Safari Day #2

Started out this morning around 7am, but didn't see much as I guess the animals like to sleep in. We spotted a large pack of lions this morning. They were being lazy in the dried up river bed. At this point, we were parked pretty good distance from the pack and Meredith needed to use the bathroom, so Michael told her it would be ok if she got out and went around the corner in the bushes. She got back in the vehicle, and we went around those bushes and trees and there sits a lion on the hunt. She was probably about 50 ft from where we were. We got a little closer to the large pack down in the river bed, which had about 15 or more lions including 3 cubs. It was amazing!

We drove around the park for a little while longer and then finally left heading back to Iringa. We decided to stay the night in Iringa, as we all kind of wanted to stay and chill out for a little while since we had been traveling so much as of lately. We went back to Veta, took showers and then went and had some lunch at a place called Neema's. It was good, and was actually a really cool place. All the people who worked there were disabled in some sort of way, such as our waitor was deaf. It was good to see a place like this. After we ate, we attempted to get on the internet, but that didn't work well as about 5 minutes after we logged on the internet shut down. We went across the street and went through the markets shopping for random stuff again. We bought some Masai artwork which was pretty awesome.

Then we walked over to a place where we had planned to meet Leiha and Laura (PC volunteers) for dinner. We had enchilandas, which were actually pretty good. It can't really compare to Tex-Mex from back home though! I can't wait to get me some real Mexican food!

I See Lions!

Awoke this morning to hear the news of Michael Jackson's death! It was weird that we actually had electricity and a TV at Veta in the cafe where we were eating breakfast. It was even weirder to see the news of MJ's death!


Michael, our safari guide, showed up this morning around 9am, were we departed from Jenna and Eric. We had to run a few errands, aka get money for the safari and then we were off to Ruaha National Park. We had tried recruiting some more people to go on safari with us to bring down the cost, but it ended up just being Meredith, Justin, Peter, and I, which turned out to be a perfect number. We all had plenty of room in the vehicle which was great.

Before we ever even got into the park, we saw a few giraffes standing on the sides of the road. We got to the park and paid our entry fee of $20 USD. Yes, they required that we pay in US dollars. It was funny though, because of course we only couldn't get a 20 dollar bill. So we paid in dollars, but they gave us change back in TZ shillings with a horrible exchange rate (of course!).

We went directly to the Hippo Observation point and had some fruit and chilled out for a little while. Then we were off into the park, first to arrange our dinner and accommodations (which were inside the park at the government bandas), and then onto the safari. It was pretty awesome to say the least. Giraffes, elephants, impalas, monkeys, zebra, deer, and other small stuff. Then I spotted them from my rooftop view out of the Land Rover. A small pack of lions, asleep under a small tree. Michael stopped the car, told us to be real quite, and we started off the trials. We approached them slowly until we got about 5-8ft from them. Meredith and I were sitting on the roof of the Land Rover at this point, which was a little crazy that we were so close to lions in the wild! It ended up being 2 females, and 1 male lion. The male lion was passed out as the 2 females watched us as we approached them. It was definitely an adrenaline rush seeing them for real in the wild! They were amazingly calm and carefree about us when we circled their tree. The last female we got close to was giving us a look and swishing her tail at us, so Meredith and I decided to play it safe and crawl back into the vehicle!


We ended up seeing two other female lions that afternoon. The sunset was amazing as we drove for about 30 more minutes and then headed back to eat. After this we came back and roasted a goat Michael had bought for us earlier in the day. It was pretty good, and then we headed off to bed in the government bandas. We had a government/military escort with a rifle take us to our rooms, seeing as we were sleeping out in the middle of the national park in the midst of the wild animals!

Late Night, Early Morning, and Another Long Day of Traveling...

So last night we stayed up pretty late attempting to build a bonfire outside our room. It didn't work so well, but we tried! I think I finally went to bed sometime around 2am. Wake up was at like 530am so that we could catch the 6am bus out of Matema. At this point I could barely walk thanks to the blisters that had formed on my heels from playing sand volleyball. I think this was a combination of small blisters that had formed from the 8 hour hike that pushed together due to the sand and late night shenanigans.

We finally got to the bus stand and piled on the small bus. I had of course sat down in the worst possible seat on the bus, which was right next to the door entering the bus. I had my bag in my lap, and pretty much the entire ride I had someone sitting on my shoulder, leaning in my lap, and standing in front of me. People would rest there hands on my head, grab at my bag for stability when the bus turned unexpectedly, and step on my toes as they stumbled around. At one moment, I had to lower my head into my hands, covering my face, and tell myself not to freak out on these people around me! It was definitely a moment when I had to close my eyes and go to my "happy place"!!!

After that 2 hours of torture, we got off and loaded onto a second mini bus. When it came time for me to get off, I could barely feel my feet and what little I could feel hurt like none other! I forced my way to the very back of this bus, not making the same mistake as last time. I actually got to somewhat stretch my legs out, which was very nice and very, very uncommon! About 2 hours later we arrived in yet another small town, where we ate lunch while waiting for our next bus.

Two buses later, we arrived in Iringa. We had started out at 6am and finally arrived at our final destination of Iringa at around 9pm. You gotta love the all day public transportation system of Tanzania! We walked over to Veta, my favorite guest house, took cold showers and went to eat. The food was taking forever and we were all about to fall asleep at the table. Needless to say, the bed at Veta that night was amazing!

Matema Beach

The overnight ferry was a nice, relaxing way to travel TZ, far from the norms of crammed buses and no food/bathroom breaks. Lake Nyasa was also very pretty to see, with the mountains to one side being those of Tanzania and the other of Malawi. I think this way of travel is far from the norm here in Tanzania, though.

The blisters on my feet are still not so great. I was hoping some relaxation time on the boat would help them heal up quicker, but no such luck. Oh well.

We arrived in some little port around 11am and all got in the back of this little 80s Toyota truck. It was another true Tanzanian form of travel, meaning the bed of this tiny truck had about 15 people packed in it. Peter (PC volunteer) was actually sitting on the roof of the truck! A little more than an hour into the trip we arrived in Matema. We got out of the truck and started walking to the Lutheran Center, a guest house there in Matema. The Lutheran Center was booked up - probably the first place I've been that didn't have plenty of rooms available! We went a little ways further down the path to another guest house and they had plenty of rooms available. So we got rooms at the Lake Resort, which was actually really nice and right on the beach overlooking Lake Nyasa. We rented one big room with lots of bunks in it, so it worked out well. The rest of the day we just hung out on the beach. The water was a little cold, but that didn't stop us.

Matema Beach is nice. It is extremely remote, yet still pretty built up for how far out it is. The town itself is composed of only a small number of markets and stands, probably like 5-10. The guest houses, though, are nicer than one would expect probably because of the nice beaches and lake. Today on the beach there was pretty much no one on the beach and definitely no other white people to be seen. It is kind of weird being in a touristy area, yet being the only real tourist in the area.

Overnight Ferry

We boarded the ferry this morning, which will take us from the southern part of Lake Nyasa to the northern part of the lake. We reserved first class tickets for the ferry, which means we get to stay on the top deck which means we get two man rooms and beds, which is great since the boat ride is going to be about 20 hrs! During the ride we made a few stops at different ports to let people and goods on. At one stop we asked the captain if it would be ok if we jumped in the lake from the second deck. He agreed, so we had a little fun by doing that and I'm pretty sure the Tanzanians thought we were crazy. When I boarded the ship after jumping in, the captain asked me if all Americans can swim? I asked around and found out that most Tanzanians cannot swim, which I thought was pretty interesting.

Definitely one of the best sunsets I've seen was here on our little lake cruise. Amazing.

Cliff Jumping

Was woken up today by some annoying lady singing outside my window. The house mama sang like the wicked witch of the west at the top of her lungs. I forced myself back to sleep a couple times, and then was awoken to the Tanzanian Eric Clapton. He was singing and playing his guitar out in the little courtyard area of our guest house.

We all got up and cleaned up and went to Joe's for breakfast. My feet at this point are pretty sore, and I have a blister right below my big toe on each foot. After breakfast we went to the pub and grabbed some water, then headed down to the beach. We chilled there for awhile, watching the little Tanzanian boys play in the water. They were trying their hardest to keep our attention and entertain us. Joe finally came and we loaded up into a tiny boat and started out to this huge rock that was a little ways out from the shore. The rock we were planning on jumping off was a mere 14 meters up off the water! The climb to get there was no joke either! We had to weave our way up the smaller rocks around the backside of the larger one until we got to the top. The climb was difficult mostly because my feet were so tender from the blisters of the previous days journey. I finally managed to make my way to the top and it was a lot higher than I had expected it to be! Slowly people started jumping off. Meredith got ready to go and became the first to chicken out. She would walk up to the edge and would look and say no, no I can't do it. We would yell back, yes, you can! Jenna went, then I decided to go. It was definitely a little nerve racking for me getting up to the edge, or what really was a more rounded area that was to steep to stand. I started a countdown for myself, which was all I needed to coax myself into running off the edge. It was exhilarating, what I remember at least, which sadly isn't much! It felt like the wind was knocked out of me as soon as I jumped, and then a couple seconds later I finally plunged into the cool water. It was awesome, and I would have loved to do it again, but being my feet combined with the difficult climb made it clear to me that I was not going to be doing it again! I continued to cheer Meredith on from down below as Justin steadily took pictures of her nearing the edge and backing up. Jenna went back up to try and help her. They had decided to do it together, holding hands as they leaped in. This almost turned out very badly, as Jenna ran forward holding Meredith's hand, the last minute Meredith pulled away and almost made Jenna fall. Finally Meredith worked up the nerve and jumped in, landing directly on her tailbone (which might not have been the best idea ever).

We all headed back to shore at this point, went back and ate lunch, had a few drinks at Joe's pub and evidently got called back to Joe's for dinner, which turned into the BK lounge (or the Buzz Kill Lounge). After dinner we went back to the pub for a few more drinks and had a bonfire. It was pretty fun.

Hike or Die. I Choose Death

Only 4 hours of sleep with a ridiculously long hike ahead. Yay!

We were told the hike would probably be about 8 hours. Yikes! Once the sun came up I was in a better mood, but walking through the bush in the dark was kind of like I was sleep walking. We reached the summit of the mountain pretty quickly after sunrise and it was amazing how you could see Lake Nyasa from atop the mountain. The small, rural villages in the mountainside were like something you would see in the movies. At this point, we started down the other side of the mountain, which was were the hike started sucking! Had it not been for the 35-40lbs on my back (aka my clothes, etc), the hike would have been fine, but that combined with the harsh angles we were descending plus the exposed rocks and creeks going down the mountain made for a pretty tough hike. The terrain was pretty ridiculous. I don't know what I was expecting coming into this hike, but it definitely wasn't this. By the time we got back down to the more easy terrain at the bottom of the mountain, my feet were turning into mush! We stopped at one point to eat, and about 5 hours into the hike we all ran out of water, so we gathered some water from a running stream and added some iodine tablets to hopefully purify it. I had quite a few "hot-spots" on my feet from the journey that was seemingly never ending. Another bad part was I had no watch or way to track time, so I couldn't even boost my spirits through telling myself only this much time left (not that it would have really helped since each person you asked had a different estimate on how long it was actually going to take).

We finally arrived to the small village we were staying, which was amazing because I was dead at this point as most of us were. Jenna had a local that lived in the village who was going to be showing us around. Joe, was a cool guy, who owned a bar their in the village. We got rooms at a local guest house, took showers and cleaned up. This was my first bucket shower since being in Tanzania. This wasn't a new experience for me, as I've done similar in the military. After our showers, we went to Joe's pub and hung out for awhile. We found out the ferry would not be arriving till the day after next, which I think we were all cool with because it was going to be nice to be somewhat stationary for a little while. We went to Joe's house later that afternoon, which was nice for Tanzanian standards. It was actually nicer than my apartment! He didn't have electricity though, as nowhere in this village did. It's times like these that I think of how easy it is to take for granted the little things. It is crazy for me to think that people in the world still live day to day without electricity or even clean, running water. It's hard for me to imagine living in this manner after coming from a lifestyle in which it was the norm, but to them they don't really know the difference being that without it is the norm for them. I wonder though, if they look at Americans or other tourist and they deep down inside they resent us for that. I know outwardly they are friendly and kind, but I always find myself wondering if somewhere within them they are jealous or hold animosity towards us. It's not like we had a choose in the matter, but they didn't either.

Candlelight Dinner for Nine, Please

We caught another bus today from Songea to Mbinga. It was an expected easy 2 hour ride, which turned into a painful 4 hour ride packed beyond belief! The public transport system here sucks for people of any size! At one point, every single seat on the bus (this was like an old school bus type bus, not a charter bus) was filled, people were crammed in the aisle from back to front! It was insane! I had to sit with my bag in my lap the entire trip. People standing in the aisle next to me were leaning in on me and I had absolutely no room to move. My butt and legs had started to go numb after about hour number 2, and there was nothing I could do about it because I had no room to move!

We finally arrived to Mbinga, which seemed to be a somewhat pleasant town. We ate lunch at this little place, which was actually pretty tasty. It was only rice, beans, spinach and chapati, but it really hit the spot. We then loaded in our Range Rover, which was the driver arranged for us to take by Jenna the PC volunteer we were going to visit. While we were waiting, some lady who was also riding with us in the vehicle, got her phone stolen. She grabbed the guy who she thought had reached into her pocket to steal it. They started yelling at each other and a crowd started gathering around the back of the vehicle. He refused to give it back and was refusing to admit guilt, saying that he had not taken anything from her. Finally the police came and took him away, but she never got her phone back. About an hour later, we finally left, but the lady had never gotten her phone back. Don't know what came of that.

When we finally did leave, I was in for the worst ride of my life. The vehicle was an older model Range Rover, which had the driver and passenger seat, followed by a bench seat, with the back of the vehicle having two bench seats facing each other. We were in the very back on the bench seats facing each other. There were four adults on our side, and four on there side with two children in their lap. There was absolutely no room between our legs facing the other side. My knees were touching the lady's knees that was across from me. The max amount of people in that vehicle should have probably been 10-11 people. They packed 16 adults and 3 children/babies into that vehicle! SERIOUSLY! I thought I had seen the worst of the vehicle rides, but they just keep getting worse and worse! They had 4 people sitting packed in the second row of seats, with a guy standing up in that row. The part that made my life miserable was the teenage girl who crawled up in to the back with us, where there was absolutely no room left. She looked around a little bit as we looked at each other wondering where she thought she was going. All the sudden, she spun around in between my legs where I thought she was about to try to sit down in my lap. She did a 360 and sat down right in between my legs. I sat for about 2-3 hours on a hard bench sit with both of my legs folded back up under me! On one leg, my calf was touching the back of my thigh! My toes were the only part of my foot touching the floor and the angle to which they touched the floor was one that would have been like I was wearing a 10 inch high heel! The painful part (as if it doesn't already sound bad!) was my right knee was digging into the back gate of the Rover. It felt like I was getting a blood clot in my leg because my blood had nowhere to flow from the horrible angle created. To make it worse, one lady got sick and threw up out the window. The ride was horrible. It was down the worst dirt road ever, it was dusty and hot. Hands down, this was the worst few hours of my life.

We finally reach Jenna's site, thank god! Peter was there waiting for us, and was actually the only one there as the others had gone to climb some rock. It was good getting some one-on-one time with Peter though. It was a slow introduction to the Peace Corp world.

Probably about 2-3 hours later the rest of the crew came back - Jenna, Leigha, Jill, Eric, and Andy. They were a fun crew, but just as Justin and I had joked earlier, they were a lot like TAMU Fish Camp. Being from the outside you don't understand, and that it is somewhat hard to break into the group at first. They weren't that bad though, nowhere near as bad as Fish Camp! We cooked a pretty awesome dinner, with each person contributing something which was fun. I helped on the guacamole. We then ate dinner by candlelight. I think this experience was awesome. It was really fun, unique experience. It was really a testament to the things Peace Corp volunteers go through, and how they make the best of it. At this site, we had no electricity and no running water. Yet we all got together and created the simplest, yet greatest eating experience I have probably had. We sat in the dark, candles lighting the small living room, and ate our meal in the middle of Tanzania. We sat around not watching TV, or enjoying other amenities we are all so used to. We had music playing from a battery powered speaker system and enjoyed each others company. We played a game based on asking one person questions about a story, we talked and shared stories till almost 1am. This probably wasn't the wisest decision, being that we were going to be waking up at 5am to start our hike! Oh well!

The candlelight dinner was by far my favorite dinner and experience thus far. Not because of the meal, but mostly because of the atmosphere. About half way through the meal, it clicked that we were in rural Africa, with a house full of white people sharing in an experience that only a small percentage of people will ever say that they have done. Absolutely perfect!

Chapati and Masai Mamas

Woke up this morning and went and looked around Iringa. I actually really liked this town. People seemed a lot nicer here, and I think it helped that Mere really knew her way around this town.

We first went to this little place to eat that Mere called Chapati Mamas, which was basically some really tiny little place where a Mama (older lady) made Chapati for the workers there in the area of the market. It was good, simple, but good.

After this we went and bought some souvenir type stuff in a small little market. We got to see Mere's friend, Masai Mama, who owns a little jewelry stand in the market. She makes her own jewelry and sells it in her shop. She gave Justin and I bracelets which were beaded bracelets that had the Tanzanian flag and the red ribbon HIV symbol.

Mere and Justin bought new phones and then we ate lunch. Shortly after, we left for the bus station to go to Songea. We took a taxi to the bus stop, which was down the hill from the actual town. We were supposed to load our bus at 1pm, but the bus didn't actually arrive until around 2pm. I don't think that being on time here is a big issue. At the bus stand, I got to enjoy the method of selling goods at the bus stand. The vendors put there stuff for sell in bins or on sticks and as the bus pulls up to the stand, they run up to the side and show their items to the people inside the bus. When people find what they want, they open the window and bargain for a price. If agreed, then they hand their money through the window and take their item. It gets fun when the bus starts to pull away and someone hasn't paid for an item that they have already pulled up inside the bus. The vendor then takes off running alongside the bus yelling, while the person usually scrambles to get them their money.

The bus ride to Songea was crazy! It was nice scenery, but we were sitting in the very back row, so it was extremely bumpy seeing as the bus didn't have good suspension. They played the worst music videos ever. The music wasn't too horrible, but the video was ridiculous! I couldn't watch it because it was so bad! To make up for it though, they played a cheesy American action movie afterwards called Bloodsport. We thought it was going to be some lame 80s action movie that the Tanzanians so dearly love. It in fact was just that, and yet somehow I was just as obsessed with it as the other 50 plus people packed on the bus. The other fun part of the bus ride was how crazy the driver was driving. We were flying through these mountain roads and the fact that it was so bumpy also made it fun. At one point, I almost hit the ceiling when I bounced out of my seat. Me and these two little Tanzanian kids seating next to me were loving it! Every huge hole we hit that made us bounce out of our seats made them laugh and scream which of course made me laugh a little. It started getting a little scary after the sun went down and we couldn't see where we were going anymore. It was like a crazy in the dark roller coaster, except that this one had the high potential to crash and burn whereas most roller coasters don't!

We finally arrived in Songea at like 930pm. We were all drained, had not eaten dinner and unsure of where we would be staying. Jenna, the Peace Corp volunteer we were traveling to see had recommended a place to stay, which was supposed to be down the street from the bus stand. So we started walking down the street in the dark in a town which no one was familiar with, which needless to say was a little uncool in my book! We walked a ways, and found nothing that resembled a guest house. It got a little darker and creepier, so we decided to turn around and go back to the bus stop and get a taxi to take us somewhere in Justin's Lonely Planet book. The taxi driver knew the place we picked in the book, so we jumped in and left. We drove down this road a ways, and then turned off on this really shady looking dirt road. We evidently pulled up to this barn looking place that had no sign. We had told the driver to take us to the Anglican Church hostel, but it definitely didn't look like a hostel to me. The driver turned the engine off and as he did another car pulled up behind us. Of course the worst mental imagines started racing through my mind. I just knew that the taxi driver had taken us down this dark road, with his little buddy following us in his car, in order to steal all of our stuff. The vehicle pulled directly behind us and shined their lights directly into our car. After what seemed like forever, options of what I was going to do or not do in the event something was about to happen, the truck pulled up around us and parked to the side of us. Out of the car came a group of NUNS! Yes, I said NUNS! We were at a church, but seriously! Who would have thought that that would have happened.

So we finally got a room at this place, which was a little creepy, but at the same time it was better than nothing! This was the first time that I really got anxious and worried about our safety and it turned out (after-the-fact) that I was over reacting in the most ironic situation ever!

Iringa Town!

We woke up today and repacked some of our stuff. We had arranged with Carl and Amy to leave some of our stuff with them so that we wouldn't have to hike on our journeys to come. We left around 930 that morning to go to the bus station, where we would catch a bus to Iringa. We were right on time to the bus station.

The bus ride was an all day affair and was my first introduction to keeping your valuables in check. We stopped for a snack/bathroom break in this small town called Morogoro. At this point, Meredith got her wonderful, expensive internet phone stolen directly out of her lap! When we stopped, I got up and started off the bus and she followed. We got to the front of the bus and she realized she didn't have her phone on her. She went back to her seat to look for it. I bought a drink and got back on the bus to see her crawling around on her hands and feet at the back looking for her phone. It was nowhere to be found. She was freaking out and trying to talk to people around our seats, but was having trouble thinking clearly. We got someone to call her number, but at this point the phone had been turned off which made it clear that the phone had been stolen. She had the phone sitting in her lap as she was talking to Justin, and never felt or saw anyone swipe the phone. The worst part of all of this was that she had all her numbers and contacts in the phone but nowhere else, so we had no way of contacting anyone! We had plenty of time left on the bus though to settle down and think about what we could do to get all the numbers back.

On our way to Iringa, we went through a National Park, which was fun because it was almost like we were on a safari just by being on the public busing system. We saw elephants, giraffes, zebras, antelopes, buffalo, and baboons.

We finally arrived in Iringa right as it was getting dark, which was probably around 830pm. Yes, it was truly an all day affair! We went straight to the place we were staying called Veta, checked in, dropped our bags off, got a taxi, and went to eat. We went to Meredith's favorite restaurant. We were the only people in the restaurant. After about 30 minutes, another mzunga (or white guy) walked in. He initially sat down at a table by himself, and then after about 15 minutes he came over to our table and asked if he could sit down with us. Tom, from Great Britain was a pretty nice guy, who was traveling the area alone. He told us about Rwanza, where he went gorilla trekking. It sounded pretty amazing. Maybe someday.

Back to the Mainland

So we left Swahili Divers this morning to catch our plane in Chake. Laura, the assistant manager took us to the place to catch the daladala into Konde. She waited with us (as Raf had told her to do) to make sure that it came. It was supposed to show up around 730am. We waited till about 740am, when the guy told us that the daladala had problems with the battery and would be late, therefore Laura took us into Konde for free – don’t think she was too happy about this and she had to do it for free because we told her that we didn’t have any money to pay her! She thought we didn’t have any money left and we let her continue to think that!

We took the daladala from Konde into Chake, hit up the bank for some cash and took a taxi to the airport. We paid for our plane tickets, went through security – Globie was accused of being a bomber – and shortly after security we boarded the second smallest plane I’ve ever been on. The first smallest plane I had ever been on was the one I went skydiving out of which only held about 3 people. This plane I swear could have only held about 20 people. The flight to Zanzibar was only about 30 minutes, where we thought we would be leaving for Dar soon after, but it turns out our flight into Dar was delayed some, so we had a couple hours to kill. We went and ate at a restaurant across the street and then bought Obama kangas in the gift shop at the airport. We then boarded our second plane, which was even smaller than the first plane we got on from Pemba to Zanzibar! I think it had about 10-12 people aboard. There was no partition between the pilot and the passengers! We were the first people to board the plane, and Justin sat behind the co-pilot seat which he thought would be occupied. The pilot soon boarded and then the last person boarded the plane who ended up having to sit in the co-pilot seat! Justin had been joking that he was going to ask the pilot if he could sit in the co-pilot seat, but it ended up that it was a ticketed seat!

We arrived in Dar about 30 minutes later. This mode of transportation was so much better than the previous mode of ferries with people throwing up everywhere. Mere called this man named Carl, with the US Embassy, and asked if we could stay the night with them. Luckily he said yes, even though he was already allowing others to stay there. What’s three more right?
We arranged for a taxi at the airport, and asked him to swing by a duka la dawa (or pharmacy) because at this point my ear was getting pretty bad. I walked up to the counter and asked for an antibiotic for my ear. She went and dug around through the medicine cabinet in the back and brought me some amoxicillin combo drug, no questions or no prescriptions needed! We then made our way to Carl and Amy’s house, which was located in “the Bubble.” Basically, the rich government housing projects. There house was pretty amazing and the best thing was it was provided free of charge by the government! I for real need to get a job with the US Embassy!

We played with their kids for the afternoon till their guest started arriving for the small get together they were hosting. They fed us some good food, free beer and wine, and had some good conversation. What’s not to love about this situation? Their hospitality was amazing and I thought it was really awesome how they were so welcoming with people into their home. Carl was extremely knowledgeable, and we talked about the effect Obama has had here in Tanzania, and really around the world. They also talked about how really well liked Bush was in Tanzania. Evidently Bush’s’ relationship with the leader of Tanzania was a true friendship and Bush did a lot of good stuff for Africa in general which I actually don’t think that I knew anything about.

Rough Seas Ahead!

This morning we woke up early at 6am (yes, I know that isn't early, but is it when you are on vacation!!!) to get to the ferry station by 630. The ferry was supposed to leave at 7am and arrive in Pemba at 1045am. We arrived in Zanzibar at around 9am to let people off at Stonetown, which from the boat looked pretty cool. We then left heading towards Pemba.

The first half of the boat ride to Zanzibar was fine, not too crowded and there was decent air circulation. The half from Zanzibar to Pemba on the other hand was horrible!

The second half of the trip was packed, with lots of women and babies. The increased amount of people made it pretty hot and muggy in the cabin as well. After about 30 minutes of leaving Zanzibar, the crew started walking around the cabin handing out barf bags. Justin, Meredith, and myself just kind of looked at each other like ok. The ocean wasn't even rough at this point, and it didn't look like a storm or anything was coming. Then it hit, and within minutes it became extremely stuffy and hot on board. People started getting anxious and nervous, and the boat started rocking a little bit but not much! It was definitely rougher waters than the first half, but it wasn't anything bad! Then it was just like a cascade. One person threw up, followed by half the cabin, which equates to about 20-30 people at least!!! Justin, Mere, and I were all fine, looking at each other like what is going on. Ladies were crying, babies were screaming, sounds of gagging echoed throughout the cabin. Some people were running out the back, others were laying down on the floor like that was supposed to help! After about 2 hours of this, I myself started getting weird feelings in my stomach as well, but as bad as this seems, I think it was just because I was hungry.

We FINALLY arrived at Pemba sometime after 12 - only a little more than an hour late! When we arrived Mike (another PC volunteer) and his friend were there at the ferry station to meet us and get us heading in the right direction. Mike got us hooked up with a ride on a daladala which would take us to the town of Chaka, where we would change buses and go to the village of Konde. The first daladala ride was great. I got to sit up front in an actual seat. It was so nice I started dozing off a few times. The second daladala ride on the other hand was my first true experience in a Tanzanian daladala. We were packed in the back of this dump truck looking vehicle that just kept steadily pulling over and letting more people on! At one point I had a young boy sitting at my feet with a chicken in his hands! The locals were very interested in us, and thought it was funny at how awkward we were acting as we were crammed in the back of this daladala. What was a normal day routine for them was a wild and crazy ride for Justin and myself. Plus, I didn't fit that well in the vehicle, which made me look even more awkward. They people also thought it was kind of funny that Meredith, the girl in the group of white people, could speak Swahila and Justin and myself couldn't. The ride was no doubt pretty painful for me, as my legs started falling asleep and I could do nothing about it since I had no where to move! By the end of the 1.5 hr ride I was no doubt ready to get out of that vehicle!

We arrived at Konde around 3-4pm and waited for our the vehicle from the dive resort to come pick us up. We drove through this remote jungle for about another 45 minutes or so to arrive at Swahila Divers Resort. We finally arrived at the resort, checked in, arranged our diving for the next day, and then chilled out.

Everyone ate dinner together (all guest, dive masters, and resort owners) at the same time, which was kind of nice. It was a really nice dinner and seemed like a very family orientated atmosphere with the dinner being held the way it was. The resort itself is pretty cool, and very much different than any other dive resort I've ever been to. It is out in the middle of nowhere, which is nice because you can really enjoy the peace and solitude of it all.

KARIBU TANZANIA!

Welcome to Tanzania! We arrived in Dar es Salaam airport a little after 5am. We went through customs, buying our visa, got our bags, and walked out the exit doors to meet Meredith who was smiling from ear to ear! It was great seeing her there and we had our hugs and hellos and then followed her to the taxi which took us to our hostel, the YMCA.

Side note - Meredith is a Peace Corp volunteer that teaches Biology at a secondary school in a small village an hour or so outside of Mafinga, Tanzania. We meet our freshmen year of college at Texas A&M University through an organization that myself, Justin, and her were all a part of.

We meet Mere's PC friend Eddie, then left to go walking around downtown Dar. It was probably one of the first cities that I really felt out of place. I think people were just more curious about us than what I had expected and so their stares and looks made me some what uncomfortable. A lot of people actually would greet us in Swahila and then would be shocked when Meredith could respond back in Swahila. Then there were others who would say Hello in English, which was probably one of the few English words they knew. We went to the bank and got money and bought our ferry tickets so we could leave for Pemba the next day. Pemba is a small island north of Zanzibar island. We had decided to go to Pemba instead of Zanzibar because there was a diving resort there that gave good discounts to Peace Corp Volunteers, which was great because Meredith was going to take the Open Water Scuba course, which can be expensive. After buying our tickets, we took a nap for a little while and then ate lunch at some Indian food restaurant which was really good.

We decided to go to the movies (as most everything was closed on Sundays, and Meredith hadn't seen a movie in theater in 9 months), which turned out to be an experience. We intended to take a taxi, but a local street vendor offered to escort us to the movie theater. He would show us the route by daladala for a negotiated price. This was substantially cheaper than by taking a taxi, so we decided to go ahead and do that. This was my first daladala experience. A daladala is one of their forms of public transportation and is a minivan/bus. They cram as many people into the daladala as possible, usually some people sitting in each others laps and people standing in the aisles so that the driver and conductor (the guy who takes money from everyone in the back) can make as much money as possible. The first daladala I got on wasn't to terrible. I actually had a seat and everything! We had to change to a second one though midway through the ride, which wasn't as good. It was actually a smaller van and I was sitting in the worst possible seat, right at the very front were people continue to pile into the vehicle. Luckily, we didn't stay on this daladala for to long till we arrived at the movie theater. We saw Monsters vs. Aliens.

After the movie, we caught a "Bajajis" or motorcycle taxi back into town to the YMCA. Motorcycle taxis are probably one of my favorite modes of travel! We got back to the Y, ate dinner at a Subway (not as good as US Subways, but Mere was super excited about it!), and then went to bed as we had an early morning of traveling the next day.

Covered in Salt

It is our last day in Jordan, so we are going to go to the Dead Sea today and then we will be flying out of Amman tonight heading to TANZANIA!

We walked out to the roundabout near our hostel and flagged down a taxi. We haggled with him till he finally gave us the price we wanted to go to the Dead Sea. About 30-45 minutes later, after descending down into the valley, we arrived at the lowest point on Earth. The taxi driver dropped us out at the locals beach area, which looked deserted, but oh well. There was a small group of locals swimming nearby, but other than that we were the only ones within sight! We got down to the water and it looked thick and oily looking. You could see the mineral deposits on shore. We had seen pictures of people floating in the Dead Sea reading newspapers and we, of course, had our doubts about it till we got in! I don't think anyone could drown in the Dead Sea! It was hard to keep your feet from popping up to the surface! The water was extremely salty and of course, knowing my luck, I got some in my eyes. Luckily I had some bottled water to rinse it out with.

I learned a few things that day about what not to do when visiting the Dead Sea.

1. DO NOT, and I repeat, DO NOT! shave the night before going swimming! Oh My God, my face was burning like it was on fire!

2. Try not to go if your skin is sun burnt or peeling from being sun burnt! I guess the sensitivity of the new skin/old skin makes it itch/burn. Not fun.

3. Take extra bottled water or go to the tourist location to rinse off after getting out. We had a layer of salt covering our bodies after we got out and headed back up to the road. It was not only disgusting looking, it burned as well from the hot, desert Jordanian sun beating down on you!

So basically I was itching/burning the entire time while I was swimming in the Dead Sea. I tried not to let it affect me, but it wasn't the most pleasant experience ever. The floating part was insanely cool, but the burning part made it hard for me to enjoy the experience. We did lather up in the Dead Sea mud, having a nice mineral enriched mud bath. The mud was so soft and slick, it was almost like butter when you rubbed it on.

So after about 1.5-2 hrs of chilling in the water, we got out and started on the adventure to get back into Madaba. We didn't have a ride back into town, since our taxi didn't wait on us, but we figured there had to be taxis running around out there and we would just flag one down to give us a lift back into town. Here comes my bad luck again, as there were no taxis in sight! We started walking down the main road, thinking one would drive by and see us and pull over. Nope, nothing. Finally a van pulled over and asked us if we wanted a ride back into town. We negotiated a price (since nothing is free in these countries) and hopped in. I wasn't to thrilled about hitch hiking back into town, but then again I didn't want to walk back into town, which I don't even think would be possible! We started up the mountain, and we reached the apex on the mountain, which was Mt. Nebo, and our van broke down (Maybe this was God's way of trying to speak to me or something). Some random dude pulled over to try and help out the driver, but after about 20 minutes they figured out they wouldn't be able to fix it for awhile, so the guy we were riding with arranged for us to ride the rest of the way into town with the guy who pulled over the help. Wow, we were covered in salt, having to hitch hike twice to get back into town.

We finally got back into town, and the dude dropped us off on some street, luckily we recognized the street. We went back to our hostel and immediately took showers. We went down the street to eat lunch at this falafel place, which was probably the best falafel I have ever had and the best part was that you could get two for half a Jordanian Dinar! (That's like 75 cents for a full meal that was amazing! - I'm a sucker for falafels though).

We went back to the hostel and packed our bags and went out to catch a taxi to the airport. We saw a taxi stand, which was lined a few taxis just waiting, which ended up in a major fiasco! As we walked up, a guy ran up to us and asked us where we were going, etc. We bargained with him and finally arranged for the price of 8 JD to go to the airport. As we finalized the deal and group of about 3 Jordanians came across the street yelling at us and the driver we were talking to. They said we could not go with him, and that we must go with this other guy for 10 JD. We laughed and said no, that we would go with the guy who arranged for 8, which started a shouting match between our initial driver and the other guys. The guys were yelling and pushing at each other right in the middle of the street as Justin and I just kind of stood there to the side watching this all unfold. Then the original guy we dealt with decided he wouldn't drive us anymore, but the other guys wouldn't give into the price we knew we could get. We finally told them we would go elsewhere, so they gave in and agreed to 8 JD. The fight wasn't over though. We started loading our bags into the trunk of the car and more people came out of the taxi office, crossed the street, and got in on the yelling and pushing. Some crazy (literally one guy told us he was crazy) wandered up and started whispering in Justin's ear. At this point there were about 10 guys surrounding us, all yelling at each other. This is when a cop walked up and got in the mix. Our second arranged driver rushed towards some guy like he was about to fight and some other guy had to hold him back, pushing him towards the car. They opened the door and told us to get in the car, so we did. The continued to yell outside on the sidewalk even while the cop was there. Finally, the driver got in the car (in a rush like he thought someone was going to tell him he couldn't leave), and we sped off leaving the still fighting crowd on the side of the road. Justin and I were both just kind of in shock over the riot we had caused, especially since it was over 2 JD! I was wondering if the driver was actually going to take us to the airport or if he was just going to drive out to the middle of nowhere and drop us off! He wouldn't say a word to us. His phone rang after a couple of minutes, and you could tell he was talking to someone who must have been there and witnessed the fight. Finally, after the got off the phone (about 5 mins later), the guy cooled down and apologized, saying something about the fact that he was next in line to get customers and that other guy tried to jump in front of him and basically he had no choice but to take us for 8 JD after the other guy negotiated that price.

We finally rolled up at the airport, which proved to be a pretty easy airport to get through. We boarded the plane for Cairo, which is where I meet a lady named Shirley Iverson. For some reason Justin and I got split up on the plane, so he sat in front of me next to another older lady in the same travel group as the one I was sitting next to. Shirley was in her late 60s (I think), and was from the San Francisco area. We talked the entire plane ride, actually we both almost didn't get to finish our meal because we had been eating so slow since we were talking. She was an awesome lady, who shared with me her life of travels. We talked about family and friends. She asked me where I got the passion to travel from, which was probably my family and the military. A quote from her that I really liked was, "There are two things you can give your children, roots and wings." We talked about places one another had been, and she recommended her top places, which included Nepal and the Great Wall (which are definitely on my To Do List now!) She was pretty impressed by the amount of traveling I had done thus far. We talked the entire hour and a half that we were in the air and as we exited the plane, we shook hands exclaiming how nice it was to meet one another. She wished me luck on my future endeavors as did I to her, and we parted ways. Justin had a similar situation with another lady from the same travel group one row ahead of us. It was funny because we both got off the plane super excited to tell one another about the “cool old lady” we sat next to on the plane.

We got to the terminal in Cairo to transfer, which was a huge cluster! It was just mass chaos, everyone was running around like chickens with their heads cut off, which in turn stressed me out. Some lady that was waiting with us for the inter-terminal transfer bus was freaking out because she had missed her flight to Tel Aviv, and no one seemed to know what was going to happen with that. Finally, we caught to bus to our correct terminal to catch our flight. The flight was empty, with enough room for people to lay down in an entire row of seats. I don't know how that flight was making that company money, seeing as it was like a 747 size plane - probably sitting around 80-100 people with only maybe 15-20 passengers aboard. It was nice though, because I got to stretch out and get comfortable as did Globie!

On the Road Again,

We hit the road again today, arranging for a taxi to take us north to Madaba, the closest city to the Dead Sea. After about 2.5hrs, we arrived at the Black Iris Hotel in Madaba. We arranged to stay in a dorm room there, which was actually a tent that had been pitched on the roof of the hostel! It was actually really pretty decent, and airy. The rooms were separated off by Egyptian cotton fabric, and the mattress lay on the floor. We walked around the city some, went to a beautiful church decorated with tile mosiacs, which is what the city is famous for. We looked around for awhile in the city and now we are just chilling on the roof! Sitting on the chairs that look out over the city, it was quite peaceful (besides the occasional cars that drove by blowingtheir horns! - more on this later). Kits were flying all over the city as the sun began to set.

Back to the cars honking, we found out later that it is a wedding celebration. The cars drive through the streets after the wedding is over and announce it to the city that they are married now. One such procession was actually pretty comical. The leader car, which usually had the bride and groom, was decorated in pink ribbons and bows, and then a few cars behind, a group of guys (looking like maybe the groomsmen or something) were all in a van. They had the horn blowing loudly, as well as the music. One guy was literally sitting on the window of the car door hanging out of the car as it drove down the street. He was beating on the car, and giving high fives to pedestrians as they drove down the street. I want my wedding to be like that! :)

Petra - Day #2

Our second day at Petra included the hike to the Monastery, which was all the way in the very far backside of Petra. It was worth the hike, though, as the Monastery was yet another extremely impressive building built into the side of the canyon walls. There were also 3 view points there that look off into the canyons (parts that were not part of the city). The views were spectacular!

First Day at Petra

Today was our first day at Petra, which we bought the 2 day pass so that we wouldn't have to rush to much. We walked through the canyon and finally stumbled upon the Treasury, which was just incredible! The rock is just spectacular with colors of red and pink. After looking around the Treasury for awhile, we climbed up to the Sacrificial High Place. It was on top of the hills, and gave some great views of the site. We sat and relaxed at the top for awhile just taking in the views, looking out over the edge into the canyon down below. We then descended back off down into the canyon seeing the Tomb of the Roman Soldier and other various tombs and caves.

We evidently stopped at a shop and bought some water, which was when we noticed that quite a few of the Jordanian shop owners, especially the younger ones (like early 20s age) looked like Johnny Deep off Pirates of the Caribbean. I wish I had a picture of one, which would explain it all, but they have their hair grown out about to shoulder length or so, and then wear a bandanna or something in their hair, and it looks like most of them are wearing eye liner. It was pretty funny sight to see.

We left Petra and went back to the hostel to eat dinner and then left to go back to Petra by Night, which was an pretty awesome experience. We walked through the canyons after dark by the light of candles and the stars. Once we got to the Treasury, they served us chai and we sat and listened to two traditional types of Jordanian music, which echoed throughout the canyons.

Crossing into Jordan

Today we left Dahab for Jordan. We arranged for a taxi to pick us up at our hostel, which would then take us to the bus station so we could catch a bus to Nuweiba to catch the ferry. We arrived at the bus station, to be offered a ride on a minibus (not part of the bus station, but just some dude trying to find more people to take somewhere north to make it more worth his wild to actually go). He offered the same price as the big bus, and he was leaving right then, so we decided to go with him.

We arrived in Nuweiba, where our driver dropped us out at the ferry station. We bought out tickets, went through a little customs area and waited. I made friends with a little Arab boy (1-2yrs old). He didn't quite understand why we couldn't understand him, but he enjoyed playing with my backpack. His mom would come to get him, and he would latch on to me like I was supposed to protect him. He was pretty funny.

Surprise, surprise, our old Japanese friend (BL) from the felucca ride showed up at the ferry station. The funny part was that Justin and I saw her in Dahab, and we laughed and said wouldn't it be funny if she was on the boat crossing into Jordan with us. Low and behold, there she was! In addition to her, three people that were in our group on the Mt. Sinai climb also showed up at the ferry station. It kind of seems like in Egypt a lot of people do the same routine. They fly into Cairo, check out the stuff there, go down to Aswan and slowly make your way back up through the temples, then get over into the Sinai, hang out there for awhile, and then cross into Jordan to do whatever there.

The Jordan immigration point in Aqaba was a pleasant experience...NOT! We didn't get our passports back for awhile, and when we did we came out to the really fun part. We had to walk down this hall to go out of the building. Taxi drivers and bus drivers were just lining the hallway. Actually the tourist cop yelled at them and made them back up out into the parking lot. Then comes the haggling over prices. We had decided to join up in a group with the people we knew so that the prices would be cheaper. I don't know if this was a good idea or not though, because we had like 20 people, and the Asians were persistent on paying the lowest possible price ever, which they had their handy dandy Lonely Planet guidebook as a reference. They fought back and forth for about 10 minutes till they finally got the price they wanted. Then the entire car ride (about 1.5 hours from Aqaba to Petra) the taxi driver gripped and complained about how cheap they were being. I thought for sure he was going to kill us! Not really, but he was pretty annoyed by us.

The Climb Sucked, but the Sunrise was Divine!

We returned from Sharm back to Dahab, just to leave an hour later. We left to climb Mt. Sinai in the dark ( actually the climb lasted from about 1 am to about 430am - and this is coming directly from our dives on May 31st to climbing this mountain the wee morning hours of June 1st). We heard it wasn't a hard climb. I somewhat beg to differ. For one thing we had to fight the narrow pathway up the mountain with men asking if we wants to ride camels, and the camels themselves!!! Agh, blasted camels were everywhere. The last 200m were steps straight up to the top! I was dieing!!!! I was actually delirious from the lack of sleep. A couple of times on the steps part, I had to stop and hold on to the upward side of the mountain to keep from falling on the downward side of the steps. We got to the top and I bought (what was probably the best money I ever spent) a snickers bar for Justin and myself. Once we got to the very top we wrapped up in our blankets and about 30 min later the sun rose over the mountain landscape. It was truly a Divine experience. Nuns were singing hymns in different languages and priest were chanting prayers in different languages. The pain staking climb was worth ever bit of sweat. At the summit of Mt. Sinai is a small church and just after sunrise they rung the bell. It was great. After about an hour we came back down the mountain. Much easier going down! And there was not nearly the same camel traffic.

After this we went into St. Catherines Monastery, were the burning bush is believed to be. The monastery was amazing. The church was so dramatic inside, and the bush outside was a place of near trouble. That being I saw this man plucking leaves off the bush, so I figured I would too. Well I did, and a police tapped me on the shoulder and said no, no. But that was all, so no big deal and now I have a leaf from the burning bush.

One other experience. I had to call in an Egyptian doctor today. My ear got worse after the last three dives yesterday plus the changes in elevation going up the mountain. By the time we got back from Mt. Sinai to the hostel, my ear was not doing well at all. I didn't want to chance it, so once we got back to the hostel I asked the guy at the front desk if he knew a good doctor in town. I was pretty nervous about having to go to a doctor in a foreign country, but at the same time my ear was starting to get really bad. The only thing that comforted me was the fact that I already knew it was an ear infection (since they are somewhat common with me, and plus my medical background), so I knew exactly what I needed to get better. The hostel called me a doctor, and within 20 min he was there giving me a shot and some medicine. He confirmed that I had an ear infection, and gave me some other oral antibiotics as well. Actually towards the end of the day, I was already feeling better, so I hoping I will be good in a few days!