Down Under

Well I've been in Australia for over a week now so I'll fill you in on the local haps. It was a pretty easy 14 hour flight over the Pacific because I slept most of the way and the seat next to me was empty which is pretty much like being in first class to me. Customs was no problem as they didn't even run my bags through the xray after questioning me if I was carrying any microwave popcorn or beef jerky in them. Seriously??? So anyway my buddy Dave picked me up as promised with a cold Aussie beer to greet me to his country. I met Dave and his (girlfriend at the time) but now wife Pavelina, Pav for short, 5 years ago when we were traveling in Thailand. Since then we have met up again in Germany and England while they were living there, and now Australia, so we have built quite a friendship. First impression of Oz.....clean, and very similair to being in the United States apart from the near language barrier of their Aussie English and driving on the left hand side. The first night we had a "barbie" at their house to welcome the "yank" to Australia. They live on the northern beaches of Sydney, which is about a 45 minute drive from downtown, in an apartment that sits literally across the street from the beach. I checked out Sydney and their neighborhood on my own the next few days while they were at work and enjoyed the beach. We went to a steakhouse with Dave's friend Owen and his girlfriend Sarah whom I also met in England for St Pattys Day. You got to choose, season, and grill your own steak, not exactly the most Irish thing to do but oh well. Over their weekend we went down to Sydney to see some live music that some of Dave's friends from New Zealand had scouted out. We ate at a nice Thai restaurant, which come a dime a dozen in Sydney. Prices however in Australia have nothing to do with dimes, it's more like fifties and hundos! Whatever the price is of anything at home you can expect to double it here. I find beer is a unique currency to judge the cost of living in an area, which you can get at the pub here for about 6 to 7 dollars in a glass that is smaller than a pint. That will keep a guy sober, but it doesn't seem to slow the Australians down at all. I pay about 20 dollars a meal every time I eat out, and gas is nearing 6 dollars a gallon. Even being a cheap ass is expensive here! Anyway, we checked out a professional rugby game when Dave's local team played another team down in Sydney. Fans are pretty into rugby to put it lightly. After the game we went down to the Rocks which is where the famous oprah house that you see when you think of Sydney is and did the tourist thing for a while. On monday I rode the bus with Pav to the city and caught a train to pick up the campervan I rented for the rest of the trip. Driving it back to Daves place through Sydney was an adventure to say the least, but I only got turned around a couple of times. Let me tell you navigating city traffic alone when you don't really know where the hell your going in the first place and you're driving on the "wrong" side of the road can be a challenging experience. I left Dave's headed for the Blue Mtns which is a popular climbing destination and national park about 2 hours from Sydney. It pissed the entire drive and all of that night which is Australian for pouring down rain. It has rained every day I've been here except the first day. Not exactly the most tropical vacation I had in mind but there's not much you can do about the weather. Today the sun actually broke through and I went hiking / climbing partner searching through the Mtns. I came across a New Zealand couple that were more than happy to share a rope with me. They were from Christchurch and just took a short 2 week climbing vacation to get away from all the disaster that's happened from the quake. When all else fails, go climbing, I like their philosophy. It felt great to be finally climbing outside in nice weather on some really steep sandstone cliffs. My arms didn't feel quite the same as they were reaping the repercussions of having such good time in Sydney for a week, but they pushed on through. Climbing on sandstone can be a bit rough on the fingertips that have been protected in winter gloves for the last few months. I'm sure they will either callus or scab over, hopefully the first of the two haha. The blue mtns are an amazing array of an almost jungle like dense vegetation and giant sandstone cliffs soaring out from everywhere. My first experience wondering through the trails I was always on the lookout for snakes and spiders and every other thing that's been built up to kill you in Australia. Just as I got comfortable a 2 foot long iguana / lizard looking thing jumped up on the trail to greet me and scare the shit out of me. We had a stare down, which I eventually won when he got tired of me taking pictures of him. The Kiwis and I have plans to climb together for the next 2 days in the Blue mountains before I head back towards the coast to meet Dave, Pav, and several of their mates for a 4 day camping trip on the coast north of Sydney.

In a Nutshell

Well It's been since our trip to Africa that I have written anything on the blog, so I will briefly catch up. Post Africa we ate up what was left of the summer in the great Pacific Northwest. We kayaked and rafted the Salmon River on the stretch near Riggins, ID for our annual fire dept. float trip. No lives or equipment were sacrificed to the river so all in all a successful trip. Shortly after we made a trip to Lake Koocanusa near Libby, MT for some general camping and climbing at Stone Hill. Early September came and Amanda started back at school so our adventures were mostly limited to extended weekends and vacations. We went camping with Amanda's family at a place called Gospel's Hump in central Idaho and stayed at a historic ranger house that is now rented out for overnight stays. In late September I had my first experience of bidding for and buying a vehicle on Ebay. What was I thinking haha! It may not seem like it, but sittingaround a computer watching the clock expire on a vehicle you're bidding on that you may actually win and have to pay for can be a rather nerve racking experience! I think was in a bit of shock when I saw that I won. My first thought, "oh shit, I won, now what"? Well after getting a small loan squared away and a few phone calls I was soon on a plane to southern California to pick up my new ride with my friend Dylan who came along just forfun. I bought a 2008 Ford Econoline Cargo Van from a private security company that had purchased the van new with plans of making it a surveillance vehicle. They never put the vehicle into service and it just sat on their property collecting dust, and was basically a write off for them to get rid of it, which I gladly took off their hands with less than 3,000 miles on it! We took our time driving back and stayed a night in California, visited friends and stayed the night in Ashland, OR, stayed another night in Portland with more friends, visited my grandparents in Sumner, WA, went to the Octoberfest in Leavenworth WA, and ended at a Jack JohnsonConcert at the Gorge. The van you may ask I will be slowly converting into a custom campervan to support the life of a cheap outdoor enthusiast. Jordan and I made a climbing trip to Vantage Washington and Chimney Rock to close the season before he took off for Japan and Southeast Asia.
A lot of October was spent adding hardwood floors to my house, painting bedrooms, turning a bedroom into an adventure room, and giving the house a basic facelift. Late November marked the beginning of our ski season which has since kept me busy for most of the winter. All in all I got almost 20 days in on the season and made it to Canada, Montana, and Jackson WY for ski trips. The rest of the time was spent ritually driving back and forth to Spokane to go climbing at the gym to try and stay in climbing shape. As of this blog I have officially hung up my skis for the winter and my bags are packed to catch a plane Monday morning. I am headed to the Land Down Under for a sunny month and a half of climbing, attempting to surf, diving, and chilling with my "mates" that I've met from other travels. I am flying solo on this trip as Amanda and Cliff will be holding the fort down and educating our youth. My friend Dave is picking me up from the airport and I'll stay a while with he and his wife in the Sydney area before picking up the camper van I rented and heading off to the outback! Well, technically I won't really be going to the "outback" per-say, but off to explore what Australia has to offer. More to come once I cross the pond....

Pictures Above: Chimney Rock ID, Vantage WA, Big Mountain MT, Jackson Hole WY

Pole Pole

From Nungwi we ventured along the east coast of Zanzibar from north to south. Our first stop was at a village known as Matemwe. The east side of Zanzibar has redeemed itself a bit to me and was a step up from a more populated west coast. There seemed to be minimal trash, the beaches were clean, the villages were peaceful, and most of all the everyday touts we've been escaping had all but vanished. We settled in at Keys Bungalows, ran by a quirky string of Rastafarians, of which the owner was also the owner of the motorcycle rental business we had used previously, and he agreed to a fair discount for return customers. We both felt truly relaxed on the beach at Matemwe, as the only noise around was the crashing of waves against the reef from afar and the wind blowing in a refreshing breeze through the open screens of our fort like upstairs bedroom of the bungalow. When you think of postcard beaches, this is it. The sand was as white and fine as flour, the beach stretched on for miles backed by palm trees, the water was an unreal shade of turquoise, dhows (medieval looking wooden watercrafts propelled by a sail and used by the fisherman) rested where the water meets the sand, little kids played, colorfully dressed women picked seaweed, and best of all there were almost no other people around. For a few short days at Matemwe we turned off our "traveling" mode and went into vacation mode, as funny and odd as that may sound to some. It was a good time to lie in the beachside hammocks and read or just contemplate life. Of course those that know me well know that I'm not really the sit around the beach for days on end kind of guy without some sort of activity to be entertained with, so Amanda and I booked a diving and snorkeling trip to the nearby private island of Mnemba, known for its stunning reef and array of sea life. It's also known for the private and only resort on the island that costs a mere 1500 dollars a night per person to stay. I didn't think we could negotiate them down to the 30 dollars a night we were paying at Matemwe, so we didn't bother setting foot on the island and just stuck to the playing in the waters offshore. I did two reef dives with a relatively strong current directing the direction of the dives. Amanda snorkeled in two different sites, and the animal lover she is was pretty excited about frolicking with her "underwater friends". She was a bit jealous though when I told her about the sea turtle that swam by us on our first dive. For those that know Amanda, you know how she likes her turtles. Next to our bungalow was a fish market that every afternoon came to life when the local fisherman brought in their "catch of the day". Locals gathered to make deals on the fresh catch and children assisted the fisherman by literally beating the shit out of the octopus they caught in the sand with a big stick to help tenderize it. The catch of the day was also served up every night at our bungalow. We rented a Vespa again while staying at Matemwe so we could get some supplies from a less remote village, and also travel the rest of the east coast down in order to scout out our next stop and reserve some accommodation. We took about four hours driving down the coast, stopping to check out new villages and beaches. We decided the town of Paje would be it. The ride home was two hours of straight driving, which combined is a long time to ride on most motorcycles, let alone riding double on a Vespa, but we had a good time! We stopped on the way home to catch a local football (soccer, but wouldn't dare call it that here) game. We both found it funny that out of a crowd of about 200 spectators, Amanda was the only woman there. After our ride, we speculated that it would cost us roughly 100 dollars total to take a taxi from the remote village we were staying to our new found home on the southern end of the island, or spend the better part of a day transferring from dalla dalla (local mini-bus type vehicle) to dalla dalla which would make for an exceptionally long journey. In the end an idea was born. The town that our motorcycle rental was from is Stonetown, and was located more than halfway to our destination of Paje, but on the other side of the island. Taxis however are plentiful there and it would be much cheaper to negotiate a deal from Stonetown to Paje, rather than from Matemwe to Paje. We had the option to either leave the Vespa at the bungalow in Matemwe or return it in Stonetown. Herein lies the idea and the problem at the same time. Could we manage to transport myself, Amanda, and all our luggage (two backpacks, a messenger bag, a smaller daypack, a gallon of water and a can of pringles) on a Vespa? Seemed like an option worth exploring. So, we managed to strap my pack on the very back fender, Amanda's pack on her back resting atop of my strapped pack, her messenger bag slung over the top of her pack, my backpack became a chestpack, and the rest of the goods we managed to stuff into the glove box. A site worth seeing as later pictures will reveal. After we got off the sand roads that stretched from our bungalow out to the main roads, things surprisingly went pretty smoothly and we were even making some good time. A few laughs from the locals never hurt my feelings. All was well and sunny for the first hour of our journey, until one of the biggest tropical rainstorms that I have ever witnessed took place within minutes. At first a little sprinkle, yeah I can deal with that, then a steady rain, okay I won't melt, then seriously, an all out torrential downpour from the gods and we were soon driving in a foot of chocolate milk looking water. Prior to this point, had we no where to be and no rental to return on time, pulling over and waiting out the storm for an hour or two may have been an option, but we were already soaked to the bone and uncomfortable so we figured we may as well just push on through. We cruised the chocolate river at a speed you could probably run faster than for a good half an hour until we finally made it into Stone town, hoping not to hit a sunken pothole and dodging the wakes of buses doing Mach 3 through the flooded streets with little regard for the poor, stupid tourists that decided to ride in this mess the whole way. In the end, well we made it without ruining any of our luggage, accessories, or ourselves, and surprisingly, while we were soaked thoroughly, most of the clothes and gear inside our packs actually stayed relatively dry! And..............the ride from Stone town to Page only cost us 25 dollars, worth every second of being drenched to a couple frugal backpackers! Page was a nice village with an even nicer beach with a good vibe. It seemed to be a mellow place and a hotspot for kite boarding. While not a kite boarder myself, I still found it plenty entertaining watching some very skilled riders catch 30 feet of air and novices crash hardily into the shallow waters. During our stay in Paje we caught a live band, mingled with the locals, and went for a few runs on the beach that stretched 3 towns long. Paje marked the beginning of the end of our African adventure. We now sit back in Stonetown waiting to catch a ferry in the morning to Dar es Salam. In Dar we will spend 2 nights before another long bus ride up to Moshi, where we will stay another 2 nights before flying home over a period of 2 pieced together days. Pole Pole are we on our way of course, as the Africans frequently say, which means slowly slowly.

Beached

Amanda and I have made our way north on the island of Zanzibar to a beach village called Nungwe. We found some accommodation up here that is about 150' from the beach, not quite waterfront real estate but close enough. We made a deal with the owner when we drove up earlier on our scooter, because our room we think / hope is an unfinished work in progress that we were happy to settle with for the price he offered. For 25 dollars a night you can't really ask for much more unless you don't want to be anywhere near the beach, where the starting price we've found for most places is about 40 to 50 dollars a night. Our little place called home here is quite possibly one of the most spartan places I've ever stayed, which is all you really need when the beach is just out your doorstep. Those of you at home that have often teased me about some of the places I've stayed at in the past would have a real hay day with this one. It is literally a concrete box that contains; a bed in one area, and cordoned off by half a cement wall is a bathroom with a toilette, sink, and cold water shower. The rest is emptiness that we manage to decorate with our bags and clothes and such. No shelves, no tables, no chairs, no decorations, no bathroom shelves, no wastebasket, a partially covered cement floor is what you get, but we are both content because we are simple, cheap, and don't really spend much time here but to sleep. Now that I've about beat that subject to death I'll move on. The rest of our time earlier spent in Stonetown we did a few excursions and mostly just got lost in the cobblestone maze. I went on a diving trip out near one of the smaller islands that Amanda was planning on snorkeling during, but came down with a bit of the bug. We did two dives, one along a coral reef, and the other an old broken up shipwreck. Visibility wasn't great because there was a slight current, but none the less diving in the turquoise water of the warm Indian Ocean is always amazing. The highlight of the sea life under water was probably a huge octopus we found that took off and changed colors to blend into the sand. There is a lot of hype about spice tours on the island, so figured we better see what it was all about. It actually ended up being more interesting than I had originally made up my mind it would be. Our guide escorted us around a giant plantation in the middle of the island and showed us how they grow and process cinnamon, cloves, vanilla, nutmeg (which he said and I quote is "known here to make people horney"), peppercorns, lemongrass, curry, cocoa, coffee, and a handful of other fruits and spices, all of which we got to either taste, smell, or at least look at. We were followed around by these boys that made us rings, ties, baskets, and an assortment of other items out woven banana leaves, for a small tip of course. After the walk through of the plantation we had a traditional lunch that included many of the spices we had just seen. That was followed by a trip to a "slave cave", which is a naturally formed cave found just off the beach with a small entrance nearly a quarter mile from the water. The cave was once used to hide slaves that were to be exported after the prohibition of slavery. It was an eerie feeling kind of like I felt when visiting a concentration camp from the holocaust once I was down inside the cave, which was the size of one story commercial pole barn, to think that hundreds of slaves were piled in there and often died there. There was a tunnel that went all the way out to the beach so they could ship them out to sea. Stonetown is chalk full of history from that era, most of which I have just learned while being here, may have dozed off a few times during Mr. Jones' world history class back in high school, but I doubt it was covered. We rented a scooter to kill most of a day to do some exploring of our own and also check on some accommodation up north where we sit today. It's kind of a sad picture, Zanzibar is really. There are a few stretches along the coast of absolutely naturally beautiful beaches that are dotted with a few hotels, guesthouses, and tourist shops, but outside these small false worlds lie a place full of poverty, lack of education, pollution, and full of garbage almost as if it were one giant landfill. I guess if you are able to close your eyes from the time you depart the ferry and be privately transferred to your little getaway out of town on the beach somewhere and never set foot further, then Zanzibar is a paradise, otherwise it's a sad truth that's difficult to look away from. All you have to do is walk from where the sand of the beach meets the dirt of the land to see where this drastic line that separates this perfect little beach world from the realities of life in this country. That being said, I guess I'm not here on any save the planet or it's people kind of mission myself, but if nothing else I think it's good to have an understanding of the realities of the places you visit rather than just exploit the couple of hotspots and be on the way. In a perfect world in my made up mind the hotels and businesses where everybody spends their money here would be required to give a percentage to ensure the beautiful natural resources here are protected and kept clean. I personally would rather spend money that pays the wages of the people that could potentially clean up the area in the form of a fee or what have you than to some guy who collects commission by harassing me to buy knock off goods or go on a snorkeling trip in which a resort collects all the money from. There are plenty of jobs that could be utilized, plenty of people unemployed, and plenty of people including myself spending money here. If only it could be directed properly. I enjoy leaving the beach and wondering through the villages where you find a different kind of people than either the tourists on the beach or the locals that work there in that environment that tend to leave a bad taste in your mouth when they do nothing but harass you and pretend to have an interest in what you are doing in order to determine how they may take some of your money, and schematically most of the time too. It's difficult to think that this is not the way all the people are here, but a trip down the road to mingle helps with that. They are people that wave at you, tell you hello, help you find your way, and are mostly just as curious about you as you are them. Their prices on goods match the economic situation of the place and not that of modern America like the beach resort prices reflect and I'm glad to support their shops. I know this isn't the only place in the world with this type of situation, but it's very profound to me here. Moving on. The women here can be seen gather seaweed when the tide is out every morning. I've had a couple of really good meals of seafood here including red snapper, dorado, tuna, octopus, and prawns, all served in many different ways. Other than the seafood, I wouldn't be planning a culinary vacation to Tanzania or Zanzibar any time soon. As the Lonely Planet says and I quote, "the lively atmosphere and Tanzanian hospitality compensate for what can otherwise be known as a bland diet." When I was in town the other day I came across a bottle of gold, also known as Tabasco, a staple from home that has been a delightful treat to remedy some bland meals and the never ending national standard breakfasts of an egg, white toast, banana, and an orange. Sometimes I feel like I'm in the movie Groundhog Day when I go to breakfast in the morning, and it doesn't matter where you eat, that's breakfast. Amanda and I have both had short bursts of some kind of bug that we don't think it's related to the food, who knows really, but it seems to have subsided. We went to a full moon party the other night, which didn't quite mimic that of Thailand's notably world famous full moon party in Koh Phangen, but it was a nice beach. It too was a bit of a scam, but I won't get into the details. We've also just enjoyed some good ol fashion beach life of lounging around in the sand, reading some books (yes mom you'd be so proud), and swimming in the turquoise waters. I'm not much of a swimmer, I mean I sink like lead rather, but I gave it hell yesterday to try and get some form of cardio in. I definitely miss my regular exercise routine and solid meals from home when I'm traveling. Every night there has been some form of entertainment on the beach whether it be acrobats or just sitting around a beach bonfire. Tomorrow we are off to a beach town called Matemwe on the north east side of the island, which is supposed to be pretty remote.

Zanzibar so far

The next step in our journey brings us to Zanzibar, which included a 9 1/2 hour bus ride from Moshi to Dar es Salam, a quick overnighter in Dar es Salam, a couple hour ferry ride to the island, and into Stone Town at last. We had one casualty along the way when we (I) lost the lonely planet somewhere between the chaos of customs in Zanzibar and the exit gate, which to the traveler is kind of like a holy man losing his only bible. Luckily and randomly the hotel we are staying at happened to have a copy in their give and take book shelf and we were back in business. Zanzibar is historically known as an island primarily involved in the slave trade and the spice business. Today it is mostly tourism and beautiful beaches, but still produces and imports a fair share of spices such as vanilla, cinnamon, lemon grass, and many others. Stone town has big colonial buildings and narrow cobblestone streets that are like a labyrinth through the town, and some are so narrow I can nearly reach my hand from one side of the street to the other and are obviously too narrow to drive anything but a motorcycle on. Many look like alleys you wouldn't consider walking if it were in any other city but they happen to be main drags here. It is a Muslim community and things are rather conservative. Zanzibar has an overwhelming number of touts known as papasi in Swahili which translates to ticks, rightfully so. They are pesky people that swarm you everywhere you go that want you to stay at a motel, go on a spice tour, take a trip to an island, get a taxi, sell you some sunglasses, etc, and they have a tendency to become rather annoying. They get a small cut of the price you pay if they lead you to a certain hotel, restaurant, or shop, so needless to say there are a lot of "extra-friendly" very persistent people around. That aside, tonight we went to one of the gardens, like a small town park, that was full of food vendors of all sorts offering nearly every kind of grilled sea food, bread, sugarcane juice, and much more, all Ala' cart style. For those at home it's Pig out in the park if you will that happens every night, and reasonably priced at that! I tried a small piece of grilled octopus tonight, something not usually found on the traditional menu. If I were to describe the food here in Africa in one word, it would be carbs. It's tough to find a meal that isn't made up of primarily carbohydrates, not always the healthiest ones either and often fried. Being a health nut and all, it's difficult to maintain a consistent balanced diet while traveling due to inconveniences and availability of most food, but I'd be a hungry fellow if I tried to eat in the same fashion I do at home. I will say I am ready for something other than eggs and white bread for breaky, and I'm starting to crave some of Ma's home cookin. Fruits and vegetables are plentiful here however, it's just preparation of the vegetables that becomes difficult, as we're not backpacking with a traveling kitchen. Okay enough on that tangent.

Lions and elephants and rhinos oh my!

You may have guessed by the title that we are now on the safari part of our journey. We chose to do a 3 day safari of Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater, and Tarangire Natianal parks. Some travelers we've talked with have done five day safaris, and I've heard a lot of complaining about the length, so we settled on 3 due to that and money. We also contemplated the Serengeti, but it takes a full days drive just to get there and heard the animals are more sparse due to how vast the area is and the fact it is the dry season. It is roughly 200 dollars a day on the lower end with a reputable company to do a safari in any one of the parks not including tips and drinks. You can find some vendors in town offering trips for somewhat less and others that put on exceptionally high end 5 star safari and lodging for prices that are off the books, but common we're teachers and firefighters here and happy to sleep in a tent. I'm currently writing on the end of day two and I can say I'm quite satisfied with our choice. I'm not burned out on it yet, and both yesterday and today have been incredibly full of exotic wildlife viewing, however once we finish up tomorrow I will be glad not to be sitting in the back seat of a dusty landcruiser any more. Every safari vehicle here is a Toyota landcruiser, complete with two spare tires, a snorkel, and a pop top roof for viewing animals. Yesterday in Lake Manyara, we saw a variety of baboons, monkeys, flamingos, hippos, giraffes, elephants, and impalas. I convinced our guide Decko to let me drive the landcruiser today which he surprisingly didn't have a problem with once we left the hotel. Driving a manual safari vehicle on the left hand side on African roads is an experience all in itself. The second day of the Safari we visited the Ngorongor Crater, which is a giant landmass inside of a volcanic crater, plum full of wild life in which we saw several lions, buffalo, wilder beasts, warthogs, hyenas, zebras, hippos, rhinos, serval cats, dic dics, gazelles, impalas, ostriches, baboons, and many more . The Maasai people lived on this land and it is not considered a National park, but a conservation area rather, because they still live there to this day surviving in the same primitive ways they used to. They raise and eat cows and goats, carry spears, and live in harmony with all the wildlife in the park. Our guide Decko is full of all kinds of facts about the parks and all the animals and well educated in the animal behaviors. As a safari guide during the high season, he spends more time than I could ever handle sitting in the driver seat of his landcruiser, and sometimes stops for short cigarette breaks, which I can hardly blame the guy as I'd probably take up smoking just as an excuse to get out from time to time if I were in his shoes. He offered for me to drive several times after he first let me take the wheel, which was kind of like a vacation for him, and a mutual pleasure for me. While it is the busy tourist season, it is the dry season in the parks and many animals have migrated north to Kenya. That being said, I couldn't even imagine the amount of wildlife in these parks during the wet season, it is overwelming in the dry season as is. We spent the night in a jungle safari lodge with our own private bungalow, complete with an Irish bar of all things, and a great dish of food served for dinner. Our last day we spent in Lake Manyara Park which is known as elephant paradise, rightfully so. Included in the park is an area known as Little Serengeti, and is a similar landscape to its larger counterpart, so we felt we were getting the best of both worlds. A safari is exactly what it sounds like, and probably much more exciting to partake in than read a blog about with no pictures, so I will end it at that. After a good few days and 1,000 some odd pictures later we headed back to Moshi, dozing off most the way.

Karibu Sauna Tanzania

Now that we have been in Africa for a couple of weeks, granted one of them was spent on a mountain, where the culture doesn't quite equate to that of mainstream Africa, but I feel we have gotten a small taste of what Tanzania is about. The people here are a colorful mix of dress, style, language, religion, and tradition. It is a mix of what I imagine modern day America would be like if our Native Americans walked around town wearing head dresses, moccasins, and buckskin pants all while carrying a bow and arrow and talking on a cell phone as they delivered you a pizza. People here at any given place and time are either dressed in traditional tribal dress, a fine mix of the American 80's era with some awesome neon attire and Chicago Bulls shirts, or traditional business wear of slacks and a nice shirt. The cities are busy and loud and it's almost a strain on the eyes to try and capture what is going on around you at any given time. Colorful markets fill most empty spaces with fruit and vegetables of just about any sort, and avocados the size of a grapefruit (I'm not kidding)! Religious prayers can be heard at all times of the day (and unfortunately night) being blazed out of loudspeakers in cars, temples, or from personal messengers on foot. Earplugs have become a staple in my travel bag and having them here has been a luxury. The cities are very smoggy as there is little emphasis on emission control and fires burn freely just about anywhere for either cooking or trash disposal. The roadways are busy and it is common to see a broken down bus or vehicle anywhere alongside the road. Dalla dallas are a site to see let alone travel in, as they are a minivan type vehicle that pack so many people in them that several passengers must have half their torso's hanging out the window due to lack of space. The only nuisances thus far have been the typical hagglers and touts that post up around common tourist areas and try to sell you some sort of useless goods, convince you to book with certain companies, offer to show you around, sell you drugs, etc, and every place has there share of them in some way or form. Other than that, people here have been most helpful and kind. Children are most fascinated with travelers and full of curiosity as they stare, wave, high five, chase you, and play games with you. They are either in school uniforms of different sorts, tending to livestock, or playing around the neighborhood. I am told that only about 50% of children here can afford to go to school. There is a lot of Indian influence in many of the places we've been and it's been a nice treat to the pallet to supplement the African cuisine. Tanzanians and I'm assuming Africans in general are huge fans of our president. Obama signs can be seen all over town along with Obama graffiti on walls, Obama shirts, Obama comments to us Americans, and even Obama underwear is often sold in the streets. It is a common site to see the Maasai people herding their livestock with spears in hand outside of town, which I am told are the equivalent of money to their people, and a man with a lot of cows will be more likely to marry because he can offer the father of his bride some of his cows / wealth. I am often impressed by the things that people here, primarily women, are able to carry on their heads. Abstract loads of all shapes,sizes, and weights rest comfortably atop their heads as they go about their day to day business as if it were a hair-do.