Blogs from Tanzania, Africa

From the Female Traveler: A solo trip is about you and what you need or want to do for yourself. The best solo vacations give you a sense of fulfillment and accomplishment and help you grow as a person. Regardless of whether or not you have done this, always remember that traveling alone can be a defining moment. The fact that you can travel alone is a gift and privilege, and you should use it to the maximum of your ability. Above all, don’t forget to have fun! Over the last few years of solo travel, I have met more and more fellow solo travelers. The common traits are: independence, confidence, inner peace, and good planning. On my last trip to Europe, I met some interesting travelers, since it was winter, and not the tourist season. ... read more

Literally. No metaphor here. We visited Zanzibar before, and now have visited Zanzibar again. Here are some highlights of the trip. - We stayed at the Dhow Palace Hotel (got a great deal by calling direct even when the booking sites said it was all full). This was literally the palace of a man who built it in the mid-1600s. His family kept it for about 200 years before it was taken over by his clan. Now it is a private hotel. Very cool place with lots of quirks, secrets, and fun antiques on display. - We found a great community shop run by this Rastaman. It's all local arts and crafts for sale to tourists like us. Some special stuff in here. I got the boys new shirts and gifted the owner with a portrait ... read more

According to some things that I have read, Zanzibar has been continuously occupied by human beings for some 30,000 years. According to some other things I’ve read, the earth was created less than 8,000 years ago. I wasn't there for either, I just read about it. Either way, people have been living on Zanzibar island for a very long time. The name Zanzibar comes from the Arabic words for, “land of the blacks”. They named it for the African people they found living there, whom they called the, “Zanj”. The Arabs mixed with the locals, forming the Swahili peoples, who built thriving trading cities over the past 1500 years or so. Inviting the Persians, Indians, Chinese, Indonesians, and others to join the trade in ivory, precious metals, and enslaved humans from the mainland, they built up ... read more

And now for the reason behind our visit. We came to Tanzania to celebrate the marriage of our niece Grace (affectionately known to us as "Gee") and her husband Hussein. But she has a new name now in marriage, Ayla, a Muslim name as it is customary for women here to take when they marry a Muslim man. More people know her by her stage name Sai Kenya. She's a pop singer in the Bongo Flava style of Tanzania and an upcoming star in Kenya. She's immensely talented and we're all extremely proud of her. From the first time I heard her sing I knew this was something special and we've only seen her talent grow. The performance she gave at her sister's wedding last year blew us all away. Check her videos out on YouTube. ... read more

Summit day was obviously the hardest day of the trip. I woke up at 10pm after about a 2hr nap from dinner to get ready. It had been snowing, and there was fresh 1/2" of powder on the ground. At 10:30 we quickly ate something and then started hiking up to the summit. I had on every single layer I brought with me (and slept in them as well), and not much more than my poles, 2 liters of water in bladder, and 1 liter in a nalgene in my pack (for when the water in bladder tube freezes). The hike started out amazing under a full moon that lit up a big portion of the route up. As we started getting higher, the cold really set in and made everything harder. Our rest stops were ... read more