For sure [long pause] the weather is unpredictable on the mountain." Other common guide sayings are:
"Eat. Eat more!" (What do you do when 9 grown adults refuse eat eggs for yet another breakfast?)
"Twende, twende, twende (even when there is no place to twende to)."
"Walk faster (actually very rarely said) there is another herd of buffalo (bad weather) coming."
In some ways, the hike down and out felt longer than the hike up. Just to remind us who makes the rules (The Mountain first and the guide second) after leaving our last campsite under clear blue skies, Kilimanjaro let us have rain, hail and trails turned to rivers for our hike out.
Our adventure on Kilimanjaro is something we will never forget. We feel so lucky to have made it to the summit together! Now we are off to Zanzibar to end our vacation on the beach.
Friday, February 11, 2011
It's Kili Time!
Have you ever been to 19,341 ft? Neither have we, but we're ready to try. Tomorrow begins our adventure up Kilimanjaro - the Roof of Africa.
We just finished our pre-climb debriefing and gear check. Our bags are packed and we're trying to kill time before bed without getting too nervous. Tomorrow will actually be more of a transition day. We have about 5-6 hours of driving and then 3 hours of hiking. It sounds like our guide (Joshua) will be pushing fluids during the drive and we've already warned him that we will need plenty of potty breaks. Joshua has already summited 143 times - soon that will be 144. It seems like our climbing group will be fun.
You can track our progress on Kili by going to the following blog:Team Kilimanjaro Blog. We are group AMJO (HS). This blog is updated once a day when possible - don't worry if they miss a day. Send extra thoughts and prayers our way on February 17th - our summit day.
We just finished our pre-climb debriefing and gear check. Our bags are packed and we're trying to kill time before bed without getting too nervous. Tomorrow will actually be more of a transition day. We have about 5-6 hours of driving and then 3 hours of hiking. It sounds like our guide (Joshua) will be pushing fluids during the drive and we've already warned him that we will need plenty of potty breaks. Joshua has already summited 143 times - soon that will be 144. It seems like our climbing group will be fun.
You can track our progress on Kili by going to the following blog:Team Kilimanjaro Blog. We are group AMJO (HS). This blog is updated once a day when possible - don't worry if they miss a day. Send extra thoughts and prayers our way on February 17th - our summit day.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
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".
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".
Friday, February 4, 2011
Around Mount Meru
Mambo!
Kim, Megan and I have spent the last 3 days walking around the foothills of Mount Meru. After a day of resting at Songota Falls Lodge we set out on our first cultural tour to the village of Ng'resi. We did a lot of walking, visited a water fall and spent some time with a woman and her child in a traditional Masaii boma. The next day we went to Peace Matunda. First we toured the primary school and new children's home (Amani House) -- it was good to see children learning and teachers teaching. Everybody (staff, volunteers, children) were very welcoming. After a quick tour we spent the majority of our 2 days at Peace Matunda on walking tours with our very own guide and teacher Bellasix. We prepared coffee from dried beans, visited waterfalls, canoed around Lake Duluti and just enjoyed walking up, down and around through the villages. Bellasix helped us with our Swahili greetings and taught us a lot about how the Meru people live. We ended each day in a think coat of dust - but it was worth it. There were volunteers at Peace Matunda from Germany, Canada and the US. If anybody is looking for a wonderful place to spend a week or more volunteering, I highly suggest you check out their website.
We're back at the Outpost in Arusha tonight and tomorrow we leave on Safari! We'll be gone for 6 days/5 nights, so I'll check back in when we return to Arusha.
Hope everybody is doing well!
Kim, Megan and I have spent the last 3 days walking around the foothills of Mount Meru. After a day of resting at Songota Falls Lodge we set out on our first cultural tour to the village of Ng'resi. We did a lot of walking, visited a water fall and spent some time with a woman and her child in a traditional Masaii boma. The next day we went to Peace Matunda. First we toured the primary school and new children's home (Amani House) -- it was good to see children learning and teachers teaching. Everybody (staff, volunteers, children) were very welcoming. After a quick tour we spent the majority of our 2 days at Peace Matunda on walking tours with our very own guide and teacher Bellasix. We prepared coffee from dried beans, visited waterfalls, canoed around Lake Duluti and just enjoyed walking up, down and around through the villages. Bellasix helped us with our Swahili greetings and taught us a lot about how the Meru people live. We ended each day in a think coat of dust - but it was worth it. There were volunteers at Peace Matunda from Germany, Canada and the US. If anybody is looking for a wonderful place to spend a week or more volunteering, I highly suggest you check out their website.
We're back at the Outpost in Arusha tonight and tomorrow we leave on Safari! We'll be gone for 6 days/5 nights, so I'll check back in when we return to Arusha.
Hope everybody is doing well!
Monday, January 31, 2011
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