some how, im on the last leg of the africa part of this trip. im not quite sure how it happened but, im now writing on a german computer overlooking a white beach and the indian ocean. i had no idea water could actually be this colour without doctoring the colours. pretty cool.
spent a night in dar es salaam after flying from kigoma the other day. i never thought to check religious holidays before planning a route but that might have been a wise idea.. its ramadan and for the next while, im in muslim dominated areas. oops.
food has been easy to come by because zanzibar really is tourist island... booze has been more of a struggle. couldnt sort it out in dar and figured a night off might be okay. on the island, any place that serves is hounded by tourists. kind of hilarious.. especially watching every person take a picture of them sipping out of a coconut at sunset or hanging over a railing with 30 oother people to capture the perfect sunset with an island and palm tree silhouette. personal favourite is when people approach traditionally dressed muslim men with littler girls and ask to take their picture while they walk on the beach.. holding hands if possible. check that stereotype off the tourist photography bingo sheet i guess.
the other day we rented motorcycles and cars to avoid having to go on the tourist busses around the island. it was very cool, if you overlook the car accident that happened on the way home. were all fine.. the car, not so much, but its getting sorted out tomorrow. i knew all our good luck was bound to blow up in our faces in a big way sooner or later´... suppose we actually still are lucky that the accident wasnt way worse and that everybody is in one piece.
next few days will probably be full of more beachy things. we checked kayaking and snorkelling off our list.. saw some fish, most of which i identified through watching finding nemo. highlight was seeing the guy who constantly led the escapes from the fish tank.. i wish i didnt base all of my animal knowledge of disney movies.
"had it been another day, i might have looked the other way, and i´d have never been aware..."
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
"enjoy being the only tourist in burundi..."
We’ve been using the lonely planet’s guide to east Africa as our bible for this trip… in it, it has the highlights for each of the countries. For Burundi, one of the four highlights is: “enjoy being one of the only tourists in the country.” Its true. Seriously off the tourist radar, and for no good reason. Gorgeous country. Probably my favourite so far… you just have to get past a serious military presence and a slightly less efficient transportation system than rwanda’s.
Bujumbura was random. We got stuck for accommodation and ended up in quite literally, a beach house. Slightly out of the budget but, considering what we got, totally worth it. Met a Burundian guy at a bakeshop – yeah, apparently Burundi is known for its baked goods – who took us to his friend’s coffee factory.. it was more 2 hours of him telling a slew of random stories from his past. he was nice enough to point us around the town though and help us barter for some burundian/congolese crafts.
we took a hellish bus trip from bujumbura down, eventually, to kigoma, tanzania. this route is not well travelled and involved a lot of clown car transportation. 14 people vehicles were more of a suggestion than a rule, as they were in rwanda. had it not been for that though, we certainly would not have made it to kigoma in one day... there were a lot of close calls where they just shoved the white people into the car.. actually they shoved us, and then stopped for a family of 10 that i was certain would not fit. they did. sort of.
the train accross tanzania didn't pan out at all and so now we're flying. not as rugged but its bought us some extra time and maybe a bit of sanity. we snorkelled in lake tanganyika, ate its very fresh fish and gawked at a bunch of spectacular views of the lake instead.
its been a nice break to be in a land less travelled... now we're off to the mecca of east african toursim for more fish and sunburns.
Bujumbura was random. We got stuck for accommodation and ended up in quite literally, a beach house. Slightly out of the budget but, considering what we got, totally worth it. Met a Burundian guy at a bakeshop – yeah, apparently Burundi is known for its baked goods – who took us to his friend’s coffee factory.. it was more 2 hours of him telling a slew of random stories from his past. he was nice enough to point us around the town though and help us barter for some burundian/congolese crafts.
we took a hellish bus trip from bujumbura down, eventually, to kigoma, tanzania. this route is not well travelled and involved a lot of clown car transportation. 14 people vehicles were more of a suggestion than a rule, as they were in rwanda. had it not been for that though, we certainly would not have made it to kigoma in one day... there were a lot of close calls where they just shoved the white people into the car.. actually they shoved us, and then stopped for a family of 10 that i was certain would not fit. they did. sort of.
the train accross tanzania didn't pan out at all and so now we're flying. not as rugged but its bought us some extra time and maybe a bit of sanity. we snorkelled in lake tanganyika, ate its very fresh fish and gawked at a bunch of spectacular views of the lake instead.
its been a nice break to be in a land less travelled... now we're off to the mecca of east african toursim for more fish and sunburns.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
jagerbombs, break dancers, and military escorted mountain trips
in rwanda now, about to head over to the DRC for a day trip... never thought i would write that sentance. there is a town, goma, near the 'rwandan muskoka' that is apparently like an african pompeii/massive refugee site. i know a few people that have been over recently and have said its something worth seeing... maybe a bit of a wake up from the nice sides of africa that we've been lucky enough to see so far.
we left uganda with a bang after meeting up with some ugandan break dancers at our hostel. they took us to their church to show us some moves... best part was them trying to teach eric and this british guy we met how to dance. again, couldn't have been more white. we went out to a bar with them after for one final round of nile specials.. oh and we also finally found jager at some strange irish pub in the suburbs of kampala. go figure.
after that, down to kigali. did the genocide memorial and went out to visit a church. tough to describe... all very haunting, obviously. i don't think i'd ever seen a human skull, let alone hundreds/thousands just sitting in one room before.
after failed attempts at organizing gorillas in kigali, eric and i decided we would go climb a mountan (karasimbi, 4507m) in western rwanda. dev has a bad knee so she checked into a hotel in a near by city and took 2 days to relax a bit.
the mountain trip was cold. we didn't plan for this at all and im just starting to thaw now (came down yesterday). we camped on the side of the mountain 2 nights ago and apparently a sleeping bag liner is more than insufficient. cheese and altitude is also apparently a bad combination for me so, along with being frozen, i kept throwing up and counting down the minutes to 530, when we had to get up.
we hiked to the second portion of the mountain that morning... i felt like a walking corpse. once i made it to the treeline, about 500m (1 hour worth of walking) from the top, i figured that was good enough. we'd had stunning views of the surrounding mountains to that point so i figured i got the idea. i also wasnt convinced i could actaully walk up any further. the entire morning had literally been straight up hill.
all in all, the hike was pretty cool. certainly different than any experience i had in western canada... i did make sure to sing the sound of music (in my head..) for my mom. we were also being escorted by the rwandan military (literally 10 guys with excessive guns in front and behnd us). it was apparently to defend us from buffalo.. but why a buffalo would need to be shot with a rocket launcher is beyond me. maybe we were a bit to close for comfort to areas of the DRC.
we left uganda with a bang after meeting up with some ugandan break dancers at our hostel. they took us to their church to show us some moves... best part was them trying to teach eric and this british guy we met how to dance. again, couldn't have been more white. we went out to a bar with them after for one final round of nile specials.. oh and we also finally found jager at some strange irish pub in the suburbs of kampala. go figure.
after that, down to kigali. did the genocide memorial and went out to visit a church. tough to describe... all very haunting, obviously. i don't think i'd ever seen a human skull, let alone hundreds/thousands just sitting in one room before.
after failed attempts at organizing gorillas in kigali, eric and i decided we would go climb a mountan (karasimbi, 4507m) in western rwanda. dev has a bad knee so she checked into a hotel in a near by city and took 2 days to relax a bit.
the mountain trip was cold. we didn't plan for this at all and im just starting to thaw now (came down yesterday). we camped on the side of the mountain 2 nights ago and apparently a sleeping bag liner is more than insufficient. cheese and altitude is also apparently a bad combination for me so, along with being frozen, i kept throwing up and counting down the minutes to 530, when we had to get up.
we hiked to the second portion of the mountain that morning... i felt like a walking corpse. once i made it to the treeline, about 500m (1 hour worth of walking) from the top, i figured that was good enough. we'd had stunning views of the surrounding mountains to that point so i figured i got the idea. i also wasnt convinced i could actaully walk up any further. the entire morning had literally been straight up hill.
all in all, the hike was pretty cool. certainly different than any experience i had in western canada... i did make sure to sing the sound of music (in my head..) for my mom. we were also being escorted by the rwandan military (literally 10 guys with excessive guns in front and behnd us). it was apparently to defend us from buffalo.. but why a buffalo would need to be shot with a rocket launcher is beyond me. maybe we were a bit to close for comfort to areas of the DRC.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
back in jinja
we've made it back to where this african obsession of mine began... in jinja, uganda. im having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that im back here. certainly didn't think i'd get that chance again.
the past week or so in africa has been surprisingly, and unnervingly, smooth. did the safari thing in masai mara, kenya which was great. saw the wildebeest migrate across a dried up river between tanzania and kenya... it looked shockingly like that scene in the lion king where they trample mufasa. ticked a few other animals off my safari bingo card.. just need to see a leopard and then i'll be pretty satisfied.
after that, we went north a bit to a different park that housed an incredible amount of flamingos and a few white rhinos. this ended up being the very last leg for our broken down safari van.. it died literally at the exit of the park.
i dragged devyn and eric on a rather intense matatu ride after that to make it to the ugandan border. most of the time i was pretty sure that if the psychotic driver didn't kill me as he barreled down a rainy road in the wrong lane, one of the other two might.. we survived though and learned that matatus for over a few hours are not something we're going to do too frequently.
in uganda, we went up to sipi falls. eric and i belayed down the side of a 100m waterfall in the middle of a jungle which was one of the cooler things i've ever done. we also went on a "jungle walk" which was more like a mad sprint around the mountains behind a guide who was in incredible shape. we were not and were the epitome of pathetic white people.
now, in jinja, we're taking it easy... bizarre food choices and too many nile specials have caught up with us and our stomachs need a bit of down time. i may go chuck myself down the nile again tomorrow.. depending how i feel. otherwise, just hanging around visiting the orphanage and a few people i didn't think i'd get to see again.
thats about it for now... next on the agenda is a trip to kampala to reunite with some other friends and then down south to rwanda, burundi and that train across tanzania. today's project is to find a deck of cards so we don't go totally insane.
the past week or so in africa has been surprisingly, and unnervingly, smooth. did the safari thing in masai mara, kenya which was great. saw the wildebeest migrate across a dried up river between tanzania and kenya... it looked shockingly like that scene in the lion king where they trample mufasa. ticked a few other animals off my safari bingo card.. just need to see a leopard and then i'll be pretty satisfied.
after that, we went north a bit to a different park that housed an incredible amount of flamingos and a few white rhinos. this ended up being the very last leg for our broken down safari van.. it died literally at the exit of the park.
i dragged devyn and eric on a rather intense matatu ride after that to make it to the ugandan border. most of the time i was pretty sure that if the psychotic driver didn't kill me as he barreled down a rainy road in the wrong lane, one of the other two might.. we survived though and learned that matatus for over a few hours are not something we're going to do too frequently.
in uganda, we went up to sipi falls. eric and i belayed down the side of a 100m waterfall in the middle of a jungle which was one of the cooler things i've ever done. we also went on a "jungle walk" which was more like a mad sprint around the mountains behind a guide who was in incredible shape. we were not and were the epitome of pathetic white people.
now, in jinja, we're taking it easy... bizarre food choices and too many nile specials have caught up with us and our stomachs need a bit of down time. i may go chuck myself down the nile again tomorrow.. depending how i feel. otherwise, just hanging around visiting the orphanage and a few people i didn't think i'd get to see again.
thats about it for now... next on the agenda is a trip to kampala to reunite with some other friends and then down south to rwanda, burundi and that train across tanzania. today's project is to find a deck of cards so we don't go totally insane.
Monday, August 3, 2009
paris to khartoum to nairobi
last night, after what felt like a back alley tour of cario's airport, eric and i noticed a flashing yellow sign that announced we'd be stopping in khartoum, sudan at 3am... turns out, it was less dramatic than we imagined, especially when doped up on as much gravol as i was. i needed a serious amount of sleep after paris.
paris we did the usual things... a lot of wine, cheese and walking through gardens. we drank on the pedestrian bridge which has been on my list of things to do for years. sadly, my french is totally pathetic despite 12 years of immersion.
we connected with devyn at nairobi airport.. almost didnt because turns out there are two very seperate baggage claim areas which would have been a bit of a problem. we're all together though and all in one piece.. just a bit weary.
so far, im really liking nariobi. i pictured it to be a lot more intense than it is. so far only eric has had a near collision with a car but he survived... they don't drive as fast as ghanaians and ugandans seemed to.
i met up with a friend from uganda for coffee this morning. he has been living in east africa since i was last in uganda. he's done a lot of work with schools around the area and its always nice to connect with people that have a bit of insight and history in a very new area to me. tonight a friend has connected me with a guy that works out of nairobi for the international rescue committee in somalia which will hopefully be pretty cool.
as a whole, im feeling very in my element. i remember being intimidated by past african trips.. so far, im maybe too comfortable for a person that hasn't even been here for 24 hours.
tomorrow we're off to an elephant orphanage and maybe a human one too.. then, safari time in mara and onwards to uganda!
eric has been way more detailed with what we've done... its-eric.blogspot.com if you're interested.
paris we did the usual things... a lot of wine, cheese and walking through gardens. we drank on the pedestrian bridge which has been on my list of things to do for years. sadly, my french is totally pathetic despite 12 years of immersion.
we connected with devyn at nairobi airport.. almost didnt because turns out there are two very seperate baggage claim areas which would have been a bit of a problem. we're all together though and all in one piece.. just a bit weary.
so far, im really liking nariobi. i pictured it to be a lot more intense than it is. so far only eric has had a near collision with a car but he survived... they don't drive as fast as ghanaians and ugandans seemed to.
i met up with a friend from uganda for coffee this morning. he has been living in east africa since i was last in uganda. he's done a lot of work with schools around the area and its always nice to connect with people that have a bit of insight and history in a very new area to me. tonight a friend has connected me with a guy that works out of nairobi for the international rescue committee in somalia which will hopefully be pretty cool.
as a whole, im feeling very in my element. i remember being intimidated by past african trips.. so far, im maybe too comfortable for a person that hasn't even been here for 24 hours.
tomorrow we're off to an elephant orphanage and maybe a human one too.. then, safari time in mara and onwards to uganda!
eric has been way more detailed with what we've done... its-eric.blogspot.com if you're interested.
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