June 16, 2009

—Early that morning
So we are leaving the Rivertrees Lodge and are headed 2 1/2 hours away. We are going to the Tarangire National Park for the day.
—Later that evening
On the drive there, we stopped at the currency exchange place to get schillings. When we stopped we were all bombarded by locals trying to sell us their goods. We all exchanged money and some of us got postcards to send back home. I got some postcards to send to my Mom and Mrs. Georgia. They weren't brand new looking- certainly a little rough around the edges, but I think this only adds to their African character. Finally, we got back into the trucks. It was a little intense being among the natives. They really just beg for you to buy their stuff. They have so little! Nicole really knew how to bargain with them, so that was helpful.
From there, we headed to the park, but were stopped on the way due to a flat tire. So we had to get out on the road and change it. When we did, this small boy came up and we began taking his photograph. He was adorable and totally modeled for us (as if he had done this before). After, he wanted something in return. The guides said we couldn't give him money, so we gave him food. He was so excited! We gave him sour patch kids and some natural valley bars. I surely figured he would be on a sugar high from a few sour patch kids for a few days.
We finally arrived at the park and went on in. Immediately we saw a large herd of zebra and then elephants. There were also 300 different species of birds inside the park and we saw tons of them. The elephants were sooo amazing. We saw one large family of them and they went from being off in the distance about 100 yards away to being 20 feet away. They crossed just in front of our truck. Their ears and trunks and eye lashes are just so amazing. They are massive, yet they are extremely quite animals- they don't make a sound it seems.
All the zebra we saw were probably my favorite. Their skin and their hair is so pretty. It is not just white and black like we typically think. It is so much prettier, with browns and golden yellows. We also saw some ostritch today too. They were really cool..they walk so funny. My favorite bird was the blue and turquoise bird. And the love birds have to come in second--they were pretty too. Nicole really loved them, as she could spot them just by hearing them.
From there we headed to our next lodge- a tented lodge. All of our rooms are on built up platform huts off the ground. They have a 15 foot by 20 foot tent then placed on them as the room. Christina and I both had our own bed with a mosquito canopy around it. There is also a little sitting area in the middle and a rather large bathroom. However, there is no place to plug anything in. The real "roughing" it time has begun. We have lanterns for lights and 2 overhead lightst that they provide at certain times. The shower barely gives off any water pressure. In order to get a shower from the overhead faucet, you have to hold the lever that turns the water from faucet to shower the entire time you are showering. Not an easy task. In the mean time, the power went off when I first tried to get in the shower and then again when I finally got in the shower. Thank goodness for my flashlight. Very interesting. So tomorrow we are going to go back to the same Tarangire National Park. I'm excited as there is much more to see there.
The names of the birds we saw are:
Turquoise blue bird - Superb Stallion
Orange tail - White Headed Buffalo Weaver

Also, I forgot to tell about the crazy monkeys. When we had lunch in the park, the monkeys came up and grabbed peoples lunches. They practically attacked most of the people at the tables if they had their lunches wide open. It was absolutely insane. They swarmed the place--it was definitely their territory, not ours!! There were tons of them, coming from every direction. Some of them had babies holding onto their bellies and crawling on their backs, but it was really interesting and neat to watch. However, really intense because you didn't know if they were going to jump on you or not!