My Birthday!! in Tanzania

First, thanks for all the birthday email! My golden birthday lived up to twenty seven years of anticipation! We spent the day at Mikumi National Park in Tanzania at an all-inclusive camp and went on three game drives. The lodge had specially modified vehicles with no windows, so we had a 360 degree view. It will probably be the last time in a park where it's just us and the guide, so we get to decide when and how long we stop to watch the animals. We saw many of the animals that we've mentioned before, but we also saw a parrot and SEVEN lions!! The managers took us on our sunset drive and brought a few beers, so we got to watch the sun go down with the hippos and crocs, sipping on Kilimanjaro Lager. At dinner, our guide from the morning drive and a bunch of the other staff carried out a small cake with two candles and sang Happy Birthday. Because of park fees and the high cost of accommodation in the parks, we will probably camp during the rest of our National Park stays, but thanks to a generous birthday gift from Sandy, we decided to splurge. I think we were the first customers they had who wanted to be dropped off on the highway to try to flag down a bus!


To backtrack just a little, I was surprised at how dramatic the change was crossing from Malawi to Tanzania. Driving along the road in Malawi the trees and vegetation was dense. You could occasionally see vistas with huts and gardens on steep mountain sides through an opening in the trees, but once we crossed into Tanzania, there were huge farms everywhere! A lot more developed here. Another adjustment is the bus system. The bus rides have always been an adventure, but until this country, the bus drivers all took turns. There was one bus filling up at a time, and the others waited for their turn. Not here! But one great thing about the buses is that you have access to all the great produce and various other items available in each region! This picture doesn't convey how crazy it gets, but it gives you an idea. Some common choices have been bananas, oranges, roasted maize, samosas, coke, fanta, peanuts, cashews, sun glasses, underwear, and cell phone airtime, to name a few. Buying through the bus window is also great because you can see how much the locals pay for things. This is how it works. You tell someone what you want and they give it to you. Then you show them how much money you have so they can give you your change. After you have your item and your change, you then pay for it.
We spent the last two nights in Dar es Salaam--a city of about three million people, but it still has quite a few dirt roads! We wandered around yesterday and went to their National Museum. It has the 1.75 million year old skull that Mary Leakey dug up in the fifties along with some other amazing items, and most of them weren't even in cases. We took the ferry this morning to Zanzibar (famous Swahili spice island), and we're staying in the old city known as Stone Town. I'm out of time now, but we'll try to post from here again before we leave!