February 4: Time to go to Africa! I was so excited to get this trip started. We took a Turkish Airline flight that left Dulles at 10:55pm and had a two hour layover in Istanbul. This is a long flight but luckily I was tired and able to sleep for a few hours. Then it was another 6 hour flight to Kilimanjaro airport, which I spent watching movies. We landed around 1:30am and cleared customs to find our ride to the hotel in Moshi, which was an hour away. We arrived a the hotel around 4am and tried to get a few hours of sleep, which was hard given how excited we were.
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| The view of Mount Kilimanjaro just outside my hotel room |
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| The courtyard at the hotel |
Technically day one of the itinerary starts by arriving in country. We were lucky enough to have the whole day to explore and get ready. We walked to the local charity store that Zara runs to shop. I was only in the country for a few hours before buying my souvenir. It is a beautiful wood carved bowl with African animals on it and I smile whenever I see it now. After the shop, we took the shuttle into town where a Zara guide took us through the market. The local markets were incredible. It is pretty much organized chaos. So many stands full of different items all over the place. Fruit, vegetables, grains, fish, meat, clothes, western goods, and so much more. I was amazed at the colors surrounding me everywhere.
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| Browsing the marketplace |
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| This was the market for the rich |
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| We found that Tanzania loved the Clintons. We later found out that they visited Tanzania a few years ago and seemed to leave a good impression. |
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| The bus station...good luck finding your bus. |
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| If you look really hard, you can see Mount Kilimanjaro peaking over the mountains. |
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| Trip back to the hotel (much more spacious than the ride to the market) |
We were the only white people in the market. It is probably the first time I have ever been such a minority in life. I tried to take it in and was happy to find it didn't bother me too much, other than I stuck out as a tourist. Being a western tourist meant that I had money and therefore people were constantly asking our group to buy this artwork or that bracelet. They were very persistent and didn't like taking no for an answer. We learned that being polite isn't the way to have them go away, so we got firmer at saying no. I was also impressed how many people spoke English so fluently. This again reminded me how much I should apply myself to learning another language.
After our fun in town, we returned to the hotel to pack our bags for the hike, have dinner, and hear our pre-trip briefing. I spent a lot of time figuring the best way to protect everything from getting wet in my bag. I rented a duffel from Zara that was water-proof and I bought a plastic bag to cover it (we all bought this bag for $3...better to be safe than sorry). Even knowing I had a water proof bag and another bag over it, everything inside was put in garbage bags or Ziploc bags. I was not going to have wet gear if it rained. My plan was to carry as little as I could and use my porter bag for everything (up to 35 lbs). I was planning on carrying 3 liters of water, some snacks, my camera, and rain gear everyday. I would add layers to my pack as we got higher and things were colder. This plan worked perfectly.
Meals at the Springlands Hotel were nice. It was buffet style and normally included a good mix of foods. I always had some protein and vegetables at lunch and dinner and thankfully they always finished meals with a dessert.
Our pre-trip briefing was short and simple but made us so excited for the hike to start. Honestly I have limited recollection of what we discussed other than a quick run through the itinerary and food restrictions. They encouraged us to get some sleep and be ready to go in the morning. Corinne and I went back to our room, checked our bags one more time, and tried to get some sleep. Also we enjoyed our last shower for 6 days!
