For our 3rd day in Zanzibar, we took it easy and spent it on massages, lounging at the Park Hyatt, shopping, and essentially making the long wait before heading over for our 8:40pm Air Tanzania flight to Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO). There we would rendezvous with Ann who would have arrived 2 hours earlier.
However, that would not be the case within the laws of travel: At the last minute Air Tanzania emailed me a change of departure time to a ridiculous 12:40am. With no other options, we thus continued to count the hours go by until a girl named Tamara checked into the hostel, sat down next to me on the floor while I was working on my laptop and playing some music, and asked me for advice on what to do in Zanzibar.
Within 15 minutes she would join our group for dinner at Lukmaan!
Love all these stories and the effortless friends we make when we travel.
We then took Tamara for a few drinks back at our favorite bar at the Park Hyatt until our 10:30pm cabs arrived. After saying our goodbyes, we headed over to ZNZ airport where we checked in and took advantage of Priority Pass access at the Dhow Lounge.
Although they usually close at 11pm, this time they kept it open late for us until boarding.
We finally boarded our at 1am slightly buzzed after raiding the lounge bar unopposed, playing Queen’s “We Are The Champions” in the background, thusly and thoroughly embarrassing ourselves as American tourists on the plane.
We landed at JRO airport an hour later at 2am.
There we reunited with Ann and were greeted by our pickup arranged by Easy Travel and Tours. We then drove onwards another hour to Arusha.
Once arriving at Karama Lodge at 3am, we quickly headed to bed.
The next morning we got up 5 hours later for a gorgeous morning view of the jungles behind Arusha.
After a quick breakfast we drove over into Arusha to meet our safari guides from Easy Travel.
We then drove 2 hours over to Lake Manyara National Park.
Once at the park we paid the entrance fee and had our boxed lunches inside:
After lunch we began our game drive; Lake Manyara National Park boasts varied ecosystems, breathtaking views and incredible ecological variety in a small area, rich in wildlife and amazing numbers of birds.
Lake Manyara’s game particularly includes Buffalos:
Wildebeests:
Giraffes:
Zebras:
Elephants:
Cranes:
Copulating hippos (yes, if you can’t tell, the hippo below is literally thrusting into his partner underwater right now):
Baboons:
Vultures:
Once we hit the early evening, we stopped for an hour shopping for Tanzanite stones before driving half an hour to Bougainvillea Lodge in Karatu town, just in time for dinner!
Today was just the appetizer though. Tomorrow we visit The Serengeti!
- At time of posting in Lake Manyara National Park, it was 22 °C - Humidity: 68% | Wind Speed: 11km/hr | Cloud Cover: cloudy