Kilimanjaro foggy, Kilimanjaro clear

Today we visited the Machame Gate on Kilimanjaro, where a lot of climbers start their trek up the mountain. 

It was a foggy, drizzly and cold today at the gate-atypical for the season but not completely unusual given that the first part of the climb is in a rainforest. 

We visited the offices of Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project to learn about porter welfare on the mountain. Here are a few shots from the gate: 

After a delicious lunch (milkshakes!) we walked to the local mitumba (second-hand) market, where bales of used clothing donated to thrift shops is shipped from the US and sold for a profit:

We passed through the cemetery on the way back to Moshi center

before continuing on to the Make a Difference Now guesthouse just outside of Moshi in an area known as Rau. 

Once settled in to the gueshouse, the skies finally cleared enough for us to have a view of Mt. Kilimanjaro, which we had not seen yet. It was a beautiful sunset!

Another day in Moshi

After returning from our overnight at the coffee farm where we learned about how coffee is grown & sold in the context of some issues facing farmers on Kilimanjaro, we returned to town and took an exploratory walk a little farther off the "tourist trail." We visited the disused train station and walked down the tracks quite a ways to get some views of the outskirts of town. 

We made some friends along the way:

I don't have any photos of the last part of our walk as we went through busy streets crowded with vendors and things were a little too chaotic!

Kilimanjaro coffee country

Yesterday we visited the coffee and banana fields on the slopes of Kilimanjaro at a place called Kahawa Shamba, literally "coffee farm." 

Here is a photo story of our day:

Breaking news-fire at Nairobi, Kenya airport

Hi everyone, this morning we awoke to news of a major fire at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in neighboring Kenya. 

At this point the cause of the fire remains undetermined and there are no reports of casualties. The State Department has not created any new travel alerts for Tanzania but we are monitoring the situation closely.  Here is a recent link to news about the fire: http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-fire-nairobi-airport-20130806,0,6431754.story

We are going camping today relatively far from major transportation infrastructure so for those concerned that this fire may be associated with terrorism, we will not be anywhere near those types of facilities.

Our best thoughts go out to those affected by the fire and we wish a rapid recovery to Kenya's airport and tourism industry.

A day in Moshi

This morning most of us were awakened by the special call to prayer for Ramadan, which was broadcast over a loudspeaker from 3:00 AM until 4:00 AM...given our existing jetlag, many of us never fell back to sleep. 

There's nothing like brisk exercise to start resetting the biological clock, though, so we went for a walk through Rau Forest, some of the last remaining lowland tropical forest surrounding Kilimanjaro. We were fortunate to spot Colobus and blue monkeys.

As well as get a taste of rural agricultural life:

We spent the afternoon visiting some local markets in Moshi not far from our hotel:

Now we're off to dinner, hopefully longer and sounder sleep for all tonight!

Our first night in Tanzania

Everyone has arrived safely and we are now in our Moshi hotel. A couple of us were exhausted and have gone to bed--the rest of us are relaxing at the hotel restaurant and are probably soon to bed too!

On our way

Everyone who is supposed to be here is here, on time and waiting for our flight. We'll catch up with Rosemary and Ariane at Amsterdam Schiphol airport before continuing on our direct flight to Kilimanjaro International. It's an almost 10 hour and then 8-1/2 hour flight with a short layover in between, so we're traveling close to a full 24-hour day before arriving in Kilimanjaro; of course counting travel time door-to-door many of us will be facing upwards of 30 hours of travel!

A few of our group, still smiling at the beginning of the journey

My lovely family came to the airport to say goodbye--I'll miss them terribly and hats off to my amazing wife who will care for the kids by herself for three weeks!