After some much needed sleep, we ventured behind the hotel to their very large garden. It was quite unusual to find a garden of such magnitude in the center of the city as Arusha, the tourist capital of Tanzania, is a very densely populated city. I was quite struck by the city of Arusha, maybe because it was my first time in a developing nation, as it looked nothing like what I viewed “the tourist capital” of a country should look like. In the garden, we were quite lucky to stumble upon the head caretaker of the garden who was more then willing to give us a VERY detailed tour of the garden (which was way to plenty for me, but my dad the biologist seemed to really enjoy the science talk). We then met with a representative from Ranger Safaris (not to be confused with the representatives from the tour organizer and the tour company). We got the low down on what was going to be happening, a brief geography/history lesson of Tanzania, and the do’s and don’ts of traveling in Tanzania (which included be prepared to tip EVERYONE you interact with).
My father (who will now be called Safari Bob) decided that getting some Tanzanian shillings would be a good idea (though what people in Tanzania really want is American dollars), so he asked the representative to point him to the nearest bank. He was told there was one only 10 minutes away and the representative offered to either arrange a taxi or to walk us there himself. Safari Bob was puzzled by this and asked if it was safe to go, and the representative said that while it was quite safe, one probably shouldn’t walk unaccompanied. In his traditional style, he assured the representative that he would be ok, and thanked him for the offer. He and Philippe (who didn’t want him wandering around alone) then left to go to the bank. Within about 2 seconds of leaving the hotel, they were surrounded by a pack of grown men, all of whom wanted them to go and look in their curio shops. As they continued to walk the pack of men, who were becoming more and more persistent, continued to grow and they soon felt over their head. They decided that withdrawing money with such a large entourage fallowing them was a bad idea, and so they decided to return to the hotel to regroup. Once back at the hotel my dad conceded defeat, saying that maybe walking around alone isn’t such a good idea, but that he had never had a problem walking around San José (Philippe was quick to point out that they weren’t in San José). They asked the doorman to come along with them for try # 2. The entire journey to and from the bank was very successful, and they weren’t bothered by a single person (maybe he should listen to us every once in a while).
The next morning we met our Safari driver, a very nice man named Renatus, and he drove us to the outskirts of Arusha to a hotel where we would go on a nature walk, and then meet our travel companions. The nature walk was led by a very knowledgeable man who walked us around an isolate lake. This was another opportunity for my dad to shine his biologist badge, and he got to talk with our guide about the many different plants in the area. For the non-plant people in the group (aka me) there were lots of cool birds to see, and we even got to see a couple monitor lizards which was pretty cool. After a quick lunch we met our travel companions Nick and Janie, a young couple from Australia, and then headed off to Lake Manyara, our first “safari destination”.
