Back to where it all began

Back from safari and back to Zanzibar! Ahh... so lovely to be back on the beach. And sooo beautiful here. We're in the northern part now which is a little more populated and touristy (as much as Africa gets, I guess) but still lovely. We had a very long day of traveling yesterday, took the 6 am bus from Arusha (9 hours long) then a two hour ferry then an hour cab ride. Basically half the trip home time wise. The safari was AMAZING though! We saw everything we wanted to see, including lots of babies. Baby elephants, giraffes, zebras, wildebeasts, warthogs (little Pumba's... they were just so cute... "are you hungry for a hunk of fat and juicy meat?"... hehe, watch Lion King again if you don't get that), lions, and even cheetahs. The little cheetahs were my favorite. We got very lucky, our guide told us there was only a 50/50 chance we would see a cheetah at all, and we saw a male one hunting and then a female one with her two little cubs SUPER close. We were probably 20 feet from them... in the middle of the Serengeti. Very cool. We did have to camp... like in real tents and everything, but I managed very well, if I do say so myself. I mean, if Caroline's mom can handle it, I think I can. She was very excited at our first camp site to find that the bathroom had a plug so she could use her hairdryer (that she brought on SAFARI) to style her bangs in the morning. SOO funny. She did well too though, even though we were told that we could not use the bathroom at night because animals regularly came into the camp site at night. Yikes! One night as we were using the bathroom right before bed when it had already gotten dark, Caroline peaked around the little building that had the bathroom, and let out one of the most genuinely terrified screams I have ever heard! Her mom and I thought it was hilarious until we peaked around also and saw nothing but darkness at first until all of a sudden two pairs of yellow glowing eyes were staring directly back at us. They sort of looked like devil eyes, and we realized they were coming from two water buffalo that were directly behind the bathroom. I just about died when those eyes appeared I was so startled! We didn't find out until the next day that they are apparently very aggressive animals. Good thing we didn't know that then... there probably would have been more running and less laughing if we'd known!


Can't wait to show everyone my pictures from the safari and talk more about it... I think I could go on for days about how cool/beautiful it was. I just can't get over how lucky I am to be here and be able to have all of these experiences that so few people ever get to do! (Thanks Mom and Dad... and Wash U!)