A visit to Machame

Two days ago we visited Machame Gate at Kilimanjaro National Park. We worked with Karen Valenti of the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project to talk with the porters about working conditions on the mountain.

Here some of our students pose in front of the official "gate":

Coffee at Uru

Yesterday we visited the KNCU coffe cooperative at Uru-Msuni for a coffee tour and overnight camp.

On arrival the group was greeted with delicious hot coffee:

 Then we went for a tour of a working smallholder coffee farm:

And ground, roasted, and brewed our own coffee:

Then we visited some cultural tourism sites like the nearby Chagga cave, a replica of a traditional refuge for Chagga people during wartime:

 The night was clear and starry so we awoke to a good view of Kilimanjaro from the camp. Here is the starry night with a motorcycle passing by:

Today we are headed to Uru to visit a coffee collective and camp out for the night.... We'll be out of touch until tomorrow afternoon!

A day in Moshi

We spent the morning out on the town in Moshi exploring the town and having a good time.

Here some of the group is shopping for fabric.

In the afternoon, we stopped by the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project in Moshi. Here Karen is briefing us on some of the issues porters face on the mountain. Tomorrow we are going to visit the porters at Machame Gate at Kilimanjaro National Park.

In Moshi at last

We have all arrived safely in Moshi, Tanzania after two long flights! Some of the group got together at the hotel restaurant for a snack before bed. Everyone is pretty tired but also happy to be in Tanzania after several months of anticipation!

Here we go!

The whole group has made it to the airport and we are about to board...more from the journey in a couple of days!!

One week to departure

In a little less than 7 days we'll be on the way to Tanzania!

We are booked on the preferred route from Seattle, departing on KLM (Delta codeshare) nonstop to Amsterdam; after a short layover we'll hop on another flight direct to Kilimanjaro International. All told it's about 20 hours of travel. Given that we are also losing 10 hours to time zone differences, we will be pretty exhausted when we arrive! Thankfully we don't have anything huge planned for our first day, becoming familiar with Moshi town will be enough of a task.