God bless the rains down in Africa

You didn’t think we would end the blog without a reference to the 80s song by Toto, did you? After waiting, 5+ months for daytime rain, we’ve reached the rainy season. We had no rain in Diani from October until late March when it began to rain overnight. Now that we’ve reached April, it is officially the rainy season and it is raining during the day!

In Kenya, they don’t celebrate spring, summer, winter, and fall and you’ll get funny looks if you refer to those seasons. They have short rains, long rains, and the rest of the time it’s just sunny. It was actually quite amusing learning the unit “weather” with the children at school because there were only four types of weather: sunny, cloudy, windy, or raining. No snow, sleet, hail, fog, or other unsavory weathers. Just sun or rain.

April and May are the long rains in Kenya meaning that it rains for longer than 5 minutes and can occasionally go the whole day punctuated by periods of the usual heat and humidity. During the hot, dry season (Dec-March), Mombasa only averages 2 cm of rain per month but in the rainy season, that climbs to 30 cm.

These pictures were taken 2 weeks apart. The difference is profound:





The effects of rain aren't limited, however, to grass growth. Remember for M's UTI project there was a lot of airborne contamination of the sample plates? That has been almost completely eliminated since it started raining because the contaminants are no longer in the air. We're expecting mold growth at any time from the dampness... So much for consistent experimental conditions.

I have always loved the smell of rain. It’s not really a smell you can describe but it’s always been a favorite of mine. Let me tell you, there is nothing so wonderful as the smell of rain in Africa after 5 months without it. It was so dry and dusty that the air was filmy and filtered before the rains started. The rain is such a blessing here.

Our first rain in Msambweni, we ran outside to play in the rain barefoot. Needless to say, the locals think we're crazy.



"It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from you"



"There’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do"



"I bless the rains down in Africa, I bless the rains down in Africa"

Ngorongoro McCrater

As you can see from the previous post, we had an awesome time with JPB in the Serengeti. We topped off our Northern Tanzania roadtrip with a stop at the Ngorongoro crater. Named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979, the Ngorongoro crater is one place we were told not to miss in east Africa. The “crater” is actually the collapsed caldera of a volcano that was once taller than Kilimanjaro; now it’s a massive, bowl-like plain that is now home to the largest concentration of predators (and presumably their prey) in the world. It is the largest, intact, unfilled caldera in the world (apparently they usually fill with water and make lakes). The panoramic shots above are from John's new camera.

Anyway, on to what we did at Ngorongoro. After picking up a ranger from the station, we went on a little crater rim hike, which afforded amazing views of the crater floor. Our guide carried an AK-47, which is pretty much carried like pepper spray in Africa, as hikers occasionally run into ornery Cape Buffalo. We came across some fresh elephant dung, but nothing dangerous. We’re at about 7,000 feet on the crater rim.





As we drove around the crater rim to our lodge, I asked E if every time we mentioned the crater, she thought about her maiden name, and she said “yes, but I didn’t mention it because I was afraid of what you guys would start saying”. Lightbulb. This was immediately followed by us making juvenile comments of varying degrees of lewdness that you’d expect from a pair of Ivy League grads. For 15 straight minutes. She was thrilled.

We stayed at a lodge on the east side of the rim, which was perfect for the sunset. The lodge was decidedly 70’s in styling, but with that location and view, I’m not sure how much an update would add.

Sunset over the lodge:




In the AM, we drove down to the crater floor for a game drive. We saw an incredible seven rhinos, which are next to impossible to see in most of Africa, as their number were decimated by poaching and have only recently begun to recover. There is also a small alkaline lake in the crater, which is home to thousands of flamingos. The other animals were similar to those we saw before, but we did come across several prides of lions in a small area, as the pride range is much smaller due to the amazing population of prey in the crater. The main difference was the scenery of vast open plain in the Serengeti v. the bowl-like feeling of Ngorongoro.







This guy was rolling over in the dirt like a cat:


We sat down at a picnic area for lunch, and we were all reflecting on how great the trip had been. I said “it’s been a safari njema (a good trip)”. Not more than three seconds after saying this, a hawk dive-bombed JPB, trying to get his chicken bones. It brushed his arm, he let out a girlish scream, but was no worse for wear in the end.

From there, we drove to Arusha, had Ethiopian food for dinner, stayed the night, and caught the morning bus back to Nairobi (about six hours). We were exhausted from so much driving and travel, but very happy with the trip and how (amazingly) smoothly things had gone. For our last dinner in Nairobi, JPB treated us to Carnivore, an East African landmark, which used to serve all sorts of game meat, but now does less exotic meat, but lots of it. It’s a lot like a Brazilian steakhouse. Crocodile, camel, and ostrich were the more exotic selections, which went along with lamb, pork, beef, chicken, ribs, calf heart, and chicken wings (to name a few).

We had a great time with JPB and miss him. It truly was a safari njema (cue bird dive-bomb).

The Serengeti

After our tour of Zanzibar, we headed to Arusha, Tanzania to begin our safari. We began our visit with a brief guided walk through a town called Mto Wa Mbu. This translates in Swahili to "mosquito river" so needless to say, we didn't linger long before heading to Lake Manyara.

Lake Manyara National Park is one of Tanzania's smaller parks but it gave JPB a chance to get his safari legs. Lake Manyara's claim to fame is that the park borders the escarpment which is what the locals in Kenya and Tanzania call the sides of the Rift Valley. It's really beautiful and full of many elephants, baboons, and giraffes.

See the hills behind the baby giraffe, that's the escarpment:


Even if you can't see it, isn't he cute??

The next day, we headed to our main attraction, the Serengeti. Serengeti derives its name from the Maasai word for "endless plain" which is a pretty accurate description of the 12,000 square mile park. The Serengeti is home to the largest land migration on earth each year when more than 2 million animals travel in a circle from the southern Serengeti to the Maasai Mara in Kenya and back following the rains that produce the grass they need.

See below for a map of the great migration:


At this time of year, the migrating animals and the predators that hunt them are in the central Serengeti. They have just given birth to this year's babies and are gathering together to begin the migration. Although we didn't see the full group of animals since they're still gathering, it was still a crazy sight to behold:

See all those white spots? Those are zebra:


And all those dots? Those are wildebeasts:


Now the name "The Great Migration" sounds like a noble, determined, organized movement from one place to another. This is false advertising. In reality, the animals (and wildebeasts in particular) stampede back and forth over the plains until they reach a critical mass and start to starve, then one day they stumble on green grasses in one direction and start to move towards it. We literally watched one group of wildebeats and zebras stampede across the same river and back three times since they're all confused and on edge. The huge congregation of animals brings a lot of predators so the animals are constantly skittish and terrified so that any change of scenery freaks them out. For example, they constantly stampede across roads since it freaks them out that there's no grass:



This is especially entertaining because there are hilarious pile-ups, balks, and general animal hysteria.

Beyond the great migration, we saw many other animals. Since we've already extensively narrated safari, I'll just post them for your viewing pleasure:















Full moon at dawn over the Serengeti:


Team Safari 2k11:


It was a really wonderful experience especially since we got to stay in the central Serengeti overlooking a watering hole. We were so thankful that JPB joined us and that we still had another day of touring left.

Hiatus

Internet is slow in the Serengeti but safari is amazing. We'll be back in a few days. Love you all!

Spice Tour

So after our amazing day of snorkeling and lounging yesterday, we wanted to see a little of what made Zanzibar globally famous. No not Jack Black, but rather spices. Zanzibar was at one time the largest exporter or spices in the world, and though places like India and Indonesia have taken a large share of the spice industry from Zanzibar, a large industry remains.

We were picked up from our hotel at around 9 am and then drove 30 or so minutes to the spice plantation where the tour was done. We were led by a university student who was studying for an exam in communication off of his cheat sheet while we walked between the different spice sections. Multitasking like an American.

We started with turmeric, which is a root related to ginger. He passed around cut sections of the root, and encouraged us to smell them. He also warned us that if we tasted it, it would stain our teeth, but for some reason, I didn’t believe him. 8 hours later, I’m writing this blog with yellow teeth.

We then walked through the following spice/fruit areas: cinnamon (the leaves smelled like cinnamon, but the roots like eucalyptus!), ginger, nutmeg, mace (nutmeg and mace are actually the same plant!), cloves (Zanzibar is famous for cloves), curry, starfruit, bananas, vanilla (grows on a vine and has to be hand-pollinated because the bees that pollinate them are only found in Mexico) , birdseye peppers (JBP couldn’t even tolerate the sight of them), among others.

The red is the mace and the dark colored nut in the center is what you grind to get nutmeg:



There were a few coconut trees, and one of the local boys gave us a demonstration of climbing the trunk to harvest some coconuts for us. He sang the whole way up, as apparently the rule is that if you’re singing, you can’t be held responsible if a coconut falls on the head of a passerby. Actually, this makes good sense. Of course, I asked to try to climb as well, as it looked so easy. Apparently, a lifetime of practice makes it look easier than it is. I made it up a few feet, at which point I had succeeded in making my clothes filthy and skinning up my arms.

Notice John's shoulder for reference on how high I climbed:



Fortunately, our next stop was the iodine tree, which bleeds the famous antibacterial fluid. After rubbing that salve on my wounds, we progressed though the red mahogany and teak sections, passed through the spice market, and then sat on some mats for a “spice lunch”, which consisted of pilau (spiced rice), coconut curry, and spinach. The food was pretty good, though the pilau had whole cloves and big pieces of cinnamon bark, which proved slightly fibrous. We then headed back to the van in a deluge, which was actually quite refreshing.

That drop you can see on the right of the bark is iodine (click to make it larger). When you cut the tree, it bleeds iodine:



The deluge starting:



We haven't seen daytime rain since September so this was very exciting. The other tourists thought we were a bit strange:



The tour was actually really fun. It was cool to see what the spice plants look like, as aside from things like thyme and basil, we in the Western world don’t ever see spice plants. Here, spices are grown everywhere and are quite a bit cheaper than in the US. Our hotel serves homemade jams at breakfast with a ridiculous amount of vanilla bean in the jam, which is just delicious and not economically feasible in the US.

After the tour, we took the requisite McRun though Stone Town, which is the part of town with very narrow alleys and people who are very interested in giant and tiny Americans running around in the middle of the afternoon.

We have our last night in Zanzibar tonight, and then we head Arusha, in central Tanzania. Stay tuned!

Chumbe Island

Our first full day on Zanzibar was spent on Chumbe Island (confusing that we spent our first day elsewhere but it’s true!). This island is in the Zanzibar archipelago but is one of the smaller islands and was not permanently inhabited until the early 1900s when a lighthouse was built there.

This island now has an eco-resort and allows day-trippers to come over and use their facilities on a limited basis. We left Zanzibar by a 15-ft boat for a 45 minute motor over to the island and it looked gorgeous:



Our first stop was our private “banda” for the day. The bandas (and everything else on the island) were built to exacting eco-lodge standards. The lodges are open-air and constructed entirely of bamboo, coconut trees, and palm trees. The palm tree roof collects water in fill a giant cistern under each banda since there is no fresh-water source on the island. The water runs off the roof and through a series of sand filters before entering the cistern. M, obviously, was fascinated especially when it began to rain and he could see the whole thing close-up. Dirty water from showering is collected, cleaned, and reused in the kitchen garden and all toilets are composting, etc. It was a really neat operation and a far cry from most of East Africa which is littered with plastic water bottles. Since water processing is so time consuming, anyone who can afford it will simply buy water in plastic jugs or bottles. There aren’t trashcans anywhere in public so people just throw them on the ground.

The banda:



Water filtration:



The main reason for our trip was the reef off the island so we headed down to do a little snorkeling. One really unique thing about this reef is that scuba divers are not allowed. Scuba diving is a bit of a double-edged sword in terms of conservation. Done well, it allows people to appreciate and see the biodiversity which makes them more likely to protect it. It is usually not done well. Many companies are eager to get the high-paying folks onto the reef as fast as possible. Using unfamiliar (and sometimes very old) equipment, divers will often empty their air bladders and go crashing into the reef, swim too close to coral, or try to touch or chase corals or other animals because they forget it’s not allowed. This reefs protected status made it some of the best snorkeling I have ever seen:





Less than 20 ft below us were huge corals in colors I have never seen like blue or green. There were tons of fish including some 150-lb grouper (delicious according to M), lobster, and giant clams. JPB’s new camera allows underwater photos so we took a lot.

After about an hour of snorkeling, we retired to the beach for a delicious lunch and then naps in our banda. Since it’s rainy season, we got a storm from 2-4 which was delightful for sleeping since it broke the heat.

We returned back to Stone Town in Zanzibar (the main town on the island) around 5 PM. We showered up quickly before heading back out to happy hour. The Tanzanians are generally acknowledged to be more polite than the Kenyans, even by the Kenyans themselves, so there is significantly less harassment here than in Mombasa. The boys quickly found their favorite spot, Forodhani Park, where they were 30 tables set up selling fresh seafood skewers ready to be grilled to order. M has never met a fish or streetfood that he didn’t like and apparently JPB feels the same way. So, streetfood dinner it was! Tuna, barricuda, crab, prawn, and octopus skewers were all quickly procured and enjoyed:





After filling our stomachs, we headed to a local bar where the chief amusement is watching the car ferry to the mainland load each night. There is no ramp so the ferry comes straight to the beach and then cars race down the beach so they don’t get stuck in the sand narrowly avoiding crashing into other cars and bystanders. This was a source of endless amusement and proves once again that Kenyans (and apparently Tanzanians) can put up with a lot of angst.

The Equatorial Haircut Part Deux & Safari Itinerary

So today we took JPB to Mombasa for a little culture. We basically repeated the general tour of Mombasa that covers the Portuguese fort (Fort Jesus) and Old Town.

The most amusing part of the day was to actually get to Mombasa which was quite amusing as the boys tried to squish into matatus and tuktuks to get around:





After several hours of sweating in the sun, JPB turned to me and said, “I think I’m ready for that haircut”. Before JPB arrived, I had jokingly mentioned in an email the rule about shaving your head when you crossed the equator. Turns out, he was due for a haircut and game to visit a kinyozi (Swahili for barber).

Here’s the before:



The during:




And the after:



So, now, we are ready for safari! We leave today on a 9-day trip that will take us south to Zanzibar, west to the Serengeti and finally north to Nairobi. We are dropping JPB off before returning to Diani for Easter.

Some maps of our route:

As you can see, we'll basically only be in the northern-most part of Tanzania, very close to Kilimanjaro and the Kenyan border:

View Safari in a larger map

Here's our route:

View Safari in a larger map


View Safari in a larger map

We are very excited to go on this trip after so many hours in the lab over the last few weeks. We should be able to blog along the way so we’ll keep you updated.

JPB is here!

Yesterday morning, M went to the airport bright and early to pick up JPB for his visit to Kenya. Needless to say, we were very excited to see him!

You can see that he brought tons of technical gear on our recommendation since we won't have much laundry for the next two weeks. The boys look like a walking North Face ad with all their wicking clothes but I think they're quite pleased with themselves.

M took him on a tour of the hospital, the lab, and the town of Msambweni. He even practiced a little bit with the pippette:



They took a romantic walk in the tidal pools in Msambweni:



And the day was finished with beers on the beach:



Anyway, today the boys are off for a tour of Mombasa before we leave tomorrow for Zanzibar. I will update more about our itinerary for the next 2 weeks tomorrow.