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The car ride from the Impala Hotel to Sunny Safari's served as a safe tour around Arusha without attracting the swarm of locals that you'll inevitably encounter when walking alone in the streets. Although Arusha is the main safari tour operator hub of the Northern Circuit we saw very few white people walking around so the car ride got the closest to a tour of Arusha.

Tanzania Travelogue - 7th March Lake Manyara

Mike Krupel
2006-06-28 20:20:31

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The car ride from the Impala Hotel to Sunny Safari's served as a safe tour around Arusha without attracting the swarm of locals that you'll inevitably encounter when walking alone in the streets. Although Arusha is the main safari tour operator hub of the Northern Circuit we saw very few white people walking around so the car ride got the closest to a tour of Arusha.

Arusha is home to 800,000 people so by itself it has got twice the population of my country making it a big city by our standards. All the roads that we passed through were full of people bustling with activity selling goods or working in their shops which usually double as their homes. The feeling of poverty is immediately apparent, but in spite of this people seem to try their best to gain a decent living where everyone in the family plays a role, no matter the age and gender. If wealth is only for the privileged few, colour isn't, and nobody fears wearing red out of season. In fact one of the most interesting observations is that people here dress whatever they find with no penchant for the current season's fashion. The only exception are the Maasai who are so fashion conscious that their dress code defines their state in their society.

At Sunny Safari's headquarters we met with the face behind all our e-mail correspondence, Ally and after a small brief about the safari and payment of $855 we left on our adventure. Our guide and driver was Pius (alias Papa) who had such an imposing presence makes you at ease under his protection. The driver, Anton, was exceptionally thin especially when standing near papa and his red Nike t-shirt made him easy to spot from anywhere in one's field of vision.

Rhino ViperOn our way to Lake Manyara we passed by a snake farm and gladly stopped for a visit. The $10 entrance fee was proved its worth as soon as we saw an adult full grown black mamba. The fastest snake in the world isn't actually black but ...