Eye in the Sky...and other weekend activities

This past weekend was my second full weekend in Tanzania. The first weekend I was here, I was basically hotel-ridden fighting off jetlag and just getting used to being here so I didn't venture out much. After spending a week at the office & the hotel, I was looking forward to the weekend and having some normal "vacation" time.

Because this is a work trip and my schedule is so packed, I really wanted to maximize whatever free time I had available to me. I had initially wanted to find a tour group and go do something adventerous (Kilimanjaro, anyone?) but the tourism in Tanzania is very self-driven. Anything with a group of people requires a minimum week-long commitment since they're complete vacation packages. I couldn't find anything that was in a day-trip format where it wouldn't just be me and a tour guide. Since the shortest climb for Kilimanjaro is 5 days, I also knew that it would be impossible (not to mention physically taxing beyond my comfort zone) for me to attempt that.

I had talked to my co-workers about the availability of a small charter airplane that could take me on a scenic flight around Kilimanjaro and some of the neighboring sights and they pointed me in the direction of a known charter company in Tanzania I could inquire with. I sent them an email and was basically told that it would cost me over $2K for a 2 hour flight. YIKES! They were kind enough to give me the phone number for another guy they know that runs a small aero-club and that I should give him a call. Several phone calls later and my Sunday morning flight was confirmed!

I met Michael at a small airstrip Sunday morning at 6:45am. After doing our pre-flight preparations, we were off! I took a short video of our takeoff, but you might want to turn the sound down since all you can hear is the engine :)

We took a 2 hour flight and basically crossed between the mountains, over a portion of the Serengeti and right over the middle of the Ngorongoro Crater. We also got to fly pretty damn close to the Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano and it was actually spewing ash cloud! It was an awesome experience and I honestly couldn't thank Michael enough for taking me up Sunday. It was such a great way to see so much of Tanzania in a short amount of time. I added some of my favorite pictures to my Facebook album so be sure to check it out. For all you aviation fans out there, I also got video of the landing too :) HOORAY FOR FLYING!!

Backtracking to Saturday, I took the time to go into town and be a tourist. I went to two markets, the Maasai market and the Cultural Heritage center. The Maasai market was an open air market where locals bring all kinds of stuff to sell. There were tons of hand-carved wooden figurines, beaded jewelry, and artwork. Luckily, I had Mary with me so she was able to help me barter and get good prices. It's always fun to see the amazing talent the locals have, especially when it comes to creating stuff that the tourists just eat up :) Afterwards, we went to the Cultural Heritage center. It was a much "nicer" place (= $$) but they had a large selection of high-quality shirts (I can now claim that I climbed Kilimanjaro because my shirt says so) and tanzanite jewelry. Personally, I didn't care for any of their jewelry settings, so I bought myself a beautiful stone that I'll get set into a ring or pendant when I get home. HOORAY FOR SHOPPING!!

After all the shopping, Mary took me to a local restaurant to eat "real" Tanzanian barbeque. We walked up to the ordering window and I was a little surprised to see a giant slab of cow hanging from a hook. You basically tell them how much food you want (uh...I'll take a kilo), point to the specific part of the cow you want, and they'll chop it right off and cook it for you. I guess it's what you would typically expect from a Tanzanian butcher. We went and had a seat on the patio and waited for our food to arrive. Since it was Saturday evening, Mary asked if I would like to try some local liquor (hell yes) so she ordered a small bottle of Konyagi and some lemon juice/soda (like Sprite but without the carbonation). The easiest way to describe Konyagi is that it's a cross between vodka/congiac/gin. It was actually really good and Mary & I polished off the entire bottle. HOORAY FOR DRINKING!!

Needless to say, I had a great weekend.