I can't believe our day. I fell last night, gouging up my left shin, bumping the back of my head and my butt. It made it pretty hard to ride in the vehicles with a sore left cheek and having to lean forward all day, and it was ALL DAY from 800am to after 530pm .We started out in the rain with a school visit. The kids were Masai, the school sponsored by the Serena Hotel. Roads were rough. But game was everywhere. After Ngorogoro, I was afraid everything else would be downhill from there, but it got better the further into the Serengeti you get; giraffe, a few bull elephants, warthogs and zebras as far as you could see. Seth must have been laughing inside when I said I'd hoped to see zebra. We even ... read more

Woke up at 530am. The chirping birds are deafening, but peaceful. We went to breakfast early. Met up with some of the Tauck people we had seen during the transfer, and we decided not to go into Arusha town. We figured its our only day to relax before heading out for an exhaustive trip ahead,so we reorganized our suitcases according to the next few days' needs, necessities on top and airplane stuff at the bottom. Feeling a bit more organized,we wandered around inside the walls of the Arusha Mountain Resort. Beautifully tended grounds. Small gift shop with sundries and gifts. Buffet lunch for two, $25 plus tip. The buffet includes many cooked meats and vegetables, lots of East Indian foods, salads, desserts. Good prices here. After this one pre-tour day, every meal will be included. ... read more

Long, long, long day to get here. Horizon to Portland. Mt Rainier, Mt. St. Helens. Mt Adams Mt. Hood all in their glory outside the window. Delta Sky Club in PDX quite nice. Off th AMS. Took a sleeper and after veggie lunch took a nice 6 hour sleep. KLM Lounge 52 in AMS was huge! Lots of food and drink choices. Check in at the gate was long, with extremely high security. Got the pat down, maybe because of my long sweater. Another 8 hours flying with marginal movie choices, long long day. We arrived at 845pm and Colonel Uto (?) greeted us outside customs. We met several pairs of people from all over the country before we even got into the bus for the ride to Arusha Mountain Resort. At the hotel we had ... read more