Arrived Safely

Jambo, again.

Here I am in Tanzania, hard to believe I'm actually here.

It all started at O'Hare. Waited in line to check in at United, only to panic when they told me that I had no reservation. Turned out to be just be a wrong code entered by our travel agent, but, wow, what a scary start.

Got to DC with no further issues, and checked in Wednesday morning at Ethiopian Air for our long flight to Addis Ababa. Lovely flight with all the great new features on the Dreamliner, except for the guy in front of me who thought it was his responsibility to test the reclining abilities of his seat. I swear he was up and down at least 150 times, spilled  the water on my tray three times.  Then the cute little six year old Ethiopian girl that was sitting right behind started kicking my seat every time  I started to doze off. Aaaaaagh! So I read some of my Kindle books and watched two movies. The food theu served on the flight was really good, what a contrast from our United cattle car flight. Flight totals: 2 hours from ORD to Dulles, 12.5 to Addis, and another 3 to JRO, a total of almost 7000 miles. (The time here is 8 hoursr later than Chicago. So, as I sit here typing this AM it's 8:00 Friday, and some of you are just going to bed at midnight  Thursday.)

Arriving at JRO, Mt. Kilimanjaro Int'l.

Anyway, the bottom line is we arrived at Mt. Kilimanjaro Airport on time (the mountain was mostly obscured by some high clouds, darn it), flew through the visa and customs process, I saw my first African sunrise over the Red Sea from the plane . I am south of the equator for the first time in my life. And last evening, I saw the Southern Cross for the first time, lotsa firsts, huh?

Arriving at Arusha Mt. Village

Our guide, Robert Marks Moshi, met us at the airport and gave us our safari orientation on the lawn at our hotel, Serena Mountain Village in Arusha. This place is stunning. All the rooms are done in the style of a Masai village, little huts, as you can see in the photo. The food at dinner was fabulous and our breakfast buffet this morning had more choices than a person could make. The coffee is great, strong and flavorful, grown nearby.

Our day today will be a relatively short one, as many are still adjusting to the time change. On this gorgeous morning, we are going to go to a place to learn about tanzanite, a gem found only here in Tanzania, then on to a real Maasai village cultural stop, an outdoor lunch at a local farm, then on to the Lake Manyara Serena Lodge. No animals today, just an easy, relaxed time, then an early game drive on Saturday in Lake Manyara National Park.

Asante Sana again for checking my blog.