Ilkurot

After returning to Arusha from Engaresero, I spent the evening relaxing and planning what to do for the three days before my dad was going to arrive. I decided to visit another village near Arusha, Ilkurot. I spent two days and one night there, and got to sleep in my own Maasai boma.

My sleeping quarters

It was another very fun trip where I got to learn a lot about the people of the village and how they live their lives. We visited a 90 year old man who had 9 wives and 60 children, went into mines where they gathered sand and gravel, hiked to a nearby crater, and just walked all around the village- which was quite big.

Local Maasai herders

In the mines

Engaruka and Engaresero

The night of my village tour in Mto wa Mbu, I arranged to visit the village of Engaruka next. Rather than wait til the morning for a bus, the son of my guide-to-be in Engaruka offered me a ride in the back of his big truck. I figured to save time, I would accept. There were maybe 15-20 of us total riding in the back of the truck - I was lucky and got a decent spot on a bag of rice. Other people were sitting up in the metal framework above the truck bed, and some people managed to lay down and sleep, despite the very bumpy dirt road.

It ended up being about a four hour ride, due to several stops along the way to drop off various cargo from the back. When we finally arrived in Engaruka, it was late and I was pretty exhausted from the ride. I camped in the yard of my guide and arranged to sort out the details of my visit the next morning. I originally wanted to visit Engaruka to climb the active volcano, Ol Doinyo Lengai (The Mountain of God,) and see the lava from the top. But due to some miscommunication, it turned out to be more expensive than I anticipated and I didn't have enough money on me to climb it. By the time we realized this, my guide and I had already moved on to the closer village of Engaresero. Luckily, there were still things to do instead of climbing Ol Doinyo Lengai.

Engaresero

I first visited Lake Natron, which was maybe a 15 minute drive from Engaresero. It is a big alkaline lake that is home to tons of flamingos, similar to Lake Manyara. I had no idea before, but found out that East Africa is home to 80% of the world's flamingo population. Lake Natron was really nice and very picturesque. I saw lots of flamingos and the scenery was beautiful. Very close by, I also went to see a set of early human footprints, which are some of the oldest in existence - 120,000 years old!

Lake Natron and Ol Doinyo Lengai

Very old footprints

Later that day, I also hiked to a set of nearby waterfalls. Two local boys and I walked along and in a river within a small canyon to reach them. My decision to bring along my new DSLR camera made the trip more interesting while wading through the river and jumping across boulders.

On the way back from the waterfalls

After two nights in Engaresero, I arranged to ride back to Arusha with a very nice Australian lady who had her own private car. I kind of lucked out - the ride to Engaresero was a long, dusty one standing in the doorway of a packed daladala.

A crater on the way back to Arusha

Mto wa Mbu, Part 2

I'm safely back home now, but I have fallen pretty behind on my blog, so I'll just finish posting from the states.

My second day in Mto wa Mbu, I went on a village tour through their cultural tourism program. Mto wa Mbu was originally created as an "ujamaa" village in the 60's to create Tanzanian national unity, and it still has populations representing all 120+ tribes of Tanzania. My guide, Juma, was from the Chagga tribe and most of my tour was focused on them. A large part of Chagga culture is based on bananas. In Mto wa Mbu, they grow over 30 varieties of bananas, with three main purposes: to eat as fruit, to cook, and to make banana beer. We visited both the fields where the bananas are grown, and a local "brewery." The process mostly comprises of boiling the bananas, letting them ferment, and adding ground millet.

 Banana beer and its ingredients

The beer is drank socially, with several people sitting in a circle and passing around a liter (or several) of the banana beer. Some of the remaining millet floats to the top, and you have to blow it away before you drink from the container. The beer plays a big part in their lives, with many liters being used as a payment in return for favors and hundreds of liters used for wedding dowries and to settle disputes. Juma and I had some of the beer- it tasted quite interesting, with only a slight banana flavor. We had a really big container set out for us, but I was thankful that we didn't have more than a few sips each.

Fermenting banana beer... Mmm

During the rest of the day, we also visited rice fields, "Baobab Hill," and a family of the Makonde tribe that make the famous wooden carvings that are found all over Tanzania. It was a very fun and long day, that only got longer as I arranged to travel to Engaruka that night.

Mto wa Mbu, Part 1

The next town I visited was Mto wa Mbu, or "River of Mosquitos." I got a ride from Karatu for 2000 Tsh ($1.33) that took about an hour and a half. Once I arrived, I met a guide from the cultural tourism program, Sondai. He found a guest house for me to spend the night in, and then we headed out to bike at Lake Manyara. We took two mountain bikes and rode out of town. After maybe thirty minutes of riding through farmland and forest, we reached the grassy plains that surround the lake.

 Zebra!

A couple minutes of pedaling later, and I saw my first "real" wildlife of Tanzania! There were herds of wildebeest, zebra, and Thomson's gazelle. Near the lake were some buffalo, and there were hippos resting in a pool of water near the river. It was amazing to be riding a bike so close to such large numbers of those animals out in the wild! It really was a surreal experience for me.

A dead buffalo

As we got closer to the lake, we got off our bikes and walked around for a bit. Lake Manyara is home to tons of flamingos, and at points, the entire horizon of the lake was pink. We spent maybe an hour and a half around the lake, but I could have stayed the whole day just watching the animals. I think the lions come out towards night, so maybe it's best we didn't stay too late.

Flamingos on the lake

As we rode back into town, we passed Maasai grazing lands where hundreds of cows and goats were feeding. It's really cool to think that people live so close to such interesting wildlife. After visiting a Maasai market and eating some roast goat and bananas with some locals, we rode to the entrance of the Lake Manyara National Park. There, we saw baboons and a few other types of monkeys. That day has easily been one of my favorites so far from this trip.

Lake Eyasi

After visiting the Karatu market, Richard and I made arrangements to visit Lake Eyasi and the Hadzabe tribe. They are a group of bushmen that are one of the few remaining hunter-gatherer tribes in Africa. To get to Lake Eyasi, we took a Land Rover that by my estimates had fourteen people in it, with probably another three or four on top! The ride thankfully only took about an hour and a half to reach the small village of Mongola where we stayed the night.

 Preparing for the hunt

Early the next morning at 5:30am, we got ready to visit the Hadzabe. We shared a ride with a couple from Spain, and it was a quick trip. We reached the Hadzabe family's camp just after sunrise, and the Hadzabe men were starting their morning by smoking marijuana. They tried to teach me how to start a fire using just sticks, but it proved to be pretty difficult, and I wasn't able to get an ember going.

Out on the hunt

After they finished, we joined the men on their morning hunt. Women of the Hadzabe tribe gather fruits and the men hunt to provide food for their families. The men carried bows and arrows, but their few attempts at birds were unsuccessful. They then moved on to some piles of large stones where rock hyraxes live. They would shove big sticks into the cracks, in hopes of scaring one out. After maybe 45 minutes and moving to another rock pile, they caught a rock hyrax! It was maybe the size of a rabbit. One of their dogs had crawled into the rocks and managed to kill a hyrax that had been scared out of hiding.

Scaring out the hyrax

On the spot, they started a fire to cook the hyrax. The men cooked and ate half the animal, saving the rest for their families. They offered me a small piece of liver, so I can now say that I have eaten meat caught by one of the few remaining hunter-gatherer tribes of the world! After returning to their camp, the men taught me to use their bow and arrows. At first, it was pretty tough, but then I got the hang of it. I was still nowhere near as good of a shot as the Hadzabe men, and I am sure I wouldn't be able to hit anything that they hunt. Before leaving, they performed a traditional song and dance that we joined in. It was quite an experience that morning to participate in the daily lives of the Hadzabe tribe.

Time to eat

Karatu

After going and getting checked out at the hospital in Karatu, I went back to the guest house and napped for a few hours. When I was feeling a bit better, I set out to find the office of the Karatu Cultural Tourism Program. There, I met their very nice operator/guide, Richard. He was very welcoming and very enthusiastic about the program. He was so excited to get started, that evening he showed me around some local farms, brought me to a soccer field where a game was being played, and introduced me to his wife and two year old son. I even ate dinner with them- a pilau dish of rice and beef that was very good.

A view of Karatu and the swamp

The next day, Richard took me on a tour of the surrounding village and more of Karatu. We walked through a small swamp with lots of birds and where villagers collect water for their crops. Next we visited the local brick making site, where they dig up mud from the hillside and bake it in small ovens. At the end of our village walk, we climbed up a hill for views of Karatu and neighboring Lake Manyara. Heading back into town, we visited a private primary school, a center for street children, the clothes shop were his wife works, and the local food market.

The brick making site

During my last day in Karatu, we went to the monthly market. Thousands of people of all tribes come from all over to trade at the market. They were selling everything from clothes to souvenirs to live animals, some of which were slaughtered and eaten at the market as well. It was quite a spectacle to walk around and see all that was going on.

At the market

The Dark Chapters

Starting my last day in Stone Town began a stretch of five days when I didn't really feel all too well. It began innocently enough, when I woke up with a headache and generally just feeling out of it. I hadn't slept too well the night before and was woken up at 5am by some Islamic singing through a megaphone from the mosque nextdoor- so I didn't think too much of it. After checking into a guest house closer to the ferry docks, I slept until late afternoon and felt decent enough to explore more of Stone Town.

That night I had a high fever and over the course of the next three days, I was similarly fatigued, didn't eat, and had heachaches and nausea on and off. I still wanted to stick roughly to my schedule, so I took the ferry back to Dar es Salaam, rested for a day, took the 10 hour bus to Arusha, felt a bit better, and took a three hour bus to the town of Karatu. So at least I was able to stay too productive, even if I wasn't feeling so well.

My first night in Karatu, I had a fever again and the next morning a Tanzanian friend from the bus ride suggested I go to the hospital. We went to a nice place that is run by an American doctor and had some tests done. Thankfully there was no malaria, but they couldn't tell me anything beyond that. They suggested it was some sort of virus and would pass eventually. The best part of it all was that the visit only cost $9.33, including some medicine for nausea.

I am now back in Arusha and have been feeling fine for several days. It's really a great feeling to be healthy and I'll try to appreciate it for the rest of my trip.

Zanzibar, Part 2

After my three relaxing days it was time to head back to Stone Town. The beach was very nice, but I was getting a bit restless and the sun burn wasn't too fun in the sun. I took another daladala ride into town, and as we got close, it started to pour. Once I got off, I had to run to cover and wait it out under some awnings with the vendors.

From inside the Old Fort

After finding a hostel to spend the night, I set out to explore. Stone Town is the old historic district of Zanzibar Town and has lots of Islamic and Indian influences. It feels how I would expect Northern Africa to be. The streets and alleys make a huge maze, and it was very easy at first to get lost in. I never felt unsafe though; the only real dangers were the scooters that zipped through the small streets. Within the maze are countless little shops and stalls, selling souvenirs and food. It was a lot of fun to just wander around and take in the atmosphere.

An artist working in the alley

Zanzibar has a lot of old architecture left behind from its rich trading past, a lot of which was in slaves. I saw a lot of interesting buildings, and some linked to the sad history of the slave trade in Zanzibar. Also famous there are ornately carved wooden doors. They are on all types of buildings, from nice hotels to shacks. The three main types are Arabian, Indian, and Portuguese, and it was interesting to see the variety as I walked through the streets.

A Stone Town alley

I also visited the fish market in Stone Town, which was an eye-opening experience. Cleanliness seemed to have zero meaning there. Flies were everywhere on the fish, and towards the water, fisherman would drag their catch through the dirt and the gravel on the way to their stands. One interesting technique I saw was fishermen smashing octopus onto the cement to tenderize it.

The fish market

I am heading out to Karatu and a couple other surrounding towns later today, and don't know how much internet access there will be... so this might be my last post for a while.

Zanzibar, Part 1

The next day after my bus ride to Dar es Salaam, I took an early ferry to Zanzibar. The trip took two hours, but went quickly while talking to a really nice guy from Denmark. He even invited me to stay in his apartment during the summer! After reaching Zanzibar, I decided to head north to one of the beach towns, Kendwa. It took an hour and a half cramped daladala ride, and then a kilometer and half walk down a dirt road through farms to get there.

Boats on the beach

Kendwa is a really small town, with a few beach hotels but a lot of construction going on. The weather was pretty nice, but since it's the end of the rainy season it would rain for maybe 30 minutes a day. It wasn't too hot which was nice, and when the sun came out fully, it would get warm enough to really want to get in the water. The beach was really nice, with soft white sand. There were local fisherman on the beach with their wooden canoes and larger wooden dhow boats. At night, the water would be full of dhows and made for a beautiful scene, with the sunset in the background.

 The sunsets were beautiful

My first two days I kind of just bummed around on the beach and played some volleyball with other travellers and locals. On my third and last day, I went on a snorkeling day trip to Mnemba Atoll. It took maybe an hour and a half on a dhow to get there, and there were great views of the Zanzibar coastline. We went snorkeling on two different reefs around the atoll. I saw a ton of fish, including two I've never seen before - an eel and a lionfish. There were a lot of huge schools of fish and they are a lot of fun to watch. It's really interesting to see them make synchronized movements, as if one being. Unfortunately, I got somewhat burnt on the trip... but I blame it on the malaria medication for making me sensitive to sunlight.

On the way to Mnemba Atoll