Jambo!
We arrived in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and immediately started looking for transport to Arusha, the safari capital. We talked to a few bus companies but most of them required us to go to some distant mystery bus station, which we hoped to avoid. We found one company who promised that the bus would leave from their office near our hotel at 8 am. We were told to come and 7:30 and we did. Apparently that 30 minutes was designated for a sales pitch for their friend’s hotel in Arusha. Then at 8:20 he looked at our watch and said “Let’s go”. We walked 10 minutes to a “dalla dalla” stop.

A dalla dalla is a minivan that they use like a bus. It has a route but stops whenever anyone flags it down to get on, or off. We were on that for about 10 minutes when a cop tapped on the windshield. A few minutes later everyone piled out and into another dalla dalla while the driver addressed whatever illegalities he had going on. We got into the already full dalla dalla, squished in the back with our packs. Then they drove around and picked up more, and more, and more passengers. When it finally reached maximum capacity it was time for our stop. Some people got out so we could exit and we had to squeeze through the rest. Hark, we were at the distant mystery bus station! The guy then found a bus going to Arusha and put us on it. They kicked a couple locals out of their seats to make room for us, apparently we pay the inflated foreigner price, thus we get some preferential treatment. We then noticed there was no air con, glad we paid extra for that! Then after 45 min of refueling, tire rotation and inflation, and an oil check we were off at 10. Along the way we were entertained by the fact that everytime the bus stopped kids on the street would rush up to the windows holding boxes high above their heads. They sold the expected snacks and drinks, along with the unexpected car jack, polo shirts, mirrors, sunglasses, watches, toothbrushes, radios, posters of mecca, anything. As the bus pulled away they would run along side trying to finish a last minute purchase or hope for one more sale until they couldn’t keep up anymore.

Once in Arusha our bus company’s friend’s hotel picked us up and immediately started selling us on a safari. Actually this was good because we avoided the horde of touts waiting for a pale skinned tourist to appear. We eventually agreed upon a 5 day lodge safari, rather than the camping safari we originally planned on, for little more than we had expected to pay for camping (gotta love “low season”!). We went to 3 national parks, Lake Manyara, Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. After the rigors of budget travel we were thrilled with the luxury of the lodges. It was the best bed, shower, toilets, service, views and FOOD that we have had since we left home. On top of that we filled the days with exciting game drives. We saw huge herds of wildebeest and zebra, as they are beginning their mass migration. We also saw elephants, giraffe, hippos, lions, cheetah (head), gazelles, impala, baboon, ostrich, flamingo, crocs, rhinos, jackal, hyena, monkeys, lizards, etc. We counted over 40 species, not counting all the birds that we couldn’t identify. The highlight was when we were watching a male and female lion laying in the grass about 30 feet away. She got up, waved her tail and walked toward our car with the male lion in tow. She laid down about 15 feet away and he proceeded to mount her. It was amazing to see lions mating in the wild, especially at such close range. Chad hoped for a lion kill, but he got romance instead. In addition to budget reasons, we originally wanted to camp to have greater proximity to wildlife, but we were pleasantly suprised by the excellent wildlife viewing from our lodges. We saw baboons and monkeys galore and one night we even saw a hippo and lion right outside our window. At the end of the 5th day we were sad to have to return to Arusha.

We were back to our peasant lifestyle with concrete rooms, pit toilets, cold showers, and the ever-present insect roommate.