{bagamoyo -> nairobi}

leaving bagamoyo and starting my 8 day safari!

June 30, 2012
since it seems i live for spontaneity, about 3 days before i left bagamoyo, i booked an 8 day safari starting in nairobi on june 30 and ending in arusha on july 7.

a friend and i shared a ride to dar as well as a room at the paradise express hotel (in case you haven't noticed, they love to name things "paradise" here). the paradise express is probably the equivalent of a 2 star (that may be generous) hotel in the states, but by african standards it felt like paradise to me! my friend and i enjoyed air conditioning, free wireless internet, and TV (even though the tv only had 3 channels and was probably from 1980)!

(our room at the paradise express)

(we treated ourselves to very american, unhealthy room service.  grilled cheese and pizza!)

i caught an 8 am flight to nairobi on saturday and was pleasantly surprised when after going through customs (and having to pay for another visa, ugh) my bags were waiting for me at baggage claim. a few others on my safari were not so lucky and their bags were stolen at the airport.

though i was only there for a day, i was extremely impressed by nairobi. the city (though i'm sure there are poor areas) felt much more safe and westernized than anything i'd experienced in tanzania. english is much more common in nairobi as well which makes sense as the saying goes: swahili was born in zanzibar, grew up in tanzania, died in kenya, and was buried in uganda. all in all, it was nice to experience something different!

(though this picture doesn't do this tv show justice, i had to have a reminder for myself of the HILARIOUS african soap opera i watched.  this was almost as good as the asian soap opera with english voice-overs, which after 2 episodes in nairobi and another 2 in arusha, i actually got in to.  i'm dying to know what happens to carmen's baby.  sadly, i guess i'll never find out.)

the safari takes me from nairobi to kisii to musoma and lake victoria to serengeti national park to the great rift valley and the ngorongoro crater to meserani to arusha (i know i'm missing some punctuation in that sentence). the conditions are very basic on the safari and I'll be camping each night, but i could not be more excited!