More Dar

More Dar

The last few days have been spent in Dar Es Salaam, mostly hanging out with Molly & Logan and exploring the city. We kept planning to take a day trip out to Bongoyo Island, but it never worked out. Monday it was raining, so we scrapped our plans for the island, and we spent a delightful day in the cool air conditioning reading, catching up on emails and news, and doing a little shopping across the street at the market that sells hand crafted goods. That night we made pizzas from scratch that were amazing. Molly and Logan are both great cooks, and they have a fantastic kitchen with every implement you could need. We shared some sparkling wine we had brought from Mendoza, and it complimented the pizza very well.

Tuesday we tried to go to the island again, but the boat driver said he had to have 4 people to go, and we are only 2, no matter how hard we try!  He offered to take us anyway, for the price of 4, but we politely declined. Instead we headed into the city in a bijaji - a 3 wheeled motorcycle taxi with a cover that seats two passengers in the back and the driver up front. It's a great, inexpensive way to get around.  The traffic is often really bad here, and these bijajis can fit through traffic pretty easily. We went first to the national museum, where they have many different exhibitions. One wing has the history of Tanzania and its peoples, from before European "visitors," as they politely called them, through the time of the heaviest slave trading, tgrough German occupation, finally through independence and up to present day. Then they had a very good exhibit on evolution, geared toward middle school age children, that we both really enjoyed. Northern Tanzania is home to the Olduvai Gorge, considered the cradle of civilization or the "birthplace" of man. They had many fossils as well as skulls and bones on display of ancient hominids that have been found there. The Leakys were the most famous anthropologists who did a lot of excavation there, but there have been many others as well. There were several skulls on display of species of hominids I wasn't even familiar with, including one that had a huge ridge along the top of the skull that looked like a mini stegasaurus  Wild!

After the museum we wandered next door to the botanical gardens. We were strolling through when all of a sudden we saw a bunch of Vervet Monkeys.  There were a few grown males and females and quite a few youngsters, who were busy playing in the trees. We sat under one tree and watched them for a long time. The babies were very curious and stayed in the low branches above our heads staring down at us. The adults were wary but definitely wanted food from us, so they inched closer and closer. They were so cute and have very long, prehensile tails that are amazing. 

That evening, a friend of Logan's who works for USAID came over. He had been a Peace Corps volunteer on Samoa, so he and Jonathan had lots to talk about. After sharing some kava he brought from Samoa, we headed out to get some mishkaki - grilled meat on a stick served with French fries. 

The next day Jonathan and I headed back into the city to finalize details of our upcoming trips - Zanzibar, and our safari!  We found a wonderful bijaji driver who took us all around. First stop was the Ubongo bus station, where we needed to get tickets for the following week to take us up to Arusha, in northern Tanzania, where our safari will start. We had been warned that the bus station was crazy, with tons of guys who immediately start trying to help you before you've even gotten out of your vehicle. They pull you and pressure you into going to the bus company that will give them a small commission for bringing customers, and then they demand a tip for having "helped" you. But we are getting to be pros at this, and we avoided them pretty easily. I had done my research on which bus companies were good, and we went straight into those ticket counters, avoiding the pushy guys. Once we got our tickets, our sweet bijaji driver was waiting to take us to our next stop - the ferry ticket offices. 

We will take the ferry out to Zanzibar on Thursday and back on Sunday. This place was even worse with the pushy guys trying to get your business, but again, we knew exactly the company we wanted, and marched straight into and out of their office. 

That night we went out for fabulous Indian food. There is a very large Indian community in Dar, and they have a restaurant as part of a club for badminton players!  Since we are not members, we could not play, but we could pay to eat there.  The food was delicious. I never thought I would be in a private badminton club, but there are surprises around every corner here. 

Tomorrow we're off to Zanzibar, and Molly & Logan will join us there Friday afternoon for the weekend. It is exactly 2 weeks until we are back in the US as I'm writing this. It is so crazy to think how quickly this trip has flown by!!