Blogs from Lake Manyara, North, Tanzania, Africa - page 4

Today was a LONG day! I had some really crazy dreams and I felt weird when I woke up, so I didn't eat much for breakfast. We walked a short way down te road to Zainab's orphanage that she startd, the Shalom Center,home to about 40 kids (almost all orphans and some with AIDS). I felt kind of awkward there at first because it isn't a school, at least not formally, so I didn't know if English was okay or not and it was kind of unclear what we were supposed to be doing and whether or not we should make a donation. Apparently enough people know about the place because it's next to the hotel and all the kids are outfitted with brand-name Crocs shoes, but still not really ENOUGH because it's still really ... read more

Joseph, our safari guide, picked us up at the Key's Hotel after breakfast and we departed for our first day of safari at 8:30am. In the truck were the four of us and Joseph. We asked how many more people would we be picking up? We were amazed when he said this was it! We would be getting our own semi-private safari for a week. We get along with Kim and Steve very well, and were excited they were our only safari partners. We drove through Arusha to our to Kirurana, our tented lodge. We would be staying here for one night and were not sure what to expect. When we arrived it was breathtaking. The room, the restaurant, the bar, the grounds, were all so luxurious. When we ate we were always served four courses: ... read more

We found Elephants! Yesterday at Ngorongoro Crater we saw one or two elephants REALLY far away and no Giraffes. Our guide told us Lake Manyara is the place and sure enough we drove in the park and saw fresh elephant remains immediately followed by elephants everywhere. The best was the baby elephant that was just learning to walk. It would take a couple steps and face plant into the dust. Here comes the Star Wars geek in me with this analogy, but watching him trying to walk reminded me of the Imperial Walker things from Return of the Jedi in the jungle with the ewoks (no ewoks sightings here unfortunately). Anyway, check out the video and you can see for yourself how cute he is. As for the monkey picture . . . no, I did ... read more

Lake Manyara Lake Manyara is the only place in Eastern Africa with lions that fall asleep in trees. While we were not privileged enough to witness this phenomenon, we did see lions, baboons, more monkeys, elephants, hippos, zebras, gazelles, giraffes and many new birds. So it was good fun and a pretty low key end to our last safari. The lake Manyara area is quite affluent and fertile. There is lots of rain and agriculture and it shows in the homes, shops and roads. People are not quite as desperate and needy. They seem to have a reasonable standard of life. In Lake Manyara we stayed at the Wild Africa Lodge. It was a neat place because the rooms were actually tents. It is difficult to explain, but essentially the foundation is built with a bathroom. ... read more

We left the next morning on Safari! our guide didn't seem to speak as good English as we were promised (David), but he did seem to be a sweet guy who would be a good guide. This turned out to be true, but there were also some problems ahead. The first day of our Safari was at Lake Manyara. We got there late morning and as soon as we entered the park we saw 3 Elephants - two adults and a baby - crossing a small river just on a hill above the jeep. It was a beautiful sight with the lighting through the trees and the colors. We drove around the park for the day checking out the monkeys, tons of Giraffes and a massive amount of birds - flamingoes, storks etc. We didn't see ... read more