Tarangire & Arusha

I'll apologize in advance if this doesn't work properly; I'm in the slowest internet cafe ever. I don't think I remember internet being this slow since grade 8 when we had dial up and had no problem waiting 5 minutes for a page to load. But Anyways...

Our last day of Safari landed us in Tarangire National Park, east of the Serengeti and Ngorongoro. I had seen pretty much every animal and felt pretty lucky, so I was ready for anything at Tarangire, but was surprised to find the park fairly empty. Because it is still considered the rainy season, the animals weren't congregating around the Tarangire river or the nearby swamps and so we saw only a few animals here and there. What made Tarangire worthwhile for me though, was the baobab-studded landscape and the great scenery. Baobab trees are those really fat trees with short stubby branches at the top. I hate to use yet another Lion King reference, but it would be tree that Rafiki, the baboon lives in. These trees were everywhere, as well as the acacias, making for a distinctly and stereotypically African landscape. We drove around slowly for hours and saw impala and elephants as well as Dik-diks... these guys are miniature antelope. They live in pairs and mate for life, resemble deer, and yet are only the size of a housecat. Wherever we found one, his or her mate was always close by. The baboons put on a good show for us (I suppose it was mating season for some?) and we found some really beautiful birds perched in the trees all over the place. When the animals thinned out in the midday heat I plugged into my ipod for some Ladysmith Black Mambazo, tuned out the hum of the Landrover, and had a brief zen moment in the excessively hot sun.

Our guide whisked us back to Arusha at a frighteningly fast pace down the 'highway' and we sorted out travel plans and such for the next day. Marianne and I had one last Tangawizi over dinner before her trip back to Germany and even found some time to visit the local craft market for some hard bargaining. Marianne was out the door at 5am the next morning, leaving me to explore Arusha for a day on my own. The idea of some peace and quiet seemed nice but turned out to be a little lonely. I couldn't get a room in the same hotel for the next night, meaning there was no chance of sleeping in, so I had a huge breakfast and left my bag at reception before wandering over to the internet cafe where I wrote that last blog.

This internet cafe had REAL COFFEE!!!! As in, it was not instant powder and the taste actually resembled coffee. The internet was fast so I hung around for a while before checking out some more markets and meeting a guy who turned out to live about 6 blocks away from me in Surrey. Small world. After a bit of shopping I went back for a second cup of real coffee - this time a real latte - and lunch, and then headed over to a backpacker haunt called Masai Camp just outside of town. For just a few dollars I got myself a tent and a place to pitch it and had some time to read and write and process everything from the past few days. At night the bar turned into a pretty happening place and lots of locals came by to meet foreigners. I tried to have an early night before the long bus ride 'home,' but was kept up by the likes of Micheal Jackson, whatever hip hop/R&B is popular at home, and whoever it is that sings that "Beautiful girls" song.

The bus ride to Tanga the next morning was brutal. I thought I had to be there at 7:30 so I ended up being early and was harrassed by every tout and flycatcher within a mile radius of my bus. I got scammed into paying an extra fee for my luggage and some random guy came and asked me for my phone number after simply asking how I was. The bus broke down halfway to Tanga, spraying gasoline all over the inside of the bus, and yet the driver kept going while someone held parts together until we reached the small town of Mombo. I thought for sure the bus was going to blow up before we reached the town, seeing as we were travelling (once again) at a ridiculously fast speed. All the while, some guy was trying to chat me up in crappy, mumbled English. I finally had to pull out the "Niache" phrase Midoli taught me before I left and switched seats. I made it to Tanga only to be harassed by every tout at our bus station before finding my trusted local Taxi driver Isa, and getting home safe and sound. I have one day to recuperate before going back to the school and kids tomorrow :)