The journey home begins

This morning we left  Zanzibar on the Kilimanjaro III,  a very nice new passenger ferry that takes two hours to travel to Dar Es Salaam.  The morning sun lit the old Arabic and Portuguese buildings as we sailed out of the port, passing by Freddie Mercury's restaurant (he comes from Zanzibar).  We arrived here in Dar Es Salaam and got a taxi driver to take us to the aiport.  As we  were leaving the port, we were held up briefly by the President's convoy of vehicles speeding by.  I wonder what it's like to be a president and always get to speed through city streets without any traffic...

Our last night in Stone Town was perfect.  We returned to the same room in the Tembo Hotel, savouring the air conditioning, the big wooden four poster beds, the carpet and the blue tiled bathroom.  We also savoured one last sundowner at Livingstones with our friend Doris who works there, and then a really nice Swahili meal of kingfish and rice spiced with Zanzibar spices.  Yum!    Howli, the taxi driver we used on  Zanzibar gave us a free ride to the ferry and we had a touching good bye with him, with many wishes for luck and happiness all around.

Now we retrace our steps to Rome, through Doha on Qatar Airways.  I'm personally really excited about watching the last episode of the Killing, a really good series that I've watched completely on airplanes -- half of it on Air Canada on my last work trip before vacation, and the other half between Doha and Dar Es Salaam.

We return to the Lancelot Hotel in Rome for a few days, including Palm Sunday which might be interesting.

We are very happy travellers.

A place for rest and relaxation

 Our bungalow                         

The hammock

Add caption

Nelson waiting for us to come to breakfast

The beach at Mtemwe on the east coast of Zanzibar

Nothing higher than the trees...

Beach life on the Indian Ocean

Sunrise is just after 6. Gradually the sky lightens and the clouds blush pink and orange. A small table on the beach holds coffee, tea, hot milk and homemade biscuits, an offering for the early risers. The tide is high and one by one the fishermen gather and head off in their dhows for the day. The tide goes out quickly and far. By 10, the women are sitting in small groups in the shallows, collecting and bundling the seaweed for sale to faraway cosmetics producers, their laughter reaching us in the shade on the beach.. 3 pm, the tide is in again and we swim in water that feels like a hot bath. The fishers return with their catch of snapper, barracuda, tuna.  We walk down the beach for a sundowner with Theo and Andrea from Germany. Back for another divine dinner. Some time with the Milky Way, and bed to the sounds of the bushbabies howling.

Zanzibar

After a couple of days of wandering the maze of little alleyways here, bargaining for cloth and stopping to sip cold drinks and stare out at the turquoise sea, we are heading off to find a bungalow on the beach for the next 6 days.  We've got some good recommendations and a great taxi driver named Howli who brought us from the airport to help in our search.

They say the rains are going to start.  Yesterday there was a loud bang of thunder, just one, right on schedule they say.  If they start we hear there will be short periods of rain till April.  We imagine ourselves reading lots, relaxing, and coming back to Stone Town on the 28th.  We've got ferry tickets for the 29th to Dar and to our long flight back to Rome.

Post safari bliss

Back in Arusha, enjoying a rest day before heading to Zanzibar tomorrow.  Still feeling moved by the sights, sounds and experiences on the Serengeti and in the Ngorogoro Crater.  Wildebeest and zebra as far as you can see in any direction.  The sounds of zebra tails swishing in the grass, vast herds of wildebeest grunting in harmony, the huffing and puffing and deep breathing of the hippos.  The pure entertainment provided by a cheetah using a line of jeeps as cover while scanning the plain looking for prey, while tourists snapped photos furiously above his head.  The young male lion sleeping under the only acacia tree in sight, lazily opening one eye to give us a look.  The elegant giraffes loping across the road.  It was heaven.

Saying good-bye to our guide Habib was hard.  We teared up, he teared up.  We had shared such a great few days together, we all felt lucky to have ended up together.  It's challenging feeling so privileged and connecting with someone who in material ways at least has so much less than us.  But as Susan says, he is a rich man in many ways.  His work is in these beautiful places.  He has five children and a wife he adores.  He is skilled and well regarded in his jobs.  He has super human eyes, able to spot and name animals that we have trouble seeing with binoculars.  "African eyes" they're called.

Will post more when we have a chance.

And where we are right now...the view from our room into Ngorongoro Crater

Tomorrow we descend into this soul expanding spaciousness...

Leaving the Serengeti

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                             

                                                                                                                         

                                                                                                                                                                            

                                                                                                                                           

Some shots from today....highlights were being in a river of wildebeest and among 300-400 zebras!

Where we are....

Everyone needs to come here

Sitting on our little balcony in the middle of the Serengeti. It's just past dark, light fading quickly. Sounds of the night. The day before yesterday there was a leopard at reception at this time. We need to call for an armed escort to take us to dinner!  Three days of bouncing around in a Toyota Landcruiser looking at lions, leopards, cheetahs, buffalo, hippos, elephants, and more giraffes, wildebeest, impalas and warthogs than we can keep track of. It's moving and overwhelming. Our guide, Hadid, is our age and awesome.  We are stunned by the beauty of this place.

Following in the steps of the first of us

Arusha is leafy and cooler than Dar es Salaam.  We're settled into La Jacaranda, a small hotel in a garden with a lovely outdoor restaurant and super friendly staff.  Arusha is close to where the first of us (humans) ever walked, it's where Julius Nyerere released the Arusha Declaration, outlining Tanzania's approach to socialism in 1967, and it's the launching place for the Serengeti and the Ngorogoro Crater.  Kilimanjaro peaked out at us yesterday as we neared the end of our 11 hour bus ride.  Tomorrow we'll sort out our safari with one of the several operators in town. Today's a rest and laundry day -- and a day to enjoy the luxury of high speed internet in an air conditioned internet cafe. It might be Indian food for dinner!

Falcons and futuristic skyscrapers

Impressions of Doha...

A lunar landscape where people have placed a grid of wide streets full of luxury vehicles being driven by neatly bearded sheiks in white head dress and designer sunglasses,  cell in hand...

The scene is like a black and white movie on a background of sand with the occasional turquoise taxi, state owned like the buses.

Our search for falcons took us to the animal market on the outskirts of the city where Sudanese tribesmen waited on stools in front of pens of sheep, goats, and rabbits, ducks and chickens in the bird section at the back. We found four hooded falcons perched forlornly there. A stark contrast with the beautiful specimen on the arm of a regal Qatari on his way into the airport lounge.

The city is staffed by migrant workers from all over the world. Our taxi driver was from Kenya, the women hotel staff from the Philippines (a million Filipinos work there). Qataris don't work, they collect a salary from the government, like royalty.

Doha it is!

Who knew? Canadians currently need a visa in advance of travel to Dubai. This is something we learned at the airport when we weren't allowed to board for Dubai. Today was spent trying to sort out our travel. And, tomorrow we leave for Doha. Why not? The silver lining is the wonderful dinner we had with some Germans (the liter of wine was about $5.50, and there was a big salad, lasagna, chicken, mineral water) in a restaurant with red checkered tablecloths and waiters who hollered.

Lobby of the Lancelot

Imagine classical music playing and a cup of really good coffee..

Possibly the best lunch ever

Susan and I have figured out the perfect way to eat. We share one dish of every course. Today we found ourselves an hour or so out of Rome in a narrow side street inside a medieval Umbrian village, Ovieto. Rick Steves has been guiding our culinary adventures perfectly and today was no exception. We started with nigi, "folds of fresh pasta enveloping warm gooey pecorino cheese sweetened with honey. ", as he describes it in his guidebook, along with a lovely light and fresh salad. Then chicken cacciatore flavored with olive oil and rosemary. Creme Brule for dessert. A local Chianti and a big bottle of local mineral water.  Sigh...

Dubai Bound

Fabrizio is our new best friend. He is the handsome Roman travel agent who found our tickets. We leave Sunday for Dubai, spend three nights in an over the top hotel there, and then carry on to Tanzania for three weeks.

The Hotel Lancelot

Breakfast time. And incredible array of pastries, cheese, cold meats, yogurt and fruit. Wonderful coffee with warm milk.  In a beautiful dining room - marble doorways, chandeliers, antique furniture, fresh flowers on the tables. A decent way to start the day!
                     
"The Irish aren't coming anymore", we hear from one of the Khan family owners, "they used to be our second biggest country and now there are none. The recession is everywhere." Yesterday the metro and bus drivers were on strike in the morning and the trains in the afternoon. It didn't affect us at all                                                                   though it must have been hard for the people.

Today we'll immerse ourselves in history in the forum and view the city from an open air bus. We are in aawe by the scale of what Roman life was - from the architecture to the infrastructure to the luxury and the excess. Hmmmm, a lesson for our times?