Blogs from Tanzania, Africa - page 3

Last night I fell asleep at 9:40 while typing! Thus, this morning I was chipper at 5:50. I sat on the tiny porch of my chalet and drank hot water while reading. At 7:00, I walked over for breakfast, to the consternation of the waiter. Vegetable omelet and toast, accompanied by delicious little cinnamon buns. I am eagerly looking forward to visiting the spice farm tomorrow. A long walk on the beach – on the Indian Ocean! Calm, warm surf washed over my feet and ankles. Details of birds and shells attracted my eye, but I took photos blind, because the sun washed out the camera screen. All along the beach are resorts such as this one; we may be the only customers at ours. Dipping in the ocean was essential. The water was very shallow, ... read more

The sun rose directly into my window. For a few minutes, I watched it while lying in bed – a first! I jumped up, grabbed my camera, and sat on the patio for the rest of the display. My reward was in the form of a dik-dik strolling unconcernedly across the grass, about twenty feet from where I sat mesmerized. Our destinations in Tarangire Park were a water course of the Tarangire River and a distant swamp fed by the river. Before we were out of the lodge parking lot, Lucas was showing us wildlife. The large baobab tree at the entrance had a Strangler Fig as a parasite. The fig was so much smaller than the giants in Cambodia, I didn’t even recognize it. In the parking lot of the Park entrance, he saw us ... read more

Happiness met us for a guided cultural walk in her town, Mto Wa Mbu . She is part of Cultural Tourism Enterprises, a community organization that encourages and supports local businesses through tours and experiences for tourists. She said that in the town’s population of 18,000 there are a hundred different tribes, and they all work together. She was accompanied by Feliciter (fe lees tah) and a trainee. We met her beside the local banana beer pub, our first cultural stop. Seated inside, I peered with trepidation at a large plastic beaker holding some sort of banana brew. In fact, on the top of the liquid was the sprouted millet used to ferment the beer in a separate room. Happiness passed around samples of the miniscule millet seeds, the sprouted seeds, and powdered crushed millet. On ... read more

We drove about an hour to Lake Eyasi, although we didn’t see the lake. We were visiting the Bushman or Hadza culture, courtesy of a group that had migrated from the Kalahari generations ago. They live in the forest, foraging for fruits and roots and killing animals with arrows. Not realizing that we had arrived, I wondered where they lived, since only fairly small amount of low forest was in view; after walking a short distance and hearing about Hadza life, I decided the forest was bigger than it looked. We met only a handful of people; presumably, the others lived well out of sight. The fees for the tours pay for the children to attend primary school, which is compulsory. In all other ways possible, they avoid modern developments in any form and follow their ... read more

Ngorongoro Crater is not a crater, but a twelve-mile-wide caldera with no breaks in the walls, the largest in the world. I regretted not taking any photos in full light from my balcony, but there was no time after breakfast before leaving at 6:30. The day more than made up for it. At the gate to Ngorongoro, Lucas obtained our permit and other paperwork. Later he explained that per person the permit fee was $80, plus a conservation fee of $70, added to the $350 for the night at the hotel, plus $300 per vehicle – a sizeable portion of the cost of our whole trip! We descended an 11% grade on a fairly good stone rode. Between the large bushes, trees and grasses, we could see the wide golden plain surrounded by a rim of ... read more