No time for a long post ... just a quick update ...
Today we saw two of only 26 black rhinos that live in the Ngorongoro Crater. It was a very rare and special experience. The mother and her baby looked like boulders in a field, but on closer inspection, you could see their big twitching ears and the mothers two horns. We really were very lucky to have seen them. We waited an 1.5 hours for the mother and baby to stand up and it paid off! I wish we could post pics but no time. Trip still continues to blow us away. Final note... had banana beer. 10% alcohol. Yowsa.
Good night.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Asante Sana Tanzania
Day three of our safari and so far we're blown away. We are having a private tour for our entire 10 days in Tanzania. It's very unfortunate for our tour operator but it is an amazing experience for us. We have a private guide, Firoz, for our entire trip.
We just finished a three day safari in Tarangire National Park. It's the second largest national park in Tanzania and is home to the largest population of elephants in the country -- 6,000. The terrain and weather is much different than we expected. It's been cloudy and very cool (probably 60 degrees). The terrain is stark, beautiful. It actually reminds us a lot of Colorado in the autumn. I've been wearing pants and a fleece the entire time. I never thought I'd be cold in East Africa in August.
As I said, we are blown away by our experiences so far. We have seen so much wildlife. Here's a partial list of what we've seen: elephants, lions, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, cape buffalo, impala, dik dik, deikur, steenbuck, ostrich, lesser kudu, warthog, oryx, eland, bat-eared fox, black-faced monkey, banded mongoose, white mongoose, water buck, hartebeest, dickens gazelle, hyrax, yellow-winged bat, spotted genet, rhebok, baboon, and cheetah.
The people have been wonderful. We really haven't talked to other tourists, we've really enjoyed talking to local people, learning swahili, and getting a feel for what it's like to live in Tanzania.
It's been a very special experience.
We only have five minutes left on the computer, otherwise this would be a much longer post. Stay tuned for more maybe pics too.
One final thing ... we learned that "coffee" in Swahili means, "slap me." Ha! I'm surprised we haven't been slapped considering how often we ask for coffee.
Until next time!
-Joy and Chris
We just finished a three day safari in Tarangire National Park. It's the second largest national park in Tanzania and is home to the largest population of elephants in the country -- 6,000. The terrain and weather is much different than we expected. It's been cloudy and very cool (probably 60 degrees). The terrain is stark, beautiful. It actually reminds us a lot of Colorado in the autumn. I've been wearing pants and a fleece the entire time. I never thought I'd be cold in East Africa in August.
As I said, we are blown away by our experiences so far. We have seen so much wildlife. Here's a partial list of what we've seen: elephants, lions, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, cape buffalo, impala, dik dik, deikur, steenbuck, ostrich, lesser kudu, warthog, oryx, eland, bat-eared fox, black-faced monkey, banded mongoose, white mongoose, water buck, hartebeest, dickens gazelle, hyrax, yellow-winged bat, spotted genet, rhebok, baboon, and cheetah.
The people have been wonderful. We really haven't talked to other tourists, we've really enjoyed talking to local people, learning swahili, and getting a feel for what it's like to live in Tanzania.
It's been a very special experience.
We only have five minutes left on the computer, otherwise this would be a much longer post. Stay tuned for more maybe pics too.
One final thing ... we learned that "coffee" in Swahili means, "slap me." Ha! I'm surprised we haven't been slapped considering how often we ask for coffee.
Until next time!
-Joy and Chris
Monday, August 17, 2009
It's finally here!
I can't believe it. After almost two years of planning and preparing we leave tomorrow morning. Chris and I are both excited and a little nervous. It's surreal, really. We'll post on the blog as much as we can.
Tomorrow we leave S.D. at 8:45 a.m. and fly to Detroit, then on to Amsterdam and finally Arusha. I really really hope we make all our flights. I shouldn't even type that 'cause now I'm jinxing us!
Oh, I just took my first malaria pill. I feel kind of weird, but I think that's just psychosematic. hehe.
Anyhow ... hope to post again soon!!!
Tomorrow we leave S.D. at 8:45 a.m. and fly to Detroit, then on to Amsterdam and finally Arusha. I really really hope we make all our flights. I shouldn't even type that 'cause now I'm jinxing us!
Oh, I just took my first malaria pill. I feel kind of weird, but I think that's just psychosematic. hehe.
Anyhow ... hope to post again soon!!!
Monday, August 10, 2009
Camera
We bought a new camera for our trip: http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665789079
It'd be a shame to just have a point and shoot digital camera when we're going to see so many amazing things on our trip. Chris and I don't know much about cameras, so tonight, we're getting a one-on-one tutorial at the Sony Style Store. Cool!
The camera has a panoramic setting, 20x zoom, super-fast shutter speed and also has a 1080p video record. I will be posting pictures on our blog as well on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chris_and_joy/
It'd be a shame to just have a point and shoot digital camera when we're going to see so many amazing things on our trip. Chris and I don't know much about cameras, so tonight, we're getting a one-on-one tutorial at the Sony Style Store. Cool!
The camera has a panoramic setting, 20x zoom, super-fast shutter speed and also has a 1080p video record. I will be posting pictures on our blog as well on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chris_and_joy/
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