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Wednesday, October 8: 5 pm
Touched down at Kilimanjaro Airport about 8:30 pm Tuesday (last
night). Very excited - my seventh continent! It was warm and muggy
stepping onto the tarmac. Very tropical here on the equator.
 We
were met by Tobias, a game driver from Voyagers, who drove us to
the Dik Dik hotel, close to Arusha National Park. Driving is on
the left. Paved road, one of just a few. People walking in the dark
alongside the road, some with flashlights. Coke and Pepsi signs
are numerous, as everywhere in the world. Speed bumps mark the village
borders, constructed in an effort to keep reckless African drivers
from killing pedestrians. A police car on the side of the road makes
doubly sure.
Deb notices that the crescent moon is tipped
over more, here on the equator, than it was when we saw it two days
ago in New York. We travel between Mt Kilimanjaro and Mt Meru, but
see neither in the darkness. The breeze coming through the land
rover feels good. The air smells earthy, fragrant, and alive. Not
like NY.
We turn down a dirt road, and a guard opens
the gate to the Dik Dik Hotel. Even in the dark we can see that
colorful bougainvillea line the drive. As we check into this posh
place, they give us a welcome beer, and escort us to the dining
area outside, where we meet David and Michelle from California,
already arrived from Nairobi. A nice young couple, they run a consulting
firm near San Francisco.
We are served a seven course meal: two appetizers,
soup, salad, sherbet, entree, and dessert. Much more than we expected!
Very good food, and somehow we manage to eat most of it. At 10:30
they showed us to our bungalows, complete with electricity, flush
toilet, shower - again, more than we expected. The bed has a mosquito
net around it, although we have yet to see one. No sheets, just
a comforter. But we're tired, and drift off easily. I woke in the
night for a few hours, in the blackness, not adjusted to the time
change. Finally made it back to sleep.
October 9
Up this morning at 7 am. Hot shower, pack for the day. I took pictures
of Mt Meru on the way to breakfast. Bread, cereal, fruit, eggs and
bacon. Plenty. At 8:30 Tobias and Pokare load us into two rovers,
and off we go to Arusha National Park, excited to get underway.
Coffee and banana plantations along the way. Locals walking to work.
A man urinates on the side of the road. Some passersby (particularly
children and women) smile and say 'Jambo!' Others (particularly
the men) are expressionless, their eyes like black holes, and I
can only guess what they think of us wealthy visitors. Children
wave freely, the weight of their world not yet set in.
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