Meng's Travels: Tanzania - Tarangire National Park and Mto Wa Mbu Village

We are now headed to the Tanzanian border with Kenya. Both our visas were checked, while exiting Kenya and entering Tanzania. More importantly, we have to show our yellow fever vaccine certificate. Everything went smoothly as we have been prepared as to what to expect. Both Kenyan and Tanzanian border officials were housed in the same building, their offices almost next to each other. It facilitates travel back and forth. The officials were friendly. Many tourists probably visit both countries on one trip and this makes it very convenient to go from one to another.

Aside from the fee for the tour, the fees for the visas, yellow fever vaccination, malaria drug prescription and other medication, amounted to another $1,000. The costs add up very quickly.

After exiting the border station we boarded a bus and head to the city of Arusha. It is a big city by Tanzanian standard, with a population of more than half a million people. What is unique about this city is that the residents are from different background, from Africans to Arab-Tanzanians to Indian-Tanzanians to Europeans and North Americans. They practice Islam, Christianity, Sikhism and Hinduism. We had lunch at the beautiful Arusha Coffee Lodge, one of Tanzania's oldest coffee plantation.

It took several hours to drive to our lodge, the Burunge Tented Camp. This is one of those unfenced lodges where if you go outside at night, you have to be escorted by one of the workers at the lodge. Wild baboons run freely around the lodge and most of us do not know how to react to these wild animals. The room itself is spacious and at night we slept with the mosquito netting over our beds.

A village on the way to the Burunge Lodge

Location of our lodge

In the morning we started our game drive in the Tarangire National Park. This is not as busy as other national parks. We nevertheless saw many animals, especially a big heard of elephants.

Entrance to Tarangire National Park

One tree is unique to Africa, and that is the Baobab tree. It is called the "Tree of Life" in Africa because it supplies food, water, health remedies, or places of shelter. It is also a key food source for many animals.

A Baobab Tree

The hole is so large that I can stand inside the trunk

The guides explained to us that some of the baobab tree trunks are hollowed inside so that poachers can hide themselves and their loot inside.

Another unique feature of the African landscape are termite mounds.

Termite Mounds. Some animals feed on the termites

Tarangire NP is known for its variety of birds, The guides pointed out the different birds but since none of us bird-watchers, there was very little interest in them. We saw the typical animals: zebra, wildebeest, giraffes, lions, and many elephants.

Lion sitting under the shade of a tree

3 Zebras facing different directions on the lookout for predators

Herd of elephants playing in the water

They came very close to the safari vehicles

One thing that OAT is different from other tour companies is it always include a home visit to a local family. On the way to our next destination we stopped at the Mto Wa Mbu Village, which translates to "Mosquito River" due to the permanent water source located here. It has about 18,000 residents from all 120 tribes in Tanzania living peacefully together. Agriculture is an important part of the local economy.

First, we stopped at a local market to buy ingredients for the lunch that we will be cooking with this family.

All kinds of produce are sold here

Buying a bunch of bananas

Dried sardines

A small market but it's important to the locals

Non-food items are sold here too

The family that we are visiting belongs to a banana farmer. We used the food that we bought at the market and used them to cook a local meal. The women helped in the kitchen while the men had a tour of the banana farm. Our host explained to us how he harvest the bananas and how he keeps the trees growing. He came from the Kilimanjaro region and he is a Catholic. He said his father was also a Catholic, having been converted by early missionaries to Tanzania.