Destinations

To say that I went coffee picking is a slight exaggeration, but I did pick a few coffee beans. Surprisingly the berry is sweet.  The local beer is called Kilimanjaro along with Serengeti and Safari. I like them all.  On the way out, I saw a sign that said, “It is Kili Time”.  That was funny

If you look at my other websites you will notice a lot of pictures of food.  I love food, it is my passion, I love learning all things about food.  The biggest disappointment from this trip was that I did not get to try local food.  The hotels had buffets and provided boxed lunches on safari boxed lunches with no local food options.

It wasn’t until my flight home that I got to try something in Ethiopia.  Ironically, I live right next door to Korea Town and Little Ethiopia.  I could walk to Little Ethiopia and I had it once and didn’t like it.  I had it tonight and I must have gone to the wrong restaurant. Continue reading →

We left the crater this morning and headed back to Arusha where will catch or flights the following day.  I had a picture taken of Jabshir, our guide and driver, while we stopped at the entrance to the park.

On the way, we stopped at a Cultural Heritage Site.  It had a lot of things for sale but I learned long time ago, there are a lot of things that you think you want but when you get it home you wonder where you are going to put it and what was I thinking when I bought this?  I decided to buy local coffee, teas and spices.

We took the same route back to Arusha that we came on.  As we passed an area, the guide pointed out a stand on the side of the road that said :Hillary Clington”.  They had tried to paint over the “g” in Clington but it was visible. I had noticed at the Ngorongoro crater there were pictures of Hillary and her daughter Chelsea.  I wondered if Hillary had stopped at this cart/store as she passed through. Continue reading →

Ngorongoro Crater is a conservation area and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The conservation area including the highlands and the crater covers over 3,500 square miles.  The crater itself is close to 20 miles wide. This is considered one of the best known wildlife viewing areas with a a concentration of lions, elephants, rhinos, gazelles, zebras, wildebeests and buffalo. Since no hunting is allowed, most of the wildlife isn’t shy and walks very close the the safari jeeps.  At one point, a male lion marked his territory on a jeep. Continue reading →

After breakfast, the group departed for Ngorongoron Crater and a last viewing of game along the Serengeti plains.  On the way to the crater, we stopped at Olduvai Gorge (pictured above).  This should ring a bell if you ever took archaeology 101 or learned the evolutionary theory.  It is in the gorge that  Dr. Lewis Leakey and his wife Mary found humanoid remains of an early form of man along with a lot of an artifacts dating back to two million years ago.  It is nicknamed “The Cradle of Mankind” Continue reading →

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What an overwhelming day!

Let me say that the day and so far this trip ended up being beyond anything I expected.  This the rainy and low season for Tanzania.  It is also the coolest. That means, temps have been in the 70’s, very few bugs, not a single mosquito and no crowds.  Did I mention lower prices?  I struck gold!  So I have to sit through a thunderstorm for a few hours. I love thunderstorms.

Today we saw baboons, blue monkeys, giraffes, storks, black faced monkeys, impalas, zebras, wildebeest, hippos, wart hog, hyenas, lions, leopards, white headed vultures, Thompson gazelles, dik diks, elephants and ostriches.  There were too many too list them all. Continue reading →