Moshi, Tanzania: Some Mount Kili and Some Education

The hotel was great. Because it was on the mountain the weather was cool and a little rainy, but we enjoyed it. It was also a nice change to splurge on a modern room with our own bathroom and a shower that most of the time yielded to our request for hot-ish water.

On the day of the hike we woke up early and was met by our guide. After doing the day hike, we felt that it was not necessary to get a guide, yet the National Park required it. The hike was about 6.5 hours total, up and down. We walked up to the Mandara stopping point, 2700 meters of damp/lush forest, and the equivalent of DAY 1 for the real Kili climbers. (Well I have to give ourselves credit, it is DOUBLE the Day 1 of Kili climbers because we have to walk back down)

The route was beautiful. We spotted birds and monkeys through these very green forest lands, however we never did get that great shot of the Kili peak, due to clouds. We were also bummed that we had not done the real thing, we kinda felt like losers actually.  Not only were we doing only a day hike, we were also hiking the Marangu route, aka the “coca-cola route” which was the easiest way up. Hiking Kili was not something we originally wanted to do, but as we were on the route and in Tanzania, meeting people who had done it, we thought we missed out on the opportunity to just do it. However: 1) We couldn’t afford it both time wise and budget 2) We were headed to Everest Base Camp in a couple weeks and I wouldn’t want to get altitude sickness and spoil my feelings for our bigger trek ahead.  Still, the day hike meant we could at least say, “yeah, we hiked Kilimanjaro”

After the hike and stay Babylon Lodge, we decided to stay closer to Moshi city at a hotel, Honey Badger Lodge, that was touted as an educational center and a place doing great things for local people. They had many on premise activities in which locals could benefit from teaching classes. I signed us up for an African cooking class and African dance lesson, which I was really excited about. On our arrival, we noticed what an oasis the lodge was. It had a large pool, a cool bar and gardens to sit or nap. Our room was huge and spotless and somehow they were able to make the mosquito nets look exotic and romantic. Straight away, we also noticed the lodge’s commitment to conservation and it’s community. The whole lodge is powered by solar energy with solar panels on roofs, and they explained to us how they harvest the rain water and compost our waste. Very Califorgeon

Now, the fun stuff: Aaron and Jami cooking African Food.

It was pretty cool seeing how just a few ingredients were used over and over again but prepared and cooked in different ways to create a feast. The prep work included a lot of cutting of carrots, green peppers, red onions, and tomatoes, cut in different sizes for each dish of stews. We also made one of my favorite staples in Africa, japati! Japati is like an African version of a tortilla and we have found that it served throughout Nepal and India as well, but totally different from the greasy African version. Our final product of feast was: grilled spinach, banana/coconut stew, beef stew, rice, lentils and of course japati. Top that off with two half liters of Kilimanjaro beer and we were celebrating our work. We could only eat about half of the meal, so the lodge put it away for our dinner as well.

 

 

 

That night we didn’t get the African dance lesson we had expected but instead we danced among African dancers, singers and drummers. I know the dancers were impressed by my skills

 

The next day we woke up early and stood on the side of the road, hoping that our bus that was to take us to Dar Es Salaam, would pick us up from town. It was a little nerve racking, as the bus was about 45mins late but we were able to spot it, waive it down and get on for our 10 hour, bumpy ride south to the country’s crazy capital.