Road to Moyo Hill

First day in Moshi, Tanzania...my student affairs manager was unpleasantly surprised to find out that breakfast at the budget Y.M.C.A. consisted of tea and dry bread. In its defence, the Kilimanjaro tea and hot milk was delicious! We sought out a cafe in Moshi, which was an adventure and induced laughter from locals of whom we asked directions, because the particular cafe we were looking for catered to white people. Quite decent prices, good food, and great service. Later we strolled around town in search of souvenirs and necessities.

Later that day, we had to pick up the rest of the students at Kilimanjaro Airport. On the way, we saw Mount Kilimanjaro as visible as it has ever been in the late afternoon / early evening. It is mostly concealed by a layer of haze and fog all day until after 4pm, so many people somehow miss this immense and famous geological structure.

We also saw Mount Mero at sunset. Fabulous! There was a lot of bustle and fussle at the airport because the Tanzania and Kenya program students all arrived at around the same time, all of which required their visas, and some had bags missing, and it was just crazy. Once we got everyone organized, we stayed at the YMCA again, because we had a long day ahead of us.

After we changed our dollars into Tanzanian Shillings, and bought snacks at a large grocery store, we set off in safari trucks. Boni, the driver and newly acquired friend, taught me a lot of Swahili along the 6 hour trek. By the way, everyone drives on the left side of the road...hard to get used to looking right first when crossing the street. The road to Rhotia, Tanzania was quite bumpy, with few stretches of paved roads. This happened to be on one of the more exciting legs of the journey, which can be compared to the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland...Maybe worse actually, but still super fun! This picture was taken passing coffee fields.

First mammalian wildlife encountered on my journey: a baboon momma and baby on the mountainous road to Moyo Hill Camp, Rhotia from Moshi. I imagine I will see many more in Ngorongoro.

Karibuni (welcome to) Lake Manyara! This is part of the Tarangire-Manyara ecosystem, the region we are focusing on in our environmental and wildlife management studies. The lake is so big and sandy that I mistook it for the ocean.

Masai Market: The Masai is an ethnic group in Tanzania and Kenya that have many distinct traditions that I will learn more about when I visit a local tribe. They were previously known to hunt and kill lions as part of their coming of age celebration for young men, that will then obtain the name of the lion they killed. Now, some groups obtain the name of the lion they help...so they have started to completely turn around their historical traditions for the sake of lion conservation. I bought some really sweet leather safari boots here!

I have only seen a few straw roof structures, and these ones I thought were quite cool.

Finally, we arrived at Moyo Hill Camp (1600ft above sea level) in the later afternoon, had some orientation, got settled in and started a group welcome camp fire!