Weekend Photos: Arusha, Tanzania

Since I'm still struggling to even get a good start on my photo edits from the recent Africa trip (hey, I took over 5000 shots. That's a lot of editing, even when I delete all the photos of the spot where an animal was a moment before, accidental videos of my feet, and blurry images shot in too-great excitement).

The majority of this trip was organized through Popote Africa Adventures, who did an excellent job at a very reasonable price, and are completely locally owned (based in Moshi, the standard jumping-off point for climbs of Kilimanjaro).

To get us started, here are a few shots from our arrival and brief tour of Arusha, our jumping-off point for our Tanzanian Safari and, later, climb of Mt. Meru.

My companions on this trip were my brother-in-law, our nephew and his partner, and in this first part of the trip, a backpacking friend of mine.

Packed and ready. Carry-on daypack includes such essentials as my camera and hiking boots. Strapped outside my checked bag is a waterproof duffel, needed (sort of) for the treks. I put the suitcase into it for flights.

In our quest for a semi-reasonable airfare, my BiL and I ended up flying out of Seattle after dark (and eventually arriving at the airport in Tanzania at 2:30 a.m.). The sun rose somewhere over Greenland, or possibly the (far) North Atlantic.

Sunrise on an icy landscape.

We landed, as noted, about 2:30 a.m. after a plane change in Istanbul, and reached our rooms in the Arusha Planet Lodge about 4 a.m., which my body read as 3 p.m. I couldn't sleep, but the hotel was a peaceful oasis (with AC) in a hot, noisy landscape.

The grounds of the Arusha Planet Lodge. Rooms are in the small "huts" scattered through the heavily irrigated grounds.

Pretty sure these were my first bananas growing on a tree.

Petey Possum went everywhere with me. Here, he's contemplating the zebra-striped bedding in my comfortable room.

With the rest of our group not arriving until the following evening Tom and I had delusions of getting out and doing or seeing something, but reality struck with the jet lag and the heat, and we did no more than a short stroll down the road outside the hotel compound. Even that revealed a different world, one much hotter and dustier. 

Shops appeared to be ramshackle, sometimes little more than shacks, but the goods were clean and new.

 

 

 

Very strange to American eyes, seeing nice furniture displayed on a dirt "sidewalk".

We soon noticed that trucks in the area are heavily decorated in individual art, often reflecting the owner/driver's religious beliefs. Many bore prayers for safety, which seemed reasonable given the state of the roads and the way people drive.

The following day, with our whole party assembled, Popote arranged a trip into the city for us. Arusha has about 550,000 inhabitants in the metro area, but none of what we saw felt like a city to me, with very few high-rise buildings (and even fewer of those appeared finished). We were taken to a Masai Market, where the locals sell to tourists, and to a local food market, as well as to the official African Art Gallery.

I was happy to spot a local library, though I had no chance to find out if they work on the free use system of our US libraries.

The Masai Market had many cool things, but with no sense of appropriate prices, nor time to browse everything, we mostly didn't buy. Everyone had the same sales pitches (and many identical items), so we rapidly ceased to believe in the grandmother who hand-wove fabrics or the artist displaying "his own work," identical to the prints in the next stall. (Some of those prints were cool, and I'd have been more inclined to buy if they told the truth about them).

A typical stall at the Masai Market

The food market we visited had two sides, the "women's market," where women both bought and sold in household quantities, and the "men's market," where vendors of both genders sold in more like restaurant-sized lots, though I suspect bulk items like beans could be bought in more modest quantities.

Fruits and veggies in the Women's Market looked wonderful--the  climate really is perfect for farming.

Giant baskets of dried beans in more varieties than I knew existed caught my eye in the men's market.

Other foods were less attractive.

Fresh-caught fish were abundant, mostly fresh-water species.

Lots of chickens, ready to be hauled home and butchered for very fresh meat.

From the market we proceeded to the African Art Gallery, where we were mostly distracted by a) the restaurant, where we could finally get lunch, and b) the gift shop, which was huge and full of really cool stuff.

I really wanted a 10-foot tall giraffe, or one of the "family tree" carvings, but practicality interfered.

We were told that these represent the carver's family history. I can't vouch for that, but at least each one was unique.

Christianity was introduced to the area early, so in addition to traditional figures, there were some cool Nativity sets done in an African style. I wanted to get one for my brother the preacher, but again, transportation issues prevented me.

 

In our driving around I was also bemused by the children in school uniforms--uniforms more suited to England than Africa, and a legacy of the British control of the area until the 1960s. I felt sorry for kids wearing long pants and sweaters in 90-degree heat, though the locals seemed much less bothered by the heat than I was!

The following day, we left on safari, with a sneak preview of Mt. Meru as we headed out of town. All of us but Sumi would be heading there in a week.

Up next: Tarangire National Park and lots of animals--check back next week to see what progress I've made with the photos :)

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2024
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