Category: Tanzania

  • Best Of Southern and Eastern Africa

    Our three and a half months in Africa were extremely varied: we marveled at some beautiful landscapes, had some wonderful wildlife experiences, got to travel with friends, summited a mountain, endured some really rough and uncomfortable overland travel, dealt with some frustrating logisitcal setbacks, and overcame a bit of a “what are our goals here?”…

  • Video Dump 4: Tanzania

    We loved Tanzania, and found so many parts of it so photogenic that inevitably took too many videos (is videogenic a word?), so here’s another dump of those videos that didn’t make their way into any of our posts. One video of the adorable chimpanzees of Gombe Stream National Park: Click here to see a…

  • Yum: Forodhani Gardens

    Forodhani Gardens is a park on the northern side of Stone Town which nightly hosts a gathering of a few dozen vendors selling various street foods. It is a scene not to be missed, and starts coming together when vendors set up around sundown. Most of them fall into one of three categories: Seafood: A…

  • Zanzibar Part II: Stone Town

    Stone Town, the ancient part of Zanzibar Island’s largest city, is one of the most unique and beautiful places we’ve ever been, and instantly one of my favorite places we’ve visited. Its most striking feature is the layout of its streets, a winding, curving, jumbled maze of narrow alleyways that makes the city feel alive…

  • Zanzibar Part I: The All-Inclusive Experience

    Along with climbing Kilimanjaro and going on safari, the third top destination (for good reason) in Tanzania is a trip to Zanzibar. Some of you may not know what/where Zanzibar really is, so first, some quick and cursory history! The Zanzibar Archipelago, which includes the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, served as one of East…

  • Yum: Coca Cola’s East African Concoctions

    It’s simple: Tanzania won the soda lottery. I don’t know what we Americans did to piss off the Coca-Cola company, causing them to deprive the U.S. of the incredibly tasty Krest Bitter Lemon and Stoney Tangawizi, but trust me, we’re missing out! Bitter Lemon is refreshing, crisp, and tastes like a strong lemonade but without…

  • Northern Tanzania Safari

    Having successfully bagged our first ever high-altitude peak, it was time for some wildlife viewing in northern Tanzania’s famous national park circuit. Six more of our friends from DC met us in Moshi on Christmas Eve, making for a total of 12 of us, and we spent the day catching up and had some of…

  • Hiking Mount Kilimanjaro

    We’re normally well prepared and well informed about the destinations that we visit, but this leg of the journey was special, everything being planned in advance by our wonderful friends who came halfway around the world to visit us. The agenda consisted of a seven-day climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro, a four-day safari through Northeast Tanzania’s…

  • Chimp Tracking at Gombe Stream National Park

    Upon arriving at Gombe Stream National Park, you get the feeling that you are landing at a research station more than a park. There’s a reason for that: this is the site of the longest ongoing study of any animal population in the world, the study of chimpanzees that Jane Goodall started in 1960. The…

  • TIA: This is Africa

    A boy walks up to your bus trying to sell you a mousetrap, razor blades, wallets, and watering cans. A woman walks down the highway carrying an infant on her back and the largest sack of potatoes I’ve ever seen on her head. A truck drives by with several large, dead fish hanging off the…