Standing on the Top of Africa

Uhuru peak on Mt. Kilimanjaro is 5895m tall, almost 19,000 feet above sea level and after 4 days of traveling on a bus and 4.5 days of climbing we made it to the top of Africa, the tallest free standing mountain in the world. And that was just the first week of my two week spring break. The second week was spent in Zanzibar enjoying the oxygen available at sea level, snorkeling over beautiful coral reefs, eating my weight in prawns and coconut fish, feeding 150 year old tortoises, and exploring the incredible beauty of Stonetown. This is how I spent my spring break:

Transport:
Getting to Arusha required 4 days of transport, including a 19 hour bus ride and a night spent in a brothel. (it was only $2.50/night) To be fair, the buses in Tanzania were much nicer and the rides included stops at rest areas with take away food! An incredible upgrade from roadfood in Malawi.

Getting from Arusha to Zanzibar required a 11 hour bus ride from Arusha to Dar es Salaam, the brakes on our bus broke so we missed the last ferry to Zanzibar. We had heard about flights to Zanzibar and went to airport on a whim. About 45 minutes later we had bargained down a flight from $76 to $45 and were sitting in the smallest plane I have ever been in (minus the one I jumped out of) enjoying a sunset flight to Zanzibar.

Zanzibar to Dar es Salaam was not so spectacular as I get incredibly sea sick and had to use a sea sick bag in front of A LOT of people. I have never gotten sea sick in my life, it was terrible. Probably karma for making fun of people who wear those patches behind their ears on cruises. I'm sorry, I promise to never make fun of you again.

I decided somewhere along the 19 hour bus ride it was totally worth it to fly back to Lilongwe. But...the flight was postponed a day, and then the airport didn't take credit cards. Yes, in order to buy a plane ticket in Dar es Salaam you have to withdrawal a lot of cash, walk around the airport with this giant sum of money, and shadily hand over a wad of cash.

The Climb:
Was amazing. The first three days were fairly easy. Our guides, Stanley and Issa were awesome and we enjoyed the luxury camping of having our tents set up, food prepared, and water boiled. easy. And then day 4 started. It was windy and cold and there was not a lot of oxygen. We moved at a snails pace, the beautiful green vegetation was replaced by what looked like the place where rocks go to die. We arrived at our last camp around 4pm, ate dinner and tried to sleep for a few hours. I should explain here that we were all taking high altitude medication, this medication our bladders active. very active. Every night I had to prepare myself to step outside in the frozen tundra (okay, not really frozen tundra, but it was COLD), use the bathroom, and then warm back up inside my TWO sleeping bags at least 3 times. This meant that none of us had a good nights sleep, at the end of the 4th day we began our summit push already exhausted. We woke up around 11:30pm, ate some cookies, and began walking towards the top. Gale force winds seemed to be whipping around us and our tiny headlamps lit the path towards the summit. From 1:30am to 5:30am were rough, really rough. We made it to Stella Point, the lower peak just before sunrise and managed to make it to Uhuru Peak as the sun was rising. I'm not sure if it was the complete exhaustion or the beautiful site, but I had tears in my eyes I approached the peak. Somethings just take your breathe away. literally.

We stumbled down the mountain, rested for about an hour and then hiked about 4 more hours to the last camp. Exhausted. Proud. With chapped lips and a smile.

Zanzibar:
Ahh sea level. Glorious. Zanzibar was beautiful. We spent the first 3 days at Jambiani beach, swimming, snorkeling, eating delicious sea food, and recovering. Bliss. We spent the next few days in Stonetown, a beautiful city with an interesting Arabic and European feel. Stonetown was a slave trading post, full of history. We were able to visit a few museums, feed giant sea tortoises, take in the rich smells of the spice market, and explore this very cool city.


And now I'm back, ready for the final countdown. I miss you all and can't wait to see you!

much love,
e