goodbye Tanzania

well, today is our last full day in tanzania. sad and hard to believe!

since last weekend we spent a few more days relaxing in moshi with jan. on wednesday we went to arusha national park and did a driving plus walking safari. the driving safari was incredible because of the many giraffes we saw - i found these to be the most beautiful and graceful animals we've encountered. the walking tour was not as impressive because it was rather short and only allowed us to view a few water buffalo from a distance and hike up to a small waterfall. the next day, on thursday, we did a cultural tourism program to see a coffee farm. all of the money raised through this program goes to the local coffee farmers. we left early in the morning to get up to this village on the slopes of kilimanharo. its a really beautiful area but unfortunately it was cloudy and overcast (as it often is) so we didnt have much of a view. still it was really interesting because they took us through the whole process of coffee-making from planting the seeds to picking the red berries, putting them through this oldfashioned press in order to separate the shells, roasting, grinding with mortar/pestle and finally we got to taste the coffee we made. after that we had lunch and then they took us to some old caves where the chagga people had hid during wars with the masai. we had to crawl the whole way because the caves were so low and without the flashlight leading us it would have been pitch black inside.

on saturday morning we left to head back towards dar and i thought that since lushoto was on the way (in the usambara mountains) we could stop there to see another area of tanzania. unfortunately it looked much closer on the map than it was in real life. so we had a long bus ride to get there, for the most part on very windy mountain roads. the town is really nice though and in a beautiful location. unfortunately we both didnt feel that good when we got there (not because of the bus ride but i think because of the sip of local banana beer we had taken the day before, after the coffee tour). i had weird stomach pains and felt really tired so we just took a nap. after that we went for a walk but it wasnt enough time to do the hiking that i had originally planned to do. there are supposed to be really beautiful hikes in the area, but i guess i'll have to do those next time. anyway, we just had a relaxing dinner (chicken and chips - the only item on the menu, and we saw the live chicken being brought into the kitchen before it came out on our plates) and a quiet evening of playing cards followed. sunday morning we got on the bus back to dar - a really crazy experience. since lushoto is not on the main road, they dont have any of the nice big buses leaving from there. we took the biggest bus possible but i think it was still one of the lowest classes possible. it was completely packed and we had to use all of our strength just to get on, plus we had to fight (literally) for some time before we got our seats (which were reserved). it ended up being an 8 hour bus ride to dar, which we were not prepared for at all. that bus could win an award for slowest bus ever - even all of the dala-dalas were passing us! anyway, when we got to dar we treated ourselves to a nice indian dinner with red wine. the indian food in dar is really great.

so today is our last day and after that busride we are too tired to do any more travelling. so decided to stay in dar and do some souvenir shopping and maybe sneak into a fancy hotel to use the swimming pool. we'll see. right now it looks like a beautiful day - completely blue sky which we havent had in a while, in the mountains the mornings were always cloudy. hopefully tonight we will have a nice sunset since it will be our last in tanzania.