Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Holiday Travels
So, this year for Christmas vacation, instead of traveling back home to visit friends and family I decided to take the opportunity to travel around Africa some more and see things that I have never seen. My trip started out on November 17th. I traveled across Malawi to get to Lichinga in northern Mozambique for a Thanksgiving celebration, then took a train to get out to the coast and enjoy some shrimp and beach time. Then it was off to Tanzania where I went on a 5 day safari and logged some hours on the beaches of Zanzibar. Then another cut back down to Malawi to get back to my house here in Mozambique. That’s the short version of things, and if you want the full details, continue below….
Zanzibar
Amazing beaches, amazing food and no giant buses, oh my!
Zanzibar was a paradise---literally and mentally. After our bus accident, we still had to take 2 10-hour bus rides to and from our safari starting point. It was such a relief to finally be beyond our buses, and onto a ferry ride. We stayed at a lodge on the eastern side of the island which felt like our own island paradise far away from the tourists. We spent 1 day on the beach, did the Jozani Forest tour to see the only-on-Zanzibar Red Colubus monkeys, and then did a spice tour combined with a tour of Stonetown. We got some amazing seafood with some very westernized cooking styles that were delicious, and really cheap when compared to being a tourist in Mozambique. In the forest we got to see the monkeys up close and personal. They literally hit us jumping from branch to branch. Then we saw a red mahogany forest as well as a mangrove forest. Also we visited some sea turtles! Stonetown is the old part of Zanzibar from back in the sultan days and all the buildings are made out of limestone. We watched the sunset at the big central park and ate seafood fresh off the grill that they had hauled in that day. A great and relaxing end to a somewhat stressful trip.
Zanzibar was a paradise---literally and mentally. After our bus accident, we still had to take 2 10-hour bus rides to and from our safari starting point. It was such a relief to finally be beyond our buses, and onto a ferry ride. We stayed at a lodge on the eastern side of the island which felt like our own island paradise far away from the tourists. We spent 1 day on the beach, did the Jozani Forest tour to see the only-on-Zanzibar Red Colubus monkeys, and then did a spice tour combined with a tour of Stonetown. We got some amazing seafood with some very westernized cooking styles that were delicious, and really cheap when compared to being a tourist in Mozambique. In the forest we got to see the monkeys up close and personal. They literally hit us jumping from branch to branch. Then we saw a red mahogany forest as well as a mangrove forest. Also we visited some sea turtles! Stonetown is the old part of Zanzibar from back in the sultan days and all the buildings are made out of limestone. We watched the sunset at the big central park and ate seafood fresh off the grill that they had hauled in that day. A great and relaxing end to a somewhat stressful trip.
SAFARI!!
What time spent in Africa could be complete without a safari?! I, along with 2 fellow volunteers, booked a 4 night/5 day camping safari and it was fabulous. We spent 1 day in Tarangire National Park, 2 days in the Serengeti and 1 day in Ngorongoro Crater national park. In the Serengeti and the crater we actually camped in the park. There was giant elephant poo outside our campsite in the Serengeti and you couldn’t leave your tent at night because there were hyenas. That I did not expect. It was great fun. The safari vehicle has a pop top so you can stand up and see the animals really well from the vehicle, but still close it in case it rains (which it did a little). They also took care of all our meals for us, and we had our own personal driver and cook for the week. Highlights were: A giant family of elephants crossing the road 10 feet away from us in Tarangire and just sitting there watching them for 45 minutes; having to be careful to not hit the giraffes that run across the road between parks; A lion popping her head up just as I took a picture so that she didn’t just look like a rock; talking our driver into being the first people to arrive at the crater and feeling like we had it to ourselves for an hour; a momma cheetah sunning herself on a rock while her 4 cubs played in the grass around her; being in the middle of the great migration and having wildebeest, gazelles and zebras as far as the eye can see. I am so glad that I am here and had the opportunity to experience the Africa that everyone envisions.
Pole Sana
The first language of Tanzania is Swahili. Pole Sana is Swahili for So Sorry. Unfortunately this was the first phrase we learned in this new language. Continue reading….
Tanzania is an entirely different world. It’s really remarkable that just a few days travel away is a giant city (Dar Es Salaam) filled with tons of people and modern development. However, to get to this developed city, you must cross the undeveloped part of northern Mozambique and southern Tanzania. My trip started out with a 3 am open back chapa ride to the border. This road was very undeveloped and bumpy, and I was sitting on some sort of spare car part. Needless to say the next day my butt and back were pretty sore. The border is the Rovuma river which is an important landmark in Moz. When talking about the country of Mozambique, the saying is “from Rovuma to Maputo”; it’s even part of the national anthem. (Rovuma River is the northern border and Maputo province is in the southern border). We arrived in Mtwara, which is the first big town in Tanzania after the border. We stayed there for the night, and bought some bus tickets to head out in the morning. The main form of transport, we discovered, are giant greyhound-esque buses. However, they are generally painted crazy colors and have a personalized horn. What we didn’t realize is how dangerous some of these companies could be.
Our bus was scheduled to leave at 6 a.m., and we almost missed it. For some reason, Tanzania and Mozambique have 1 hour of time difference (who’d a thunk since they lie north and south of each other). But we were still in Africa so of course they didn’t leave on time and we made it. Little did we know that it was not our lucky day to catch it. The roads in southern Tanzania are still being paved so it was all pretty much one giant construction zone, with you driving on a dirt road running parallel to the in-progress paved road. These buses travel pretty fast, and sure enough, on one of the dirt turns our bus lost control and we shot out into the countryside, bumping along all the way. We were in the second to last row and got bounced around pretty good. Luckily the bus didn’t tip over, and there were only slight injuries, the worst being my friend cutting his forehead and needing stitches. We got to the hospital surprisingly fast for Africa standards. We also got in contact with Peace Corps Tanzania and their medical officer drove down to meet us and check us out personally that night. We got a nice ride into the capital (we only made it about half way when the bus crashed) and were set up to stay with an American family living in Dar Es Salaam while doing D.C.-mandated tests at the hospital there. I repeat, everything turned out fine. I just have an ugly black eye in all my vacation photos to help me remember. Like I could forget…
Tanzania is an entirely different world. It’s really remarkable that just a few days travel away is a giant city (Dar Es Salaam) filled with tons of people and modern development. However, to get to this developed city, you must cross the undeveloped part of northern Mozambique and southern Tanzania. My trip started out with a 3 am open back chapa ride to the border. This road was very undeveloped and bumpy, and I was sitting on some sort of spare car part. Needless to say the next day my butt and back were pretty sore. The border is the Rovuma river which is an important landmark in Moz. When talking about the country of Mozambique, the saying is “from Rovuma to Maputo”; it’s even part of the national anthem. (Rovuma River is the northern border and Maputo province is in the southern border). We arrived in Mtwara, which is the first big town in Tanzania after the border. We stayed there for the night, and bought some bus tickets to head out in the morning. The main form of transport, we discovered, are giant greyhound-esque buses. However, they are generally painted crazy colors and have a personalized horn. What we didn’t realize is how dangerous some of these companies could be.
Our bus was scheduled to leave at 6 a.m., and we almost missed it. For some reason, Tanzania and Mozambique have 1 hour of time difference (who’d a thunk since they lie north and south of each other). But we were still in Africa so of course they didn’t leave on time and we made it. Little did we know that it was not our lucky day to catch it. The roads in southern Tanzania are still being paved so it was all pretty much one giant construction zone, with you driving on a dirt road running parallel to the in-progress paved road. These buses travel pretty fast, and sure enough, on one of the dirt turns our bus lost control and we shot out into the countryside, bumping along all the way. We were in the second to last row and got bounced around pretty good. Luckily the bus didn’t tip over, and there were only slight injuries, the worst being my friend cutting his forehead and needing stitches. We got to the hospital surprisingly fast for Africa standards. We also got in contact with Peace Corps Tanzania and their medical officer drove down to meet us and check us out personally that night. We got a nice ride into the capital (we only made it about half way when the bus crashed) and were set up to stay with an American family living in Dar Es Salaam while doing D.C.-mandated tests at the hospital there. I repeat, everything turned out fine. I just have an ugly black eye in all my vacation photos to help me remember. Like I could forget…
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving this year was one of the most true to the spirit Thanksgivings I have ever been involved in. Volunteers up north in Lichinga teamed up with the local Doctors Without Borders to put on a joint American-Mozambican Thanksgiving and it was amazing. Thanks to packages from the states, we had tons of Thanksgiving window stickers, table confetti, table cloths, wooden ornaments and home-made hand turkeys straight from your Kindergarten craft days. Plus Indian and Pilgrim headwear for our 5 minute play explaining the first Thanksgiving. We gathered everyone, served some drinks, and then put on our play. Goal 2 of the Peace Corps is sharing America’s culture with the host country, and that is just what we did. It was a super-cheesy Kindergarten play that we put on for all the Mozambicans to help explain how the tradition started for our country. There were Indians with headdresses, Pilgrims on a Mayflower and “Paulo the Peru” (the Portuguese way of saying “Tom the Turkey”). I, of course, was a pilgrim since according to my genealogy-loving grandmother I actually had a relative that came over to the Americas on the Mayflower. Then it was time for the food. We had 2 turkeys, mashed potatoes and gravy (shout-out to my dad for the gravy), cranberries (canned from a care package), green bean casserole, 2 versions of stuffing, sweet potatoes, Canadian maple-syrup (from fellow ex-pats) glazed carrots and bread. THEN for desserts there was apple pie, sweet potato pie, pecan pie and pumpkin pie. I have never hurt that bad from overeating EVER. It was a great Thanksgiving.
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