Our stand-alone hut at Lake Duluti Serena Lodge
Our patio overlooking the gardens
The gardens - beautiful jacaranda tree in the distance
Lake Duluti - somewhat hard to see from the Lodge
Our guide, Godson, didn’t arrive until 10:30. He told us that they misinformed us on the arrival time. It was good to see him again. He had a long 9 hour trip back to Arusha from the Northern Serengeti and had no trouble, other than it being long and boring.
He took us into Arusha and we went to the New Arusha Hotel
right in the middle of town. They ran
our credit card for the Kilimanjaro day trip and the Arusha Town tour. I bought an ebony carving while Tim was
handling that. Also bought some
M&M’s for Godson’s 4 year old son –he loves them.
While Godson was setting that up, Tim had a latte and I shopped in the small gift shop. They had a statue made of ebony wood with carvings in it. Beautiful, and part of the tree branch was left to show that the outside bark is light and the ebony wood is black. Godson then took us to a "craft village" where there was shop after shop of beaded items, wood carvings, colorful fabric, jewelry, and pictures. Tim hated this as they all wanted us to "Come Visit My Shop". I went in several and then Tim said "You can't go in all of them!", so we just roamed through the complex. It was huge. It looked like most of the shops had similar items.
When we were finished shopping, I went back to one of the first shops we had visited. I picked out 3 giraffe carvings - tall, not as tall, and baby - and bargained with Gottfried for the items. He wouldn't give me a price so he asked "How much will you pay" - so I let him know that I can play this game and I told him $10. He was shocked that I wanted all 3 pieces for $10 - so he asked for a better price - I offered $20 - he said $35 - I told him $25 was my last offer and he took it. He wrapped the items and we left.
Godson was waiting for us and we walked back to the car. Godson drove us all around Arusha where 850,000 people live. Hard to believe this city is that large and that many people live here with no high-rises! We drove by the hospital, central bank, cemetery, large market, tanzanite trading district, and then to a beautiful garden restaurant for lunch. Godson tried "Hawaiian Pizza" for the first time - he took a picture for his wife.
The clock tower square in Arusha
A monument to the independence of Tanzania
Part of the very busy market
A motorcyclist with chickens in a basket on the back
And our favorite beer of the trip - Kilimanjaro!
We got back to the Duluti Lake Hotel a little after 2 pm. We finished packing, changed clothes, updated email and the blog, and relaxed until 5:30. I called for the porters to come and get our bags, we checked out and Godson took us to the airport at 5:45. Our KLM flight leaves for Dar es Saalem, Tanzania (the capital) at 8:30.
We met up with Godson and he took us around Arusha and
pointed out the sights. There is a huge
market that operates every day. The
traffic was congested.
He took us to a garden restaurant and we treated him to
lunch. It was great – a lot of Americans
and English people were there eating.
After lunch he took us back to the Lake Duluti Lodge and we relaxed for
a few hours until time to go to the airport.
Godson waited for us in the lobby.
We checked out about 5:30 and he drove us to the Kilimanjaro
Airport which is about 30 minutes away.
We checked in and went through Tanzanian immigration and then went to
the business class lounge. The plane was
on time, and we loaded up. The KLM
flight left on time but we had to fly to Dar es Saalam first – a 45 minute
flight. We were there about an hour and
then took off for Amsterdam. Tim took an
ambien before we took off and he was fast asleep. He doesn’t remember the take off!
I had the express meal and then put my seat down in the
horizontal position and slept for about 4-5 hours. More than I usually sleep. It was an 8.5 hour flight back to Amsterdam.
So long to Tanzania!
So long to Tanzania!
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