On the Road To Ngorongoro

Yesterday was a travel day. An 8.5 hour flight ,followed by a couple hours to get through customs. I'm convinced they add extra steps to the customs process so they can employ more residents.

We had dinner in our hotel at 11 pm once we arrived. I forgot how mush fun it is to be greeted in Africa. Everybody gets a wet wash cloth to wash the dust off your hands (I use on my face too), and a small glass of juice. I have fallen in love with passion fruit juice. Hibiscus juice is okay, just not as flavorful and more tart. I have yet to try the law-paw juice, but I will the next time is available.

The next morning we headed for our lodge at top of Ngorongoro Crater. The crater is the largest caldera in the world - 160. Sq miles. A caldera is an extinct volcano that has been eroded down over time.  They have calculated that the volcano here was once the size of Mt. Kilimanjaro. This course, was millions of years ago.

Along the way, we passed through Arusha, the 3rd largest city. All I can say is we are blessed.

We saw several people tiling the soil by hand,using whatever they had to pound at the soil. Although this is the wet season, they are in a draught. So there isn't much grass and the dirt is very hard. We also saw lots of people caring for their animals (meaning goats, chickens, cows,and maybe a few sheep or donkeys).the goats and chickens are scavengers, so they looked a little skinny, but not to bad. The cows looked malnourished. The majority of cows were just skin and bones showing their ribs and other bones. Reminded me odd concentration camp survivors m it was sad. I am not sure cows belong here. Disney we in the US used to collect money to send a cow to Africa? I think it was a 1970s thing. Now I believe we should have sent goats instead.

We learned that Tanzania is multi-lingual too (America is really behind here). Each person will speak one of the 130 tribe languages, Swahili, and English. Public school primary is taught in swahili. Private school & public secondary is taught in English.

Just before the village we saw a slew of Maasai along the road. They were protesting. Since the Maasai only eat domesticated animals, they have been able to use the water and salt in the Ngorongoro Crater aReserve (since the government knew they would not hunt). The access to the water had just been taken away and they were protesting to get back those rights.

We arrived at our lodge for the next two nights in the late afternoon and they fed us lunch at 4 pm. We had free time until dinner at 7 pm (I can already tell meals will be plentiful but odd hours). Some went to a maasai village,  but I got a massage in hopes that my leg would get better before the Uganda hike to the gorillas.

I did something to my right leg in Amsterdam. Not sure what but it hurts to walk. I can tell my calves ate extremely right, which I'm sure played into the problem.

By the time my massage was over, it was time to eat again. Before going up to the dining room, we got to listen to a group of young people (18-25??) In the bar playinf music, singing songs, and doing gymnastics.