we flew to northern tanzania today for our safari, which starts tomorrow, followed by our assault on mt. kilimanjaro. on the plane, it hit me what we'll be attempting on kilimanjaro. the pilot announced the cruising altitude of 18000 ft, well below mt. kilimanjaro's 19340 ft summit.
at our hotel in arusha, our safari guide, sanga, introduced himself and said it's been one of the rainiest novembers in a long time. bridges in the parks have been washed out; the wildebeests are having to rent boats. no matter, he said i could drive the 4x4 through the parks, now if i can just get a ranger to let me borrow his gun ...
we left zanzibar and jambiani beach reluctantly as it was an enchanting place and a(nother) highlight of our trip. we'd never seen a beach like it. it was tidal so the shoreline would recede by 2+km every day. the villagers fishing and harvesting seaweed added to its charm.
we were joined in jambiani by our traveling buddies from ethiopia: paddy, the irishman, and charlie, the english woman. they're a bad influence as they're traveling for at least 9 months and have no defined end date. it was nice to have another couple to hang out with and we'll miss them.
we ended up switching from our original hotel since it's claim of a "partly sea view" was fully exaggerated. our 2nd place, the coral rock hotel, took good care of us, especially neil, the crazy south african owner. on thanksgiving night, he opened the hotel bar at midnight to get us a few beers for our post-thanksgiving dinner party and, citing some tradition, poured us a round of shots. when we pressed him about thanksgiving traditions in south africa, he lost the plot and said there was no such thing. nonplussed, neil proceeded to pour another round of shots.
the hotel workers, mostly young south africans, would throw parties almost nightly for major events such as the pool draining or a friday night. the parties were ostensibly for guests but we're pretty sure the employees just wanted an excuse to throw down. as we were leaving one night, we saw neil swinging around a pole while rocking an "iPood" shirt. good times.
a characteristic of beaches visited by tourists are touts, or "beach boys", that try to sell services like a snorkeling or dolphin trip. in zanzibar, beach boys took on colorful names like captain fruit, fisherman MB and mosquito, which made them pretty easy to remember (and they asked about our plans 5x a day).
mosquito, true to his name, constantly badgered us in his friendly way. we tasked him with getting us a fish and setting up a beach bbq. because of the wind, we ended up having it at a local house a few meters off the beach. the fish, coconut rice and chapatti was fantastic and the setting unique ... mosquito was happy to have the business. at least until we paid, then he said we should leave and hang out at the bar next door.
when we wanted to go snorkeling, we went with our hotel's recommendation, figuring he'd be a more a reputable operator rather than someone off the
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