Safari, Lodge Style

20 December, Monday; Lake Manyara, Tanzania. It was not difficult to leave Zanzibar this morning, for we had already fallen in love with Pemba, not Zanzibar. Plus, we were looking forward to our safari on mainland Tanzania. Ben played dumb with the check in agent and got us out of having to pay for extra weight. Our bags aren’t huge, but we’re bogged down with some extra stuff for camping that adds up in weight. We boarded another small plane for the one hour journey to Arusha, another small airport, though still doesn’t beat the miniscule Chake Chake Airport in Pemba.


A small space	Goodbye, Zanzibar

We’re collected by our driver/guide, Moses, and a contact from the tour operator who reviews our itinerary with us. We’re also informed that our flight from Kilimanjaro to Nairobi (on our way home) was cancelled, at our request. Um, no, I would not like to stay in Kilimanjaro airport on Christmas Eve, thank you very much. We’re certain that he’s talking about the flights that we asked them to remove from our itinerary, since we were going to book them ourselves and not pay the credit card fee. Luckily, my travel agent is a phone call away. Dial: Mom. I left her a voicemail with the details and got a text back before going to bed that all was sorted. It seems that our tour operator for some stupid reason decided to cancel the flight that we booked ourselves and had already used one leg. Big thanks to Mom and we’ll certainly be sorting this out with the tour company, as I’d like to be able to leave a good review on Trip Advisor, but I can’t if they did something so awful as to cancel a flight without us asking them to do so or without them reconfirming the plan. The Tanzanian countryside is such a stark difference than the other East African countries we’ve visited. The lush, verdant hills have been replaced by more brownish, flat land. The normal village stores have been replaced with tourist shops. The very friendly locals we waved back at in Uganda and Rwanda have been replaced by people who don’t seem to care. It’s more noticeable with the children. In Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, children were often ecstatic to see us drive by and exhibit such joy to run out and wave to us. I struggled with that a bit. Why should I expect to get this behavior? Just because my skin color is white? It relates to the struggle to accept that I’ve been blessed with certain opportunities and comforts because I was born in the US, but that’s not to say that it’s better or I’m better for that. Our first stop is Lake Manyara, which is different than most areas because of the forest that thrives because of underground rivers. We immediately noticed a difference in the facilities here – very clean flush toilets, very modern and nicely designed signage. The first wildlife we saw were blue monkeys in the registration area.


Our 4x4	Blue monkey. Hint: Their tails are blue.

We’ve been a bit spoiled by some of the other parks we’ve visited, especially when we stop at the Hippo Pool. We’d had great opportunities to see hippos on the Kazinga Chanel and at Lake Mburo right at our campsite, so seeing hippos from so far away was not worth our time. As a matter of fact, the only good photos from the hippo pool aren’t even of hippos, but people.

Most of our time was spent watching the many baboon troops

and elephant herds.

It was hot for the first time on our trip and even the elephants were putting on sun screen.

Our time in Lake Manyara comes to and end and we’re driven to our lodge for the night. It’s nice to not have to put up a tent after a day of game driving and we appreciate the luxury of the lodge. We enjoyed a three-course dinner and then drag ourselves to bed. I was asleep within minutes of my head hitting the pillow. Being driven around in a 4x4 all day is so tiring. I’m so spoiled!