The Safari and Zanzibar
After the Kili trek, I enjoyed a wonderful night in the Impala Hotel in Arusha where I could finally clean up and get some of the dust out of some of my things. The skin on my hands and lower face (the exposed parts) were a peely, dry mess from the low humidity and winds and intense sun at altitude (despite having used sunblock copiously). I know, sounds attractive. Fortunately, it all improved within the next couple of days.
For the safari portion of my trip, Seif, my driver guide, took me to Ngorongoro Crater, the Serengeti, and Lake Manyara. I stayed in very comfortable lodges the whole time (for the most part – the Serengeti lodge we stayed at had some water system problems so water was even more limited than usual; oh well) and spent 2 nights in each place except the last, where we stayed only one night. Although we saw some of the same animals in all places, such as giraffe, elephants, zebras, and certain birds, the environmental setting or ecosystem was different from place to place.
The rim of Ngorongoro Crater, on which our lodge (and all lodges) was located, sits at around 1500m (I think – it's definitely at some altitude), so it was always on the cool and even cold side; the crater floor is somewhere around sea level. The animals usually hang around in the 20-mile wide crater, which has a couple smaller lakes and one particularly large salt water lake. Some animals come up out of the crater, especially at night, or move back and forth. Seif strongly cautioned me to stay within the close boundaries of the lodge (so much for morning runs – just kidding; I really didn't want to meet one of the many elephants, hyenas, or other wild animals on foot. The cars, or rather, SUVs that everyone drives on safari are Land Rovers or Land Cruisers or some version, the tops of which lift up so that one can stand up and get a 360 degree view, perfect for picture taking and general animal viewing. The best part for me was that I had one of these to myself and my guide – I asked Seif a ton of questions and learned quite a bit. He even had some books with pictures to help explain further what we discussed. I won't describe everything we saw because there were so many amazing things. It's so cool to see animals roaming without bars or glass enclosures. You don't just see the animals, you see how they behave naturally. For instance, we watched for 30-60 min as 5 water buffalos and 7 she-lions faced off against each other, and later we watched a cheetah hiding in the grass and stalking a few unsuspecting Thomson's gazelles. And, yes, just before we started the drive up out of the crater at the end of that day, we spotted one of the rare black rhinos. Very cool.
While we were in the Ngorongoro area, I had the opportunity to visit a Maasai village. Many tribes exist in Tanzania, and some still live according to their traditional ways, but these Maasai have become well-known. They are nomadic cattle herders; many would also say cattle raiders. You've probably seen pictures of them. The men will often have large holes in their ear lobes, and men and women alike will have multiple decorations hanging from their ears. They appear tall and lean and tend to wear variations of red tartan robes draped around their shoulders (they supposedly became so enamored of British tartans that they adopted them into their clothing). They'll also wear blue and purple, but they really like red. The men, or warriors, will often have their hair in intricate braids, whereas the women tend to have their heads shaved. They live on a diet of meat, milk, and blood. The people of the village I visited welcomed me with their chanting sort of songs. The women sang their song in one group, and the men in another. The songs were different but somehow harmonized together. They looked like they were enjoying themselves as they formed circles and individuals would jump together in the centers. Then I got to tour the village and see the inside of their homes, which are built only by the women and are made of dried cow dung, sod, straw, and deadwood. It didn't smell, but there were certainly plenty of flies around. The houses are low with flat roofs and no windows except a small cook hole in one side. I'm sure it can be quite cool in summer and warm in winter, but pretty dark in there. The houses are arranged in a circle with a wall of straw, grass, and wood surrounding the village.
They keep their cattle and goats in a center enclosure at night, and in the morning, the boys take the cattle out quite far away to graze during the day. The government has mandated that the children must be educated, so there is a separate structure just outside the village enclosure where the younger girls and boys go to school. They were so excited to have a visitor watch them; they showed off their knowledge of numbers, counting in English and Swahili for me, and then sang a welcome song. What a great experience.
On the way to the Serengeti, we stopped to visit the little museum by the Olduvai (should be pronounced and spelled Oldupai after the type of sisal plant that grows in the area) Gorge, where the remains of the oldest footprints were found, as well as bones of our possible ancestors and fossils of other prehistoric animals. After that educating visit to ponder our past, we bumped along the very rough road to the Serengeti lodge. In the Serengeti, I enjoyed the picturesque scenery and views, especially the sunrise and sunsets which silhouetted the many flat-topped and umbrella acacia trees.
I saw all the animals I could hope to see; yes, even finally, 2 leopards in 2 separate trees. By the time we finished our tour through there, we had seen close to 60 lions including those we'd seen previously in the crater (Seif said I was very lucky to see so many); quite a few had been within 2-3 m of the car, and they would act indifferent to us. We got lucky with many other animals as well, with many of them also in close range to the car. If you're wondering, no, we never got out of the car – not allowed and would obviously be quite stupid if something like a lion were around. Here, as at the previous lodge, Seif warned me to stay within the tight boundaries of the lodge, especially at night. Every morning I was there, I would wake at around 5 am to these strange loud animal sounds (not really growls or howls or whines, but something in between – hard to explain). Evidently, these were the hippos, who leave their pools at night to graze then return to their pools in the morning so they can spend their days soaking. 
You don't want to come upon a hippo; they're vicious despite being herbivores, and they can outrun a man.
The last stop was Lake Manyara, which was remarkable mostly for the views and the incredible numbers of birds, especially flamingos – so many that from far away, you can see a large bright pink patch in one end of the large salt water lake. We saw plenty of the other animals we had seen previously and even more of the baboons, which are considered pests as they'll go through the garbage and even enter homes and hotel rooms if you forget to close your windows and doors while you're out.
Having finished the Kili trek and safari, I next headed to Zanzibar via a short and crowded flight.
There, I spent a couple days relaxing on the beach and enjoyed a spice/fruit tour (very educational). I stayed in a beautiful and opulent (compared to how the natives live) resort on the east side of the island near a town called Kiwengwa. Very peaceful most of the time, except when you try to walk the beach and guys keep coming up to you trying to sell you things and get you to go to their village with them. Yeah, right. I did go running in the mornings along the road, which I was advised by the hotel staff to be safer, and would come across groups of Muslim children walking to school. They thought it was great fun to run with me for some distance; I thought so, too. On my last day in Tanzania, I enjoyed a beautiful walking tour of Old Stone Town (west side of the island and main area). The island is 97% Muslim, and there are strong Arab and Indian influences in the architecture, culture, and everyday life. Although the town is quite rundown, one can still admire the remaining ornately carved doors and some of the renovated buildings as well as the views of the beautiful turquoise Indian Ocean.
In the evening, I took a very nauseating ferry trip (apparently the ferry is infamous for inducing vomiting) to Dar es Salaam where I would catch a flight late that night back to the states. Fortunately, I'd kept in touch with some of the friends I'd made on the Kili trek, the ones who summitted with me. Katherine is living temporarily in Dar to teach English, and Sam and Sue had been visiting her. We enjoyed some good Indian food for dinner, then Katherine set me up with a cab driver she knew to take me to the airport. What a good way to end my trip in Tanzania.
(If you're interested, I set up this trip through Lion's Safari International, which is one of the oldest and best known companies in and around Arusha. I was very happy with this trip; everything went smoothly, and I never had to worry about a thing.)
For the safari portion of my trip, Seif, my driver guide, took me to Ngorongoro Crater, the Serengeti, and Lake Manyara. I stayed in very comfortable lodges the whole time (for the most part – the Serengeti lodge we stayed at had some water system problems so water was even more limited than usual; oh well) and spent 2 nights in each place except the last, where we stayed only one night. Although we saw some of the same animals in all places, such as giraffe, elephants, zebras, and certain birds, the environmental setting or ecosystem was different from place to place.
The rim of Ngorongoro Crater, on which our lodge (and all lodges) was located, sits at around 1500m (I think – it's definitely at some altitude), so it was always on the cool and even cold side; the crater floor is somewhere around sea level. The animals usually hang around in the 20-mile wide crater, which has a couple smaller lakes and one particularly large salt water lake. Some animals come up out of the crater, especially at night, or move back and forth. Seif strongly cautioned me to stay within the close boundaries of the lodge (so much for morning runs – just kidding; I really didn't want to meet one of the many elephants, hyenas, or other wild animals on foot. The cars, or rather, SUVs that everyone drives on safari are Land Rovers or Land Cruisers or some version, the tops of which lift up so that one can stand up and get a 360 degree view, perfect for picture taking and general animal viewing. The best part for me was that I had one of these to myself and my guide – I asked Seif a ton of questions and learned quite a bit. He even had some books with pictures to help explain further what we discussed. I won't describe everything we saw because there were so many amazing things. It's so cool to see animals roaming without bars or glass enclosures. You don't just see the animals, you see how they behave naturally. For instance, we watched for 30-60 min as 5 water buffalos and 7 she-lions faced off against each other, and later we watched a cheetah hiding in the grass and stalking a few unsuspecting Thomson's gazelles. And, yes, just before we started the drive up out of the crater at the end of that day, we spotted one of the rare black rhinos. Very cool.While we were in the Ngorongoro area, I had the opportunity to visit a Maasai village. Many tribes exist in Tanzania, and some still live according to their traditional ways, but these Maasai have become well-known. They are nomadic cattle herders; many would also say cattle raiders. You've probably seen pictures of them. The men will often have large holes in their ear lobes, and men and women alike will have multiple decorations hanging from their ears. They appear tall and lean and tend to wear variations of red tartan robes draped around their shoulders (they supposedly became so enamored of British tartans that they adopted them into their clothing). They'll also wear blue and purple, but they really like red. The men, or warriors, will often have their hair in intricate braids, whereas the women tend to have their heads shaved. They live on a diet of meat, milk, and blood. The people of the village I visited welcomed me with their chanting sort of songs. The women sang their song in one group, and the men in another. The songs were different but somehow harmonized together. They looked like they were enjoying themselves as they formed circles and individuals would jump together in the centers. Then I got to tour the village and see the inside of their homes, which are built only by the women and are made of dried cow dung, sod, straw, and deadwood. It didn't smell, but there were certainly plenty of flies around. The houses are low with flat roofs and no windows except a small cook hole in one side. I'm sure it can be quite cool in summer and warm in winter, but pretty dark in there. The houses are arranged in a circle with a wall of straw, grass, and wood surrounding the village.
They keep their cattle and goats in a center enclosure at night, and in the morning, the boys take the cattle out quite far away to graze during the day. The government has mandated that the children must be educated, so there is a separate structure just outside the village enclosure where the younger girls and boys go to school. They were so excited to have a visitor watch them; they showed off their knowledge of numbers, counting in English and Swahili for me, and then sang a welcome song. What a great experience.On the way to the Serengeti, we stopped to visit the little museum by the Olduvai (should be pronounced and spelled Oldupai after the type of sisal plant that grows in the area) Gorge, where the remains of the oldest footprints were found, as well as bones of our possible ancestors and fossils of other prehistoric animals. After that educating visit to ponder our past, we bumped along the very rough road to the Serengeti lodge. In the Serengeti, I enjoyed the picturesque scenery and views, especially the sunrise and sunsets which silhouetted the many flat-topped and umbrella acacia trees.
I saw all the animals I could hope to see; yes, even finally, 2 leopards in 2 separate trees. By the time we finished our tour through there, we had seen close to 60 lions including those we'd seen previously in the crater (Seif said I was very lucky to see so many); quite a few had been within 2-3 m of the car, and they would act indifferent to us. We got lucky with many other animals as well, with many of them also in close range to the car. If you're wondering, no, we never got out of the car – not allowed and would obviously be quite stupid if something like a lion were around. Here, as at the previous lodge, Seif warned me to stay within the tight boundaries of the lodge, especially at night. Every morning I was there, I would wake at around 5 am to these strange loud animal sounds (not really growls or howls or whines, but something in between – hard to explain). Evidently, these were the hippos, who leave their pools at night to graze then return to their pools in the morning so they can spend their days soaking. 
You don't want to come upon a hippo; they're vicious despite being herbivores, and they can outrun a man.The last stop was Lake Manyara, which was remarkable mostly for the views and the incredible numbers of birds, especially flamingos – so many that from far away, you can see a large bright pink patch in one end of the large salt water lake. We saw plenty of the other animals we had seen previously and even more of the baboons, which are considered pests as they'll go through the garbage and even enter homes and hotel rooms if you forget to close your windows and doors while you're out.
Having finished the Kili trek and safari, I next headed to Zanzibar via a short and crowded flight.
There, I spent a couple days relaxing on the beach and enjoyed a spice/fruit tour (very educational). I stayed in a beautiful and opulent (compared to how the natives live) resort on the east side of the island near a town called Kiwengwa. Very peaceful most of the time, except when you try to walk the beach and guys keep coming up to you trying to sell you things and get you to go to their village with them. Yeah, right. I did go running in the mornings along the road, which I was advised by the hotel staff to be safer, and would come across groups of Muslim children walking to school. They thought it was great fun to run with me for some distance; I thought so, too. On my last day in Tanzania, I enjoyed a beautiful walking tour of Old Stone Town (west side of the island and main area). The island is 97% Muslim, and there are strong Arab and Indian influences in the architecture, culture, and everyday life. Although the town is quite rundown, one can still admire the remaining ornately carved doors and some of the renovated buildings as well as the views of the beautiful turquoise Indian Ocean.In the evening, I took a very nauseating ferry trip (apparently the ferry is infamous for inducing vomiting) to Dar es Salaam where I would catch a flight late that night back to the states. Fortunately, I'd kept in touch with some of the friends I'd made on the Kili trek, the ones who summitted with me. Katherine is living temporarily in Dar to teach English, and Sam and Sue had been visiting her. We enjoyed some good Indian food for dinner, then Katherine set me up with a cab driver she knew to take me to the airport. What a good way to end my trip in Tanzania.
(If you're interested, I set up this trip through Lion's Safari International, which is one of the oldest and best known companies in and around Arusha. I was very happy with this trip; everything went smoothly, and I never had to worry about a thing.)
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