Wow. The last few days have been incredible!! Thanks to Douglas for what he had planned for us.
Sorry it took so long for a blog entry...it's not for lack of trying. We have been to some extremely rural/poor areas the last few days. We've also had some mishaps which has stolen away some of the spare time we might have otherwise used to find an internet cafe. Here is a summary:
Sat 9th
Left Mombasa, Kenya and headed to Tsavo West National Park, Kenya. We ended up with a new driver because Bosco's (previous driver and company owner) brother had died. It was a bit stressful as we had some problems negotiating the payment as we had expected to pay the last 2/3 at the end but Bosco wanted it NOW (which didn't make sense to us). We agreed to pay one more third and pay the last third at the end of the 5 day rental...and it's a good thing we did that (keep reading to find out why). On the way out of town we checked out this super old Portuguese fort.
A note on riding in a vehicle in this country...it is not safe. People ignore all kinds of laws. The roads are terrible. It's frightening.
We got to the park with enough time to see a lot of wildlife. Elephants, zebras, impalas, warthogs, giraffe, gazelles, water buffalo. mongooses, ostriches. this funky little thing called a Giraffe antelope, and more!
Tembo, the young man that Douglas has 'adopted' got to see an elephant for the first time in his life (the word Tembo is Swahili for elephant)! Tembo is an amazing person with an interesting and inspiring story.
The room we stayed in was actually a big fancy tent. We had electricity and warm running water. And a mosquito net.
During the night I heard crashing around near by - it was elephants!
Sun 10th
We woke up early and had another amazing game drive. New animals seen included hyenas, baboons, and this huge owl. I can't wait to share our photos.
Lunch at the lodge then a dip in the little private pool behind our tent. While out there we saw gazelle and baboons just a few yards away. Then we headed east to try to get to Rombo, TZ. It was not far to go but the roads are terrible. And the van broke down on this road that goes right through the Tsavo East Park. So while Douglas and I did Lion Patrol the other guys looked at the car..fan belt was broke. There was no spare...well we may have had one but for some reason they suddenly couldn't get the back door of the van open (you know where all our luggage and extra food was). It got dark quickly and we needed a new plan so we ended up squeezing into a small SUV with these Columbian folks (Douglas and I practiced our Spanish) that happened by to the next town, Taveta. Tembo stayed with the van and Chipper and they ended up chaining up and towing the van behind a big Coke trunk arriving a few hours after we did. Imagine doing this on the dustiest, worse road you can imagine...and in the dark...and in a park with wild animals.
We arrived in Taveta late but were able to find rooms (~$11 each) in this dumpy guest house. First day of sleeping in our sleep sacks vs actually getting in the sheets. Our sink faucet didn't work but the shower did...sort of. We did have electricity. We were starving and while we ordered a meal from food place in guest house, it never arrived. Long story. We had Clif bars for dinner.
Mon 11th
Then van made it to town and was fixed and running by 9:30am. We then headed north to Rombo, TZ. Three hours on crappy washboard roads, yay!! It was at this point driver we discover Chipper did not have his passport to get to Tanzania (where we were headed). This was a problem that had to be solved and added more stress to our journey.
We made it to Rombo and meet Tumiena, Douglas' Masai friend. He had a little house right outside 'town'. No running water or electricity...but cute place. We stayed in his guest room...which was much like camping. Tumiena is this amazing and charismatic fellow that has a passion for his Masai culture.
We spent the whole afternoon visiting five different Masai boma. A boma is the traditional way of building huts around a livestock corral (fence or just a circle of thorny brush). To get there we drove the van on these ridiculous, washed out, rocky dirt roads and later off roaded then walked the rest of the way. These were people living in traditional Masai ways. It was surreal. The women we came to visit are ones working on a 'winter disk' beadwork project that ADEA is sponsoring. We interviewed them and took pictures. These people are living in super primitive conditions yet the are so joyful. They sang and danced (they made Dave dance too) and have us each beadwork (bracelet for Dave, earrings and necklace for me). It's hard to explain, however, we are still processing the whole experience.
Tues 12
We woke up and went outside ~6am to try and see Mount Kilimanjaro. Only the two peaks were showing this time. It's so tall! Next we visited a local school that ADEA helped to build (walked after road became impassable). The kids are so cute! But their clothing and faces reveal some real poverty. Later we walked about 1 hour to visit the parents of one of Douglas Masai friends. Road was nonexistent. On way back we stopped by a marker for the border between Kenya and Tanzania. It was in middle of some fields. We stepped across the border just for fun (we were to be headed to Tanzania via our van that night). We also stopped to try to catch a lost baby goat.
We visited one of the 'offices' for ADEA and Douglas did some business and we looked at some Masai items in their mini-museum.
We headed to Tanzania and while our driver's paperwork was in order the van was missing some papers so it could not go into TZ. Oh no!! So we had to give up on Chipper and head out on our own. But what to do? It wasn't like there was an Avis Car Rental anywhere near. So we were just about to hire an army of piki piki (mostly unemployed young men using their motorcycles as taxis) to haul our luggage and selves to the first town in TZ when Tembo was able to find a border official named Samuel to drive us as a favor for 5000 schillings. Yay!! We didn't really want to stay in that first town because there was no running water or electricity in the one-and-only guest house. So when we got to town we talked Samuel into driving the hour to Moshi (our intended destination) for 65000 schillings (about $45 US dollars). What a steal! How great that hot shower felt when we finally arrived at the Zebra Hotel in Moshi.
Weds 13th
Took 10 hour bus ride (it was supposed to take 7 hours) from Moshi to Dar es Salaam. We got two rest stops and a 20 min lunch stop. One of the rest stops was just alongside the road. Everyone just piled out and went to pee in the brush...even the ladies!!
Thanks for reading!!!
