All Things EARTH... part 2

[alidor]

MJC —

 

We, too, were in Tanzania over Christmas and had a wonderful time.   There is a book out called “The White Masai.”   It is a true story about a woman from Switzerland who fell in love with a Masai man.   Ok, she’s pretty much nuts as far as I am concerned but it is very interesting reading as it gives tremendous background to the Masai people.   It is very interesting reading.

[Sailor_Sally]

It is so interesting to know there is a company like this . When I was younger I went on several guided tours and while I saw a lot it was sometimes things I had no interest in .I love the research & planning of trips but sometimes for longer trips I would like someone else to give me some input .

[Joby]

I'm glad you started your report, Margaret. Getting started is the hardest step 😁 I think you'll appreciate having it on paper for future reference. That's why I wrote my Africa book on trip #2. It was a nice way to exhibit my photos instead of just an album and a way to memorialize our trip in print that we could look at whenever we wanted. We've also loaned it out many many times to those who wanted to read about and "see" our trip. It was a lot of work and time  but so worth it in the end.

 

Looking forward to your next installment!!!

[MJC]

Anita, I do think any age could wear it, but for me my hot flashes are still bad enough that I often can't stand long sleeves and high necklines. That dress is such a wearable, sophisticated interpretation of the prairie dress trend which is mostly too costume-like IMO. I love the asymmetrical hem and the lace.

 

We both kept travel journals. Our days were long and we saw so much. The birds alone... I think we saw five or six species of just eagles. I kept a list of animals each day so I could remember. We couldn't get photos of everything. The journals are so helpful later when I make our photo books.

 

Alidor, thanks for the book recommendation. I'm currently reading A Study in Charlotte. I sometimes read YA fiction to see if it's appropriate for my students. 🙂

 

Sally, we have resorted to a group tour when in China and Vietnam. In China we would have needed a travel agent anyway in order to book the domestic flights and hotels we wanted, we were not allowed to do it ourselves. Also, we don't speak Chinese and despite what you read most of them don't speak English, so the logistics would have been so challenging. We went with an astronomy group that hit all the locations we wanted, and they were mostly like-minded people. We were able to avoid the one very annoying couple for the most part.

 

In Vietnam, we originally planned a land vacation with trains etc. It is a long skinny country with a long coastline. But before we booked anything Clipper Cruises came out with a new itinerary that was perfect. It was their first one and we ended up on a small ship that held 120 but only had 40 pax. They only did it for two years and then were bought by Zegrahm.

 

Sometimes it's just too hard to do on your own. We had tried to find out the simplest things, like would a 6'3 man fit in the train's sleeping compartment, with no success. Communist countries are still very opaque in many ways. There is a lot of appeal in a group safari for many of the same reasons.

[laurspag]

This is really interesting, Margaret.   I don't think I would know where to start or how to figure out where to go, what to do, etc.  So it is really good to see how you approached this.

 

I have big time cabin fever at the moment.  First, I've been working a lot and so has my husband. I was focused on finding some time for a few things in December, because I have found that I often put a lot of effort into the holidays and end up spending more time decorating, shopping, cleaning, cooking, etc. to the point where I feel like I've missed the holiday.  I did some fun things, and got to some basketball games and other things.

 

January was busy though, and I know with the wedding coming and being right on budget, I don't really want to spend much elsewhere until I can be sure everything is set. We are just over 4 months away, so time has gone very quickly.

 

I am thinking about our trip to Boston in June.  Our game tickets are purchased, and our hotel is booked.  Even though we were not happy about the expense, we felt we would be better off in a different hotel.  We will be even closer to Fenway now, and withing walking distance of more places.  Anita, we are staying at the same hotel as you stayed at.

 

I am currently planning our August cruise a little more thoroughly.  We are looking at excursions today.  In may ways, this reminds me a bit of our Pacific coastal cruise in that it is not a beachy, tropical one.  Bar Harbor, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia..they all seem very beautiful and it will be fun to go to those places.  We are going in the beginning of August, so this is not a fall foliage cruise or anything.  It should be pretty warm.

 

If any of you have been to these places and have suggestions, please let me know. 

 

After August, I have nothing at all planned.  I don't anticipate being able to cruise or go to Florida or anything.  I think we may be able to get a few days in with a driving trip. We will probably start to look at ideas after the wedding, when we will know for sure if our wedding budget held up!

 

Feeling kind of couped up has me looking a lot at my house.  We have separate savings for our home improvements and the like.  We have a lot of smaller odds and ends this year.  Sometimes, we will wait to do something because we want to make things our own, and maybe what we have in mind is more expensive.  For example, we really need to replace the doors in the house.  They are older hollow core doors, and a few even have a hole or two.  They are the originals from the house was built in 1955.  We can go to Lowes or Home Depot to buy the basic doors, but we really liked a style that was little different and that were special order.  So we have saved for these.  We also thought that the door handles should be in a style and finish that works with the other metals in the house, such as on light fixtures and so forth.  I find little things like this create a bit of cohesiveness and harmony to the look and feel of the house.  So as it turns out, the handles we want have to be special ordered too.

 

All in all, it isn't a lot more, but rather than do these last year, we decided to wait until we saved more so that we could order what we really wanted to have.

 

I get frustrated sometimes that it takes us longer than I would like, but that is reality.  I am very thankful for what we have, and we work hard to save money for things.  It is rewarding to accomplish things and know that we planned it out, worked overtime, saved, and got it done. 

[Sailor_Sally]

Laurie , When we went to Canada I researched all the ports on the internet . St. John's is pretty small .We walked around it and then took a trolley tour that was offered by the city .Halifax has a lot to see . We took a tour that went to the various sites . There is also a boardwalk right near the port that has restaurants and shops and I think there is a maritime museum .I researched that also on the town's web site .We really enjoyed that cruise and would definitely go again.

I love the research part of travel .

[laurspag]

Sally, I love researching too.  I will check CC, ask people I know, google the city.  It is a lot of fun to plan.  One thing about these ports is that some of them can probably be explored on our own, without an excursion.  Sometimes, depending on how long we are in a particular port, I will schedule an excursion along with just walking around.  I am thinking that is what I might do with this trip.  I can imagine the food in these places will be really good.  Maybe some seafood?  My husband doesn't eat it, but as long as we find places to eat that have other options for him, it will work.

 

Our weather has just been the absolute strangest.  First, we had that arctic blast which was 22 below with wind chill.  Only 3 or 4 days after that, we had a record of 61 degrees.  We get sizeable snowfalls, it melts, then we get another storm, etc. We are due to get some wintry weather again in a few days.

 

My daughter and her fiancé are taking a quick little trip to Florida for a few days.  That sounds so good to me right now.  I believe their plan is to get to Universal Studios and to Disney.  I'm hoping they have some nice weather!

[purduemom1]

Laurie, we loved our Canada-New  England cruise. Loved all the ports. We spent extra days before the cruise in Quebec-the old city and loved it. Stayed at a quaint local hotel and walked everywhere. So much charm. I researched on the ports section of Cruise Critic and also Trip Advisor. Unfortunately Hurricane Sandy decided to join us and we had to bypass Bar Harbor because it is a tender port and seas were rough. We spent an extra night in St John to be safe from the storm. Ours was the last cruise of the season so the city scrambled to offer a few options for the passengers.

 

I had booked a tour to Acadia National Park for Bar Harbor. I chose a local company and their policy was no charge if your ship cancelled the port. We hope we will have an opportunity to eventually visit Bar Harbor and Acadia Nat’l Park. 

 

We booked a private tour in Halifax because none of the ship’s tours included everything  we wanted to see. It was fantastic. We told them what we wanted and they arranged everything and then some., 

 

In St John we did a very inexpensive tour offered by the city. (don’t know if it’s still offered but learned about it in CC) Then we walked around on our own. 

 

We we did a similar thing in another port but I don’t recall which one. It was a hop on hop off sort of thing and we visited various sights. 

 

Our cruise was in 2012 so not sure the companies we used are still in business. I learned about them here on CC. I am currently in Minneapolis-snowy, cold Minneapolis where we Californians survived the Polar Vortex so I don’t have any information from that cruise with me that I can pass along.

Sharon

[Sailor_Sally]

20 minutes ago, laurspag said:

.

 

My daughter and her fiancé are taking a quick little trip to Florida for a few days.  That sounds so good to me right now.  I believe their plan is to get to Universal Studios and to Disney.  I'm hoping they have some nice weather!

Our weather has finally turned nice so your daughter should have a great trip

[awhfy]

Laurie. Bar Harbor is one of our favorite towns!  Acadia National Park is wonderful. You can take the HOHO trolley, they do a nice job of the park. Stewmans is wonderful, lobster rolls, fisherman’s platters (really good steaks & hamburgers). Walking distance from tender port right on West St. Whale watch tours (when we were there last September we saw tons of whales). There are several souvenir shops go up the hill & the last one on the right before the stoplight ( yes, one) has great prices. Melody

[MJC]

Melody, nice pictures. Acadia is a place I'd like to see someday.

 

Laurie, I know what you mean about feeling cooped up. The cold makes my knees hurt so, there are days when I don't leave the apartment. I have been doing a lot of cleaning and sorting. I have my great-grandmother's china to wash and make a home for. I also brought home my grandmother's mixing bowls. I think of her hands and my hands, holding them while stirring something delicious. It makes me happy. I feel a great need to take stock, get organized, and plan the next phase of my life now that I'm not responsible to anyone for a while. My own self definitely needs some attention!

 

pa, it's nice to hear about your NE cruise. It would be an easy one for us -- no flying! -- and the idea of some time in Quebec is something we've talked about. In a perfect world it would be awesome to do the b2b and end up back at home.

 

 

 

 

[MJC]

Flying, Airports, and Liquids

The last time we used FF tickets was when we went to China in 2009. Delta's system for redeeming tickets has changed a lot since then. Back then only 2 FF seats per cabin were available on each flight. I had to book a flight to see if the seats were even available. It took me hours and hours to find a flight to anywhere in China with two available first class seats. We ended up with Atlanta-Shanghai. We then booked domestic from LGA-ATL and from Shanghai to Beijing.

It is so much easier now. You put in the dates you want to travel and a chart comes up showing how many miles it takes to fly on each day. Popular days or fuller flights cost more miles. No tedious hunting for seats flight by flight.

The other big change is in business class. No more recliner-style big leather chairs. On our overnight flights we had pods:

https://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/traveling-with-us/onboard-experience/delta-one-business-class.html

We were in the middle section so our pods had a divider that we could put down in order to chat. After boarding the flight to London, we had a nice steak dinner and then slept for five hours. We had a quick breakfast, not so good, and landed at 6:30am. Our next leg would be the short flight to Paris at 1pm on Air France.

Time to talk about London Heathrow Airport.

We used FlightAware to find out where to go for our next flight. We had to leave Terminal 3 and get on a bus to Terminal 2,  then we had to get on a second bus to go to Terminal 4 where Air France was. That took about an hour, between waiting for buses and being driven all over the airport grounds. Then we had to go through an immigration check, where after a five minute wait in line, they looked at our docs and asked us questions about where we were going and why before waiving us on to a hallway that bypassed customs. We went through security, which was a breeze (for reasons soon to be explained). Eventually we parked ourselves in the Air France lounge where I scouted out a loveseat off in the boonies. Boots off, legs elevated, wifi logged on, Perrier by my side... we were very happy to wait there for a few hours. The lounge is two floors, and we stayed on the top floor where there were beverages and some snacks, but one floor down there was a whole buffet and a bar, and that's where most of the people were. We hung out until noon and then went to the gate. There may have been dozing.

As at JFK, everywhere at LHR seemed like an interminable walk. Sometimes I let Mark carry my duffle. I was finding all that walking a challenge since I had been on the DL for all of December.

The only highlight of the day was seeing a retired Concorde that's parked on the airport grounds. Such a beautiful plane.

So, lets talk liquids. LHR had the strictest liquids policy of all the airports we would go through. I checked them all way ahead of time, and we packed for the most stringent as I wasn't sure where or how often we'd be going through security along the way. In England, the following restrictions apply to all liquids, creams, gels, pastes and aerosols taken through security control. This includes lip balm, mascara, sunscreen sticks... anything that isn't an actual SOLID. Everything must be in containers marked with the size in ml.The rules are very different from ours:

Liquids may only be carried in containers holding 100ml (3.8oz) or less.They must be carried separately in a single bag which is transparent and resealable, and no larger than 20cm x 20cm (just less than 8in x 8in).

This is quite small!! Not much can fit in there. Here is their example:

 

I got two of these at Marshalls. I measured them with an app on my phone, they were 7.5 inches -- perfect. Gussets  = more stuff. We both had two layers of products instead of just one. It was easy to see what every item was. All the little clear containers will come in handy for some future trip, I'm sure.


We had them in the outside pockets of our duffels for easy access. We also each had a gallon ziplock for all the non-liquid toiletries and medicines. We had locks on the main compartment zippers of our bags. All our tech was in the backpacks. Mark's phone, our tablets, and my nook had to be put in a bin. Security was a breeze.

 

Our flight to Paris was so well done. It was a smallish plane with no real business class, the air time only about 45 minutes. We had a whole row with an empty middle seat, and they gave us champagne with a very delicious lunch of roast beef and cheese, veggies, french bread, and yogurt with berries, followed by hot towels, and served with a lot of charm. Just delightful.

 

Then it was another layover at CDG. I took a walk and window-shopped. It is like no other airport shopping I've seen. Christian Dior, Chanel, Hermes, Gucci. The airport security people were riding Segways in their cool outfits. The flight to Nairobi was PACKED. We celebrated with some champagne, then for eight hours we slept and watched movies. We were on a brand new Boeing Dreamliner, and when we landed we were in AFRICA!!!!

 

 

 

[Anita Latte]

Margaret...yes, the Paris airport shopping is amazing. We had a layover there when we flew home from taking the eastbound TA to Barcelona. Delta had a great flight from Paris to Atlanta and we took a hopper up to Paris from Barcelona. Air France served us complementary wine and had excellent munchies, IIRC, even on our short flight. CDG is like a luxury class mall...it's hard to remember that you are in an airport...IIRC. I could be confusing the Barcelona airport, but I don't think so. We purchased macaroons at CDG...so good.

 

Those pods look amazing. Delta is our airline of choice...of course, flying out of ATL for 5 years! I haven't had occasion to use a pod, but that looks amazing. I wish we could have booked that for our overnight to London, but we were paying OOP for the airfare and that definitely wasn't in the budget. We will be in the "bubble" though for our outbound flight. The plane is a double decker with about 43 seats on the second level, in the bubble. I'm hoping that the atmosphere up there will be a bit quieter and we will be able to sleep on board. Were you on double decker by any chance?

 

We'll be flying in and out of Gatwick...I've looked up the security. Your sunscreen stick wasn't solid? Really? And you said balm...we have balms that are usually solid. Like coconut oil, in warmer weather they can liquify...is that what you are referring to? Those have to be in the 311 too? Hmmm. We're only going to be 4 nights in London so I'm planning on packing extremely light. Like EXTREME. 

 

I like your Marshalls find. No problems with it? I've wondered about having a more reusable bag in lieu of the disposable ones. Gusset is a definite plus! Especially if they are so strict. 

[pacruise804]

Laurie,  when you do your Canada research keep in mind that Saint John is in New Brunswick, while St. Johns is in Newfoundland.  I've heard people can have search issues if they don't type out Saint John.

[Ginster1]

Hello lovely ladies. Haven’t posted in a while. Margaret, thank you so much for your detailed information about your trip. I’ve never ventured to further than Canada, Mexico, and Guatemala but dh and I are planning a cruise this year to Europe either in August or September. 

 

Laurie, I’m enjoying your posts regarding your daughters wedding. My daughter is getting married June 22nd so I’m super excited too!  I still haven’t found a dress. My daughter has though. They just recently got engaged so we’re having to do things quickly. 

 

Right now now we are headed to San Francisco to board the Grand Princess for a 10 day cruise to Mexico. We’ll be stopping in Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, Manzanillo, and Cabo then back to San Francisco.   I’ve been packing since early this morning but now just waiting for dh. He doesn’t like me packing for him and that’s fine with me! Lol. I wish he would hurry up. 

 

It’s been so cold here in the Bay Area that we’ve had snow on our mountain tops. But yes, I know, NOTHING like what some of you on the East Coast and Mid West have had to deal with.   I wasn’t sure what to pack so packed for both cold and warm weather. Can barely lift me bag.   I purchased a travel suit from Boston Proper in black which is so comfy. It’s like wearing sweats but looks so much nicer. 

https://www.bostonproper.com/p/beyond-travel8482-chic-coordinates/20/

 

It was expensive but I had a 20% couple code. I figured I could change it up a bit with different colored camis and scarfs. 

 

I also packed this dress for dinners. It fits me like a glove. And very reasonable too. 

https://www.bostonproper.com/p/beyond-travel8482-chic-coordinates/20/

 

I didn’t purchase the Internet package on our trip so will be offline for the next 10 days. I did this during our Alaska cruise too and yes, I went through withdrawals but at the same time it was a good way to truly decompress. 

[MJC]

Ginny, those look like great travel outfits. We did the 10-day from LA on the Ruby in 2017 and loved it, especially Cabo. Bon voyage!

 

Anita, it was articles like this that made me such a fanatic about the liquids:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2017/08/is-lipstick-really-a-liquid-uk-airports-impose-different-security-rules-on-make-up/

 

We didn't take the sunscreen stick, but we did have solid deodorants that went in our liquids bags. We each took a 3oz bottle of sunscreen, which turned out to be plenty. It's not like we were at the beach and needed coverage for a day of swimming. I have such sensitive skin that I wanted to carry sunscreen products that I know, and not have to rely on fitting in a later shopping trip for toiletries. I also had a tube of hair conditioner, a tube of tinted spf face sunscreen, a travel size of my usual moisturizer, tiger balm, small tubes of cortisone cream, antibiotic cream, antifungal cream, a tiny pot of cuticle cream, and a small OFF bug spray. For cosmetics I limited it to my SPF mineral face powder (not in the bag), mascara, eyebrow/eyeliner, and tinted lip balm. On the days we were mostly in the vehicle, I didn't bother with any cosmetics, just the sunscreen and lip balm. In the evenings it was dimly lit in the restaurants and our rooms so I didn't bother with anything but moisturizer. I did wish I had brought a small tube of body lotion. I assumed we would have it in the room, but only one of the lodges provided it (and it was very sweet smelling so I was wary of trying it).

 

We didn't have trouble with the clear bags I had bought. While in line I was scouting out what others ahead of me had. The woman in front of me had a similar bag that was practically bursting at the seams with all her makeup. No problemo.

 

I don't think you should worry too much about this. It would be easy to find replacements for anything they wouldn't allow in London.

 

We were not on a plane with the bubble (I think that's a 747?) but I've heard that those seats book early as they are very quiet and get loaded first before the rest of the plane.

 

I loved the pods. Pods all the way. Not so happy with the movie selection, but I had loaded stuff from Netflix on my tablet, so it was all good. We had fluffy pillows and comforters, plenty to eat and drink, and it was so quiet. I didn't have any trouble with my legs swelling at all.

[MJC]

I think this is a good time to mention Schengen countries. I had heard of this somewhere on CC so I knew to read up. When we went from London to Paris we went from non-Schengen to Schengen, so the TSA-type rules were different. Likewise on our return, we came into Schengen at Amsterdam and went out when we left for London. The upshot was that at Schiphol they took my cuticle scissors and inspected my bottle of magnesium sulfate powder. Not interested in our liquids at all. 

 

If you travel within Europe, especially carry-on only, just be prepared that there are different rules for different regions, and sometimes different immigration areas and security checks depending on your passport.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area

 

It seems more complicated than it is. It falls in the category of hey, you're not in the US, dont be surprised that things work differently.

 

 

 

 

 

[Anita Latte]

Well...the good news for my particular trip is that we don't have to deal with these issues arriving in London, right? We'll deal with TSA in MCO. This will all come into play for our homebound journey, so no impact on our trip really.

 

Nice lines on your wardrobe choices Ginny. Looking comfortable but nicer than typical knit wear.

[awhfy]

Ginny, good choices!  You’ll get lots of wear out of both pieces. Have a great cruise.  Melody

[purduemom1]

Ginny, love your choices and I agree that they will work well for many occasions. Bon Voyage.  Will look forward to hearing about your adventures when you return.

Sharon

[purduemom1]

Margaret, I’m finding all your trip planning and prep details very interesting. Looking forward to more as you have time.

Sharon

[MJC]

Thank you, Sharon. Between Christmas and the end of January, I was gone 4 out of 5 weeks, so I have a lot to catch up on at home and at work. 🙂

 

Laurie, I saw this and thought of you:

 

https://www.lordandtaylor.com/alex-evenings-jersey-sheath-dress/product/0500089106890?FOLDER<>folder_id=2534374302023681&amp;R=884002888343&amp;P_name=Alex+Evenings&amp;N=302023681+1553

 

I like this for me:

 

https://www.lordandtaylor.com/adrianna-papell-beaded-v-neck-gown/product/0500088905208?FOLDER<>folder_id=2534374302023763&amp;R=191937844581&amp;P_name=Adrianna+Papell&amp;N=302023763+1553+4294965210+4294906454+4294929413+4294929522+4294929567+4294906752+4294967248

 

I got a coupon in the mail and wanted to see what was on sale. 🙂 No formals in my future, though I will have a wedding to attend in June. I suppose I should start thinking about that one.

 

[MJC]

Day One - Nairobi

 

When we landed at 6am at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, we had been traveling for 26 hours (if you include our taxi ride to JFK) and had jumped time zones until we were 8 hours ahead. We were glad we had gotten the online transit visas, because the line for purchasing visas at the airport was very long. Our flight to Tanzania wasn't until 5pm, so we had a day room at the Crowne Plaza near the airport:

 

https://www.ihg.com/crowneplaza/hotels/us/en/nairobi/nboir/hoteldetail

 

The hotel grounds have a wall and a gate with a guard who lets you in after a brief inspection of the vehicle. We also had to put our luggage through a scanner from the outside that deposited our bags inside the lobby with another guard. It only took about three minutes to check in, then we were escorted to our room. We had made an appointment to be on the 1pm shuttle back to the airport (they run hourly).

 

Leaving the airport area to do some sightseeing for the day would have involved going through a checkpoint to get back into the airport zone that's on the one main road in the area. Apparently the checkpoint line can get VERY long because traffic on the main road is so bad. So we opted for the day room. We had a big breakfast with freshly made omelettes and good coffee, plus all the usual buffet items. We showered and napped. We were exhausted but excited. It was good to put on fresh clothes! Our room had a little balcony but by mid-morning it was way too hot to be outdoors. The pool was on the roof and it was too brutal to contemplate a swim, which I had been hoping for.

 

It is the custom that someone will always come to carry your bag. Everyone who carried a bag for us got $1. The man who carried it from the airport shuttle to the conveyor belt, the woman who carried it from the belt to the front desk, the other woman who carried it from the front desk to the room. Tourism is a very important source of money for the local people, and they have these customs to be fair and spread it around. We learned that quickly and took it to heart. We are normally schlepp-our-own-bags people, but here we did not. Even at the airport, when we finished immigration we had a guide waiting to take us outside to the Ranger guide, who took us from there to the airport shuttle driver, all of whom got a tip.

 

I had read that the airport can be very crowded and we should leave 3 hours. So, we left the hotel at 1pm, were at the airport in five minutes, and by 1:30 we were sitting at the gate. 🙄  We could easily have enjoyed the room for another hour. They scanned our bags at the entrance, we checked in and got our boarding passes, then went through the actual security line (take off the shoes) and were at the gate very quickly. The gate seating is enclosed and they don't open it until about 15 minutes before the flight, so we hunted for a place to hang out. I was kicking myself that we didn't eat lunch at the hotel. We parked ourselves in the 'food court' for two hours in hard chairs and had water and yogurt. Not pleasant. I dug a crumpled Kind bar out of my bag. I may have gotten cranky.

 

If you've ever been on a turboprop, you know they are very tight. On this flight, the side in the sun was also extremely hot with no window shade (that would be me), and the window seats had a bar where your feet go (also me). Until we got to altitude and I could kick Mark out of his seat, my knees were crying. Fortunately there was a lot of empty space for him to move to. From my side, I had a nice view of Mt. Meru. He got to sit on the side with a view of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 12, 2019 by MJC

[awhfy]

That is definitely a Laurie dress. Speaking of Laurie this was from JJill today , the new color Truffle. Melody

[MJC]

Nairobi, continued:

 

Mark with a nice mural at JRO:

 

The flight was only 45 minutes. We climbed down from the plane and walked the tarmac to the terminal. Our next Ranger guide was there waiting with our immigration forms already filled out for us. Immigration took maybe 4 minutes each and included a photo and hand scan. He carried our bags outside where we met the driver who would take us to the lodge in Arusha. It was a long trip from JRO, through Arusha to the other side of town. It took about two hours and by now it was getting dark. The traffic was astonishing. It is a miracle that people don't die every five minutes. It's like the rules are just a faint suggestion. Cars come from everywhere doing craziness.

 

By the time we checked in, got escorted to our cottage, and walked back for dinner, it was close to 9pm and we were starving. We ordered grilled salmon off a very interesting menu because it would be quick. The food was very good and we wished we had the energy to pay attention and savor it. The lodge grounds were gated, so we were able to walk back on our own and crash.

 

Arusha Coffee Lodge (the fourth photo is what our room was like):

https://www.elewanacollection.com/arusha-coffee-lodge/photo-gallery

 

The amber panel separating the couch from the bedroom area was actually an art glass piece with coffee beans in it. They actually grow coffee there. The frosted doors on the right lead to the bathroom. Our bathroom had the most beautiful tub! I woke very early so I would have had plenty of time to use it, but I knew that my knees wouldn't work for getting in and out. The last thing I wanted to do was re-injure myself on the first day. But I wanted to be in that tub in the worst way!

 

 

At night when they turned down the bed, they would release the netting too. The ceiling fan was inside, so we stayed nice and cool. Behind the bed was a long shelf area and a cupboard for hanging clothes.

 

All the windows were on one side, and each cottage was set so that you couldn't see your neighbors. We were toward the back of the property, and it was so peaceful and private.

 

Edited February 12, 2019 by MJC