Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Lions, Elephants and Zebras...OH MY!

Saying goodbye to our students on Friday was very emotional. We loved the teachers we worked with and they were so appreciative of our time. But even worse was saying goodbye to our classes. We couldn't believe how sad Class 2 was, since they gave us the most trouble! We felt very heavy-hearted when we said goodbye. We hope to do some some fund raising when we return home because it is heartbreaking to see a school without any books.

Saying goodbye to the family that took care of us for two weeks wasn't easy either, especially because there were so many family members and friends that kindly took us in. But, we were off to our next adventure.

We spent the night in Arusha and Gustaph was kind enough to take us for a pizza dinner! Thank goodness pizza is universal. We left the next morning for our 3 day safari. Our first stop was Manyara National Park, which was the most beautiful since it was the most green. Of course, we took a million pictures of the free roaming monkeys and baboons on the side of the road since they were the first animals we saw. It was there we got our best pictures of elephants and giraffes. We spent the night at a very nice campsite. Definitely designed for tourists...toilets, a pool and a restaurant!

We were off to Ngorongoro Crater the next day with our fingers crossed that we would see lions, despite Gustaph's hesitance to guarantee a sighting. After a two hour drive into the park, we reached the bottom of the crater (Melissa was freaking out a little about the sharp, steep, curvy, bumpy road down) and immediately saw two cheetah! They are usually so hard to see since they typically hide or run so fast! But we caught the two of them sleeping 100 yards from the road! We were happy enough even if we didn't see lions, but throughout the day we ended up seeing 10! Gustaph couldn't believe it. One was hunting (although we didn't wait what would have been hours for the kill) and the rest were lazy and sleeping. One was a yard from our jeep cleaning himself and not disturbed by us one bit. We even saw a hippo out of the water! Unbelievable.

Later that day we visited a Maasi Village. We entered the village to their "Welcoming Dance" and we even joined in the jumping up and down. It was a little disturbing to go inside one of their cow-dung built huts and hear a rat crawling through their bed! Thank goodness we didn't see it or there would have been screaming! Our guide was not the least bit worried though.

Another pasta dinner at the campground. And then off to Tarangire National Park the next day. Not so many animals out that day, but we were pretty satisfied from the two previous days. We did see more groups of elephants. And believe it or not....we followed other cars to a site with a leopard sleeping in a tree in the distance! Unheard of! We were so lucky to have seen 4 of the big 5. Rhinos are going extinct and so it is unlikely to find one.

A 3 day safari was perfect (especially since Tara wasn't feeling so well the last day, typical travel sickness...oh my). We were back in Arusha and met our fellow volunteer, Lisa, for another pizza dinner. It is crazy how crowded and busy the city streets of Arusha are. We had some trouble figuring out the best way to cross the streets with no street lights and CRAZY drivers everywhere.

Finally, we made it to our resort hotel in Zanzibar. We are ready for some sun and warmth. The Zanzibari Hotel is beautiful! Tomorrow we are off on our snorkeling excursion! Spice tour and swimming with the dolphins later this week!

We can't believe we leave on Sunday. Our time went by so quickly. We have discovered that most travelers we run into have toured for over 2 months......we aren't built for that! We are looking forward to buffalo chicken nachos ASAP! Who wants to meet us at the Fours? See you all soon!

2 comments:

  1. As your trip starts to wind down and people will ask about your trip, what's the one image that will come to mind first?

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  2. Any chance you can recall what company you used for your safari and what price you paid? I'm taking the family and I'm scouring the internet for the best deal.

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