More Time in Tanzania

As I mentioned, the group dropped me off in Arusha, Tanzania on the day after the climb – Monday, January 20th. I was glad to have a few extra days to spend in and around Kilimanjaro to get a better sense of the area and to also partake of a game drive.

The area around Arusha includes the Serengeti, Ngonorgoro Crater, and the Arusha National Park, all known for their animal sitings. Given that I didn’t have much time – and that it was pretty expensive to go on some of the game drives - I opted to spend only one day in the Arusha National Park. I had great sitings of my favored giraffes, as well as three types of monkeys, zebras, hippos, bush boks (kind of like deer), and buffalo. Combined with my previous game drive, I’ve seen the “Big Five” and feel content with my day of animal siting in Tanzania.

I left Arusha yesterday morning very early and flew about 45 minutes via Air Tanzania to Zanzibar. I had heard about Zanzibar prior to leaving the US and was debating visiting until I had previously decided to spend some time in Kenya. Given that the Kenya trip fell through, I decided to re-think my itinerary and plan a visit to the coastal island. When would I ever be this close to visiting again??

Conveniently, my plane was scheduled to make a stop in Zanzibar en route back to Dar es Salaam (my destination per my original ticket), and Air Tanzania allowed me and my bag to hop off the plane at the mid-destination…certainly different than TSA rules back at home. I had already booked a place to stay – the Blue Oyster on the Southeast part of the island – but was not sure if they had arranged for airport transport for me or not.

Even though I’m only three weeks into the trip, I believe that someone has placed little angels along the way to help see me through some of the tough times and inconveniences. Air Tanzania Flight #7908 was once such occurrence. I should also preface this storying by telling you that, with every destination, I am the most nervous a bout my time at the airport and actually getting from the airport to my lodging, simply because you never know what’s waiting for you at the arrivals gate. I should say that I’ve never had a bad experience with airport transportation (knock on wood), but I still worry about being charged too much or looking too lost upon arrival. My little angels appeared in the form of Mark and Jeane, a lovely older American couple from the Boston area, who had been visiting their daughter, a recent Vanderbilt grad, who was volunteering at an international school in Arusha as a music teacher. They were seated in the last row of the plane, and we happened to be the only people getting off in Zanzibar. I enjoyed talking with them, and we realized immediately that we were both headed towards the same side of the island. We collectively attempted to bargain with the taxi drivers (as suggested by Lonely Planet) and were successful in bidding down to a total of 55,000 Tanzanian Shillings – about $50 and only 5,000 shillings south of the going rate.

We quickly realized why we had been given a break on price. The car was what most of us would describe at home as a P-O-S, which proceeded to blow a radiator hose and lose a piece of non-essential trim en route to our hotels. Furthermore, the political situation in Nairobi has caused some supply issues here in Zanzibar, which resulted in us visiting four gas stations before finally getting enough to fill up a quarter of a tank. In retrospect, the drive will go down in history as a funny story, but at the time, I was thankful forte company of Mark and Jeane. One of the best memories was watching Mark look at the trailing trim on the back side of the car and tell our driver “not important!” because we feared stopping and blowing the radiator hose yet again. Needless to say, I will be arranging my airport transfer back to Zanzibar through my hotel and will enjoy the A/C ride of a minibus the whole way.

I also always am a little apprehensive to see the places where I’ll be staying, and the Blue Oyster was no exception. Fortunately, the place is great – when we rounded the corner, Jeane remarked “flowers are a VERY good sign!” The place is located on the beach and was selected by me due to the description in Lonely Planet that included the words “run with German efficiency.” It is clean, located on the beach, has a great restaurant, and I have a single room and non-shared bathroom, breakfast included, for $35/night. Seemed like a great deal and has lived up to its promises. The only issue with advertising its European ownership has been a lot of European patrons and, of course, some very unfortunate Speedo sitings. Yikes!

I enjoyed a beautiful dinner at the breezy second floor restaurant last night, watching the full moon rise over the ocean. Today I took a very long walk – about 2 ½ hours – down the beach and then spent some of the afternoon reading. I look forward to another great fish dinner tonight and one last day here tomorrow before I start traveling again. I will say that it’s been so nice to have a bit of a break and some ocean peace after a grueling week up on the mountain, and the opportunity to reflect on the trip thus far has been appreciated.

PS - I have a TON of pictures to share with you from Kili and Zanzibar, but, despite multiple attempts, I'm having some issues uploading them. Will do so as soon as I can!!