Pare Mountains

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A couple of weekends ago I took a little trip to Pare Mountains with our house manager, Amani and few of my roomates. Amani is from Pare mountains and organizes weekend trips to his home village which include a canoe trip in Lake Jipe, hiking to Kindoroko peak, visiting local pubs and a homestay at his hospitable Aunty’s house.

It took us about 2.5 hours to get to Pare from Moshi by 2 very packed dala dala rides. Once we arrived, we hiked for about an hour up the mountain to Amani’s Aunty’s house. Although we had to hike part of the way in the dark, the view from the mountain was stunning, and the sunset was absolutely beautiful.

Once we arrived, we were greeted with welcoming hugs, cold beverages and cheesy Nigerian movies, which I recently learned can be referred to as “Nollywood” films. After we settled in, we sat around a warm campfire while Amani’s aunty served a delicious dinner of homemade beef stew and beans. We spent the remainder of the evening chatting around the campfire, staring at the stars and listening to the same song on repeat (we didn’t come prepared with music).

Since we arrived at the house in the middle of the night we didn’t really know what the property looked like until the morning. It was located in a small mountain village where the toilets and shower (bucket shower to be exact) were in a separate building and the “kitchen” was actually just a small fire pit with a hanging pot located right beside the cows. For breakfast we had homemade chai and hardboiled eggs, which I could only assume came from one of the multiple chickens running around the yard. I was really hoping to be able to get the chance to milk the cow, but I unfortunately did not wake up early enough.

After we ate breakfast, we headed over to Lake Jipe for our canoe trip. After getting lost a couple times, our driver finally arrived in a small village where we were the main attraction for the brief time we spent there. There was a small “pool bar” that we hung out at while Amani found some fisherman to paddle our boats for us. Lake Jipe wasn’t the nicest lake to look at but it was calm and relaxing, and the water was very warm. After about 45 minutes, we came across a pod of hippos, which at first seemed like they didn’t notice us until they all slightly raised their eyes and ears above the water and looked directly at us. After watching them for a couple of minutes, we realized that they were slowly inching towards us which is when we felt that it was time to turn back. Just as we were about to turn around, we noticed that there were two elephants on the land, not too far from the hippos, and one of our fisherman told us that sometimes the elephants like to come out and ambush the hippos, it was certainly time to go at that point.

When we arrived back home, Amani took us on a little hike around the village to show us his uncle’s farm. We also stopped by two of his other uncle’s homes where we were welcomed in by their very loving families.

On Sunday, we headed into town to catch a truck up Kindoroko mountain. We were originally going to hike the whole way up, but we were all too exhausted from the previous night to even attempt a 7 hour hike in the blazing sun. We waited in the market for about 2 hours for the one and only truck that goes up Kindoroko during the day. There is one during the day, and one at night and that’s it, if you miss it…you walk. Now when I say “truck” I mean a mini pick-up truck, about 13 people piled into the back of this truck to head up the mountain at a very slow, steady and somewhat safe pace. Since it was the only truck going up we were also accompanied by everyone’s market purchases which included but were not limited to sheet metal for a new roof and big bags of rice, I was lucky enough to grab a cushy seat on a bag of rice. Once we finally arrived to the furthest point we could go by vehicle, we hiked for another 30 minutes to Kindoroko peak. The view was nice, but I was very thankful that I did not have to hike 7 hours to see it. We rested on the top for about an hour and enjoyed some market fresh mangoes, peanuts and oranges before hiking for 4 hours down. The hike down was hot, sweaty, and felt like it was never going to end. Even though we ran out of water, we made it and it was all worth it once we were down. It was great practice for Mt. Kilimanjaro (which is 2 weeks away) and I’m happy that we spent our Sunday doing something active for a change.

Amani has started his own tour company and we went on this trip to help give him feedback on how he can tailor his trips for other tourists. We had a wonderful time with his family and enjoyed a weekend away from Moshi. Pare was absolutely beautiful and was slightly cooler than Moshi which was a nice change from the heat here.

My weekends here are a limited, there are only 3 more to go and I’ve been trying to squeeze in as many activities as possible. I ran my very first half marathon last weekend and it was an incredible experience! The course took us all throughout the foothills of Mt. Kili so I was able to see parts of Moshi that I have never been to. Luckily enough the temperature was cool and I was able to cross the finish line before the sun started blazing down. I completed my race in just a little over 2 hours and 9 minutes, my goal was to do it in under 2.5 hours, so I am very pleased with my results. Training for and completing this race has ignited a new found joy of running for me, and I’m looking forward to entering some more races when I return home. I have exactly 2 weeks until I begin my ascent up Mt. Kilimanjaro…I’m excited and a little bit nervous, but I’m confident that I will make it to the summit!

I will be sure to write a few more posts before I leave, and definitely one after my climb. I miss and love you all!



Swahili phrase of the week: Ni na njoto sana which means I’m very hot a phrase that I say about 100 times a day

Peace&Love

- Lisa

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Photos

Kindoroko Peak
From left to right: Helen, Harriet, Lucas and Amani

A few of my co-workers who also ran the half marathon/marathon
From left to right: Deo, Ani, and Martha