Tanzania 2009-2010: Mt. Kilimanjaro, safari, and the best Christmas ever continued...

After coming down from Kilimanjaro, our adventures continued the very next morning when we headed off on safari to Lake Manyara and Ngorongoro Crater. At Lake Manyara, with the Great Rift Valley as our backdrop, we saw tons of baboons, elephants, impala, buffalo, giraffe, and hippopotamus! We spent the night in a small campground with a great little bar. In the morning we drove to Ngorongoro Crater, which is the world’s largest unbroken and unflooded crater! It was formed millions of years ago when a mountain imploded and contains over 30,000 large mammals. The roads surrounding and into the crater were a bit treacherous, but the view was spectacular! Once inside the crater we saw thousands of zebras and wildebeest along with gazelles, eland, white and black rhinos, hyenas, baboons, cheetah, and lions. We had a great game drive and as we were leaving the park 6 female lions and one huge male lion crossed the road right in front of our car! It was great!

A cute sign at the entrance to Lake Manyara

Yay! My first Tanzania Hippo sighting!

More Hippos in the Hippo pond

Phil with our guide Mlulu in the safari car

Twiga!

A baboon in Lake Manyara

Me, Phil, Katie, and Ryan on the edge of the Ngorongoro Crater

A Wildbeest herd in the Crater

Lions crossing the road in front of our safari car

A cool male lion in the Crater

Back in Arusha we had another day and a half to do some souvenir shopping, laundry, packing, and relaxing. We made popcorn and watched “The Lion King” with a new found appreciation for the animals and landscape! On Christmas Eve day, Phil and I, along with Christine, Brandon, Katie, and Ryan flew to Zanzibar and met our other classmates Ann and Grant in Stone Town. It was incredibly hot and all of Zanzibar has been without power for several weeks. In Stone Town we wondered through the narrow, twisting streets and visited an old dispensary, a Sultan’s palace, the site of a former slave market, and the Forodhani Gardens. For dinner there we went to a huge fish market and ate shark, octopus, calamari, shrimp, lobster, tuna, and delicious Zanzibar pizza. We went to a bar on the beach for Christmas Eve drinks and then tried to get some sleep despite the heat.

A view from a rooftop bar in Stone Town

On Christmas morning we went for a long run on the beach and had breakfast at our hotel. After breakfast we were relaxing in our room when Phil told me he had a Christmas surprise for me. He gave me a very sweet card and then started talking about how great the last year and nine months have been. Before I knew it he was down on one knee, holding a beautiful diamond ring, and asking me to marry him! I of course said yes and I can’t imagine a better Christmas present. He told me he carried the ring all the way to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, but didn’t want to ask me when we were so cold and tired and when so many other people were around. We went out for spiced coffee and then had a fabulous Christmas Day lunch at the Africa House. After lunch we drove about an hour to the town of Jambiani on the East coast of the island. We spent the next 4 days relaxing on the beach, snorkeling, and eating delicious sea food! Phil, my wonderful fiancé, left to go home on the 28th and the rest of us moved north to the city of Paje to celebrate New Years. On New Years Day as I sat on the beach in Zanzibar and watched the sun rise over the Indian Ocean I marveled at all that had happened in 2009 and looked forward with anticipation to a new year filled with excitement, adventure, laughter, and love!!