Wed, June 24 - Arusha, Tanzania

Today, we left the lodge to drive around Arusha. Basically, the lodge is a walled compound. Although everyone says that there is no severe crime other than the usual, you are nevertheless advised not to leave the compound without a guide. Duly informed, we set our with our guide David, to check out the local area.

David described Arusha as a mid-sized town. The way into town and the main roads are paved, but the rest is dirt. There is a project underway to widen the main two lane road into four lanes. This is the main highway that will take you from South Africa all the way to Cairo, by way of Nairobi! On the dirt road before the main highway into town it was market day. How I wish I could have taken photos, but most locals do not like to be photographed. I can only describe it as chaos of motion and color. The women are so colorful in their wraps and scarves, carrying bushels of bananas and stacks of cloth carefully balanced on their heads. There is a riot of color in the wide range of vegetables and textiles. Shoes seemed to be of interest as well - especially ones made of recycled tires!

On our way into town, the side of the roads are lined with small ramshackle buildings selling all manner of goods, such as wooden bed frames, couches, cement and other goods. The roads themselves are a different animal entirely!First of all, Tanzania is a former British colony, so everything is right hand drive. There are lanes, but other cars and trucks are constantly overtaking each other and then you throw in motorcycles and pedestrians crossing however they please, and it becomes a little crazy. Fortunately, we feel pretty safe in our Land Rover safari car :)

We didn't stop too many places, but drove past the UN headquarters for the International Triunal against Rwanda and all the housing for UN employees. We also passed an international private school that costs $3000 a year; which is quite expensive for this nation. Our first official stop was the Tanzania Experience (big surprise). It is a small museum of the history of Tanzanite and how it is mined, and of course the obligatory shop. Now, at this point, Josh is super-excited - he has always loved gemstones and thinks this would be a great investment opportunity. We were able to hold him off, but only for a little while (more on that later).

David asked us if we wanted European food or African food for lunch, and of course we said the latter, so we drove to the Swahili Canteen in a slightly nicer area of town. Let's just say the kitchen is a little cleaner, so the guides are comfortable taking tourists there...

 The meal was incredible. It is a little hard to describe, but we tried a bunch of dishes. The main foods are vegetables and beef and rice. We had bowls of tomato salad; greens that are kind of like shredded spinach; shredded cabbage that had green bean and carrots; beans in sauce, and actually the best peas I have ever had (and I hate peas), they were spiced just right and had fantastic spices; there was also a meat stew - flavorful, if a bit tough, rice and something that is like polenta, but thicker. There were also sliced bananas to finish the meal. Although they gave us cutlery, we were served chapati, which is similar to naan or a thick tortilla I would guess and they use that as a scoop for their food.

Some of the dishes we tried!

After lunch our last stop was the cultural heritage center that doubles as Arusha's biggest souvenir store. There is a really big art gallery that has incredible masks, furniture, and paintings (all of which are for sale of course) and small buildings that had spices, bead work, and wood carvings. And, of course, there was Tanzanite... Turns out the guy that owns the Tanzanite Experience (mentioned earlier) also owns this whole complex we were at and also has sort of relationship with the main mining operation (although we haven't figured out what yet). As soon as he pulled out his collection of loose gemstones, Josh's eyes were as big as saucers and he was sold. The kid was obsessed as soon as he found out how rare it was and proceeded to try to convince us that it was an excellent investment opportunity... Anyway, we eventually gave in a let him buy and teeny-tiny stone, that is as beautiful as it is small and he feels like he has made his first investment. Don't gets me wrong the guy is a great salesman (and even greater name-dropper), so another loose stone may have been purchased... He is on the level though, so all is well :)

Back at the lodge we walked around a bit (INSIDE the compound) and waited to meet our safari guide Richard, who will be with us the rest of the trip. As we were being briefed, a pack a playful monkeys started running around in the trees and came down to the ground. Josh grabbed the camera and went to take photos. I think this is the first time ever that Josh has been interested in using the camera. The troop of Vervet, or black-faced monkeys and it is made up of a dad (with a blue butt, pointed out by Josh), mom and 4 younger ones. We quickly noticed that there was also a tiny little baby clinging to mom's belly and Josh actually got a really good photo of it! Josh was curious and so were the monkeys; they would follow Josh and one of them actually swatted him on the leg to get his attention - we think he was looking for food... The young ones were busy wrestling and running and they would run after Josh if Josh started running. A couple of times they got a little close for comfort, but eventually ran away. It was just one monkey to another though (with Josh). It was glorious looking at the changing light and drinking a glass of wine while we learning about the upcoming week. We are really looking forward to tomorrow.