This past week, Scottie, our friend Hannah, and I took a six-hour-long bus ride to meet Clare and Joe for a mini-vacation. We met them in Lushoto, which is a little bit south of Arusha and located within the Usambara Mountains.
Simply getting on the bus was an ordeal in itself. Hannah, Scottie, and I shared a cab to the bus station at 5:30 in the morning and, loaded up with our giant backpacks, got out of the cab in the dark to try to find the ticket stand we had bought our tickets at earlier in the week. Although we've been to the bus station a few times, it looks remarkably different when it is dark out, and all three of us (pre-coffee) struggled to get our bearings. We walked back and forth amidst the crowd of people hassling us, pulling us towards their buses, and shouting the various names of different cities, attempting to look confident with where we were going. By the time we finally found our man, paid for our bags, and got on our bus, we felt like we had already put in a full day's work. Luckily, Lushoto was beautiful, and made the crazy bus station and long bus ride, worthwhile.
Lushoto is (as the name suggests) lush! The green mountains seem endless and the contrast of the red dirt roads is a beautiful, stark contrast to the perma-brown roads in Arusha. Our first day, we decided to do a day-hike with a guide that Clare and Joe had met earlier in the week. The hike was relatively easy, and mainly took us through different villages and some wooded areas. People in Lushoto rarely see mzungus, so many children and adults came running to get a glimpse at us. The goal of the hike was to reach Irente Viewpoint, which is rock which overlooks the Usambara mountains and the Massai plains. The view was breathtaking, and well worth the hike.
The Irente Viewpoint
Joe got it in his head during a hike earlier in the week, that he wanted us to sleep overnight at Kiguu Hakwewa Hill, an old German World War II bunker, which we nicknamed "The Hut". Hannah wasn't feeling well that night and stayed back in Lushoto, so it was only our guide Yassin, Clare, Joe, Scottie, and I that went up. We brought with us warm clothes, some sleeping bags, ingredients for guacamole, and enough booze for a small army (including some contraband "home brew" that we bought in a village during our hike the previous day). The hike up to the hut was treacherous, especially with our heavy bags, but it was amazing to walk through the Magamba Rainforest and see colobus monkeys swinging from the trees, and some chameleons crawling across the road (wildlife encounters #1 and #2). The view from the top of the hill was impressive; you could see all of Lushoto, the Usambara mountains, the Massai plains, and even the Irente Viewpoint from the day before. We set up camp inside the hut (which we had to break into because the park ranger never showed up); Clare and Yassin began making guacamole, and Scottie and Joe started a small fire. By the time the sunset, we had full stomachs and were comfortable drinking, listening to music, and swapping stories. For the most part, all of us slept well that night, safely inside of our hut as the wind whistled loudly around us. The next morning, all feeling a little wobbly from the "home brew," we made our way back down the mountain through the Rainforest, which was a peaceful and beautiful walk, and a perfect way to end our time in Lushoto.
"The Hut"!
The view from The Hut
From Lushoto, we took a sweaty bus ride to Tanga, which is a port city on the coast of the Indian Ocean. Tanga was pretty quiet when we arrived, so we decided to spend only one day there doing a bicycle tour of The Amboni Caves and the Galanos Sulphur Springs. The bicycling part of our tour was very cool; it was fun to bike through villages and get to see the different buildings and greenery of Tanga. Many of us were a little apprehensive about actually going into the caves, but our tour guide reassured us that there were very few small spaces and that we would be safe. The caves were spectacular. We walked into the giant openings and got to see stalactites, stalagmites, and thousands of sleeping bats. At one point, our guide made us crawl through a very narrow tunnel, which unfortunately, three of us were very uncomfortable doing. It wasn't a long tunnel, but it definitely got my mind thinking about the walls caving in, and after that point, I felt my breathing get a lot shallower. Once we were through the tunnel, the guide had us look up at more bats. Now I wouldn't say I have a particular phobia of bats, but I prefer them where they are; sleeping, way up above me. Our guide however did not hold the same belief as me, and started shining his lantern at the bats in order to make them all swoop around our heads screeching (wildlife encounter #3). I would like to say that I kept my cool during this time, but needless to say, this signified the end of my cave tour, as well as my dignity. Scottie and the rest of the group braved the remainder of the caves and even faced Hannah's fear of giant spiders (wildlife encounter #4). After the caves, we biked to a crocodile-infested river (wildlife encounter #5) and took the world's smallest canoes across in order to see the very smelly and very small sulphur springs. I can't say any of us were very impressed, but at least we conquered yet another scary, only-in-Africa sort of experience. Unfortunately, our tour was not the greatest, but we got a good workout in and managed to find a wonderful lunch before heading to Ushongo--the beach!
Bats!
This is right before I crouched down into the fetal position and started crying
Needless to say, the wine flowed that night and I enlisted Scottie and Joe to be on bat patrol and get the bat the hell out of my tent; which they did with glee. Breakfast and the beach the next morning more than made up for the ridiculous night I had and I was feeling much better with our tent the second night we went to bed. That is until I woke up in the middle of the night to the noise of bush babies (small nocturnal monkeys) shrieking right next to and on top of our tent (wildlife encounter #9). For whatever reason, I got it into my head that these monkeys had evolved like in The Planet of the Apes and were intent on figuring out their way into our tent and murdering us. It was a long, hot, scary, sleepless night.
In the morning, Joe reassured me that bush babies are harmless and actually quite adorable (cough) and I had nothing to worry about the night before. Feeling silly, I went to brush my teeth, and happened to see a green mamba slithering away on the path (wildlife encounter #10). Highly poisonous? Yes! We spent the day on the beach playing volleyball and had a wonderful dinner (truly, our resort's saving grace was the food). That night, the bush babies were much quieter, and I mastered nonchalantly shining my flashlight out the window to scare them off while remaining semi-asleep. The next morning it was time to move on to Peponi, a well-established beach resort closer to Tanga, but before we left, was nearly trampled by the resort's horses doing laps around the paths (wildlife encounter #11). Peace out, Ushongo Beach.
When we arrived at Peponi we were immediately thrilled. The friendly staff and owner greeted us and helped us with our bags, and we could already tell what a step up Peponi would be from Ushongo. While walking to our five-person beach banda we were cut off by two large monkeys chasing one another loudly (wildlife encounter #12), one of which was badly bleeding. Not a good start, but to be honest, at this point, I think we all brushed it off like it was nothing. Screeching, bleeding monkeys? Hakuna Mattata! Our beach banda turned out to be wonderful, with a big bathroom, nice beds, a hammock, and even ceiling fans! Because Peponi is located on a rocky beach with is frequently at low tide, they also have a POOL, which was easily the best part. We spent our first day in Peponi swimming and laying by the pool, eating good food, and in general enjoying the proper vacation we feel like we earned after our last few nights. For our last full day in Peponi we took the resort's dhow "Pepi" out snorkeling and got to see loads of fish, sea urchins, and coral. Hannah and I were not particularly keen on the snorkeling, especially after I realized that I was repeatedly being stung by very, very small jellyfish (wildlife encounter #13). Hannah and I spent most of our time on the dhow, but Clare, Joe, and Scottie seemed to really enjoy the snorkeling and all of us enjoyed spending time on the white sand bar that appears during low tide in the middle of the ocean. We spent a bit of time swimming, snorkeling, snacking, and in general avoiding getting completely roasted by the hot, hot sun. Joe and Scottie saw a giant eel (wildlife encounter #14) swimming right alongside the small island, which was very cool, although I think Joe would admit that he practically jumped out of the water when it initially came after him.
Our dhow, "Pepi"
For our last night together, we gave one another "fines," just like we did after the cricket match, which was a fun way to wrap up our three months together. Saying goodbye to Clare and Joe in the morning was difficult; we are going to miss spending time with them and are sad to see our rafikis go, but I know we will meet up in the future for more adventures. 
The Group!
All in all, it was kind of a trip of facing our fears. I felt like we had the opportunity to experience the rougher, rustic side of Africa, and was happy we did it in the end. And now on the plus side, when I see geckos, giant millipedes, and wasps crawling around my room, I just think, "Hey, at least it's not a bat." All craziness aside, Scottie and I both agree that this was one of the best vacations of our lives because of the friends who were here with us. There was a point during this whole three-month-long experience where Scottie and I weren't sure we would ever bond with anyone, or make any lifelong friends. We both feel so happy and fortunate to have done so, and feel like it has made this journey that much better.
Our bus ride home today took three hours longer than we expected and the bus managed to break down and drive through a crazt political mob/celebration all in nine hours' time...certain things in Africa I'm sure we won't miss once we're home. One week left until we're home!
Much Love,
Laura and Scottie
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