07l14l2010 Tanzania and getting there

After around 32 hours of traveling Tosh and I arrived in Arusha, our basecamp for our Kilimanjaro hike at the bottom of the mountain. The trip went pretty smooth, except for the last leg of our flights from Addis Abeba in Ethiopia to Kilimanjaro, when our plane landed unexpectedly in Nairobi. We thought we might have some kind of technical problem with our plane from Ethiopian airlines, because we saw a guy check the bolts of one of the turbines of our plane with a very dim torch, when we were boarding the plane. It turned out the extra stop was on schedule, just nobody had told us about it. One other thing worth mentioning about the trip is that you should definitely avoid the Addis Abeba airport,if you can. It is one of the ugliest and unwelcoming places ever and we had the pleasure of spending four hours in this nasty smoke hole(everybody smokes there, everywhere).
Finally at Kilimanjaro airport we were delighted to see that our luggage made it there too (supposedly not so very common with african airlines). At the airport, which is a tin shed with one luggage band we have our first encounter with "how-stuff-works" here. We were asked to show our vaccination records to an officer, which neither of us had brought. We told him we didn't know we needed to bring it and were advised to stand aside and wait for further instructions. Ten minutes later we had a little group of people around us, who all didn't know about the vaccination records either. Finally the officer comes back to us asking for the records again. We repeat, that we don't have them with us. He seems unmoved and starts arguing with other passengers. After discussing back and forth with several upset people he finally decides to give in and hands us back our passports. "You can go" is all he has to say in a pretty grumpy tone. A lot of things here seem very negotiable... probably more on that later.
Then we had to get our visas at the visa counter. We paid $150 US dollars, $100 for Tosh and $50 for me. Germans are half price, I really need to find out why ;)

The most obvious difference we noticed right when stepping off the plane is the smell. It smells a bit like a potpourri of asian spices, body odors, tropical plants and the big cats cage in the zoo- exotic and a little dangerous too.
We catch a cab ride for the 50 km from the airport into Arusha town and are pretty upset it is pitch black (4 am) and we don't get to see any of the landscape and villages we are passing. We are driving to our backpackers hostel which I tried to reserve in advance, because we were arriving at such a horrible hour. I got a reply by e-mail saying "yes, you can reserve the room, and you can check in early, but it depends on availabilty." Ha.
So we are pretty happy that there is a girl sleeping behind the counter, who lets us in to a nice clean 4 bed dorm room (which we have to ourselves). Finally in a horizontal body position feels like heaven and we both pass out quickly.

Today we woke up to a whole new world. I had the bed right next to the window facing the busy main street. And busy doesn't just mean many cars and people. It is more like watching the crazy choreography to a modern dance from up here: people carrying all kinds of goods on their heads, on wooden push-carriages and on bicycles. Men and women sitting in the street selling bananas, oranges, sweets, corn and nuts. Rusted pick-up-trucks that look way to old to be driving around loaded with metal poles about 4 times as long as the truck itself or stacked with tied up parcels so high that it seems impossible for them not to fall off.
All these loaded vehicles and people shuffle around eachother in a way that looks like it must be directed from a higher intelligence. It wouldn't be surprising at all to see pink Elephants or green aliens amidst this circus.

After a tasty breakfast of hot chai tea and fruit lassis we go strolling around town.
I don't really feel safe to take out my big camera and take pictures but do it anyway because there is too much interesting stuff to see and capture. I soon realize that this is not exactly the right place for picture-taking because we are soon surrounded by some pretty aggressive smart-asses, that try to mess with us and pretty much get some cash out of us. I have to put the camera away and we have to get very fierce with them, before they finally leave us alone. It feels like a very unsafe environment and I as a white woman by myself would not feel comfortable at all. With Tosh by my side there is always some sort of safety even in the most dangerous settings, but even he seems tense and uncomfortable.
Overall Arusha seems like a very dry and dusty/ dirty place. I imagined it to be prettier with older buildings for some reason, but it reminds especially Tosh more of a city in Iraq than in Africa. The people are mostly very kind, modest, warm and welcoming. They seem to have a way to communicate almost without words, reading gestures and sensing emotions - very fascinating and still a lot to learn about.



We managed to book our trip to Kilimanjaro today, heading out tomorrow to go on an 8 day trek on the Lemosho route ascending over the western Shira-plateau. Tonight we have a briefing with our guide "Anderson" and then we are heading out with a 4x4 to the head of trail tomorrow morning.