My Epic Spring Vacation, Part II

I forgot to write that some of the other passengers pointed out the refugee camps near Kigoma. I guess Tanzania is still hosting refugees from Uganda and Rwanda. I wanted to ask why they are still here? Didn't the Rwandan war end a long time ago? At some point they need to go home, right?

Anyway, I got to Kigoma too late for the ferry to Gombe. (Yes, the park is only accessible by boat.) I went to the park office to see when the next ferry would be. They have it set up so you are forced to stay 2 nights at the park: the ferry goes there once a day, arriving in the evening, and comes back once a day, leaving in the morning. You can't do it in one day and get to go on a chimp trek. Luckily for me, although I had missed the ferry, they were sending a boat later on to deliver 30 conference chairs to park (?!). They let me ride with the chairs, ensuring that I had a very comfy boat ride. Lake Tanganyika is amazingly beautiful. You could see the mountains of the democratic Republic of Congo on the other side, there were boats out fishing for dagaa, a misty fog on the shore. Amazing.

We got there just after dark and they got me set up in the rest house (hotel). The problem remained that I did not want to stay for 2 nights, as my allotted vacation time was slipping away from me. I went up to the restaurant to get some dinner and found the only other guests: a French family from Burundi. I immediately realized we wouldn't have much to talk about, even if they knew some English. But then I saw a Tanzanian sitting in the corner and struck up a conversation in Swahili. This was the hired boat driver for the Burundians, and they were planning to leave the next afternoon, and it would be no problem for him to ask if I could ride along as well. Score!!

So the next morning I got up early for my chimp trek. I had already seen several baboons hanging around the hotel and throwing themselves against the well-enforced doors trying to get in. One did manage to sneak into the restaurant, scare a few children and got chased out with a broom. The staff said that the baboons only try to get in to get some food, but they are persistent. I was assigned a tour guide, but since the group of French Burundians was small, we stuck together with both guides. We found a family of chimpanzees right away, in a tree on the shore of the lake. We watched them, maneuvering around for good viewing spots, for about 15 minutes. Then one of the Burundians insisted on moving on; he wanted to see other chimpanzees. I later learned that half of the family had gone out the day before and hiked around for 6 hours without seeing anything butt jungle. So we moved on, and climbed up steep, muddy hillsides in the jungle and the rain for 3 hours without seeing much of anything else. I fell down 4 times in the mud. We did see some red colobus monkeys and heard but couldn't see a group of blue monkeys. The rest of the group went back to the rest house and y tour guide and i took an extra hike past “Jane's House” to the waterfall, then back to the rest house. My boat driving friend told me that they had agreed to let me hitch a ride back on their hired boat, so I packed up what little I had and we waited for the weather to clear a little more before setting out.

The ride back to Kigoma was beautiful and uneventful. We docked at the very nice hotel they were staying at that I could not afford, I thanked them and went off in search of something a bit more my style. Then I went to buy a bus ticket too start my journey to Moshi. I wanted to go through Mwanza, but was told that there were no more tickets on the next buses out. I sat outside the ticket office throwing a small tantrum, this was the last straw on a really bad trip. a man asked what my problem was, and I told him what ALL my problems were, up to and including my week-old dirty clothes. Turned out, he had a ticket to Mwanza for the next morning that he didn't want (TZ buses have a really strict no-refunds policy), so I apologized for getting mad at him and bought his bus ticket from him.

I talked to the person at Saratoga to see where my luggage was. They sent it to Kigoma, but too late. I told them to send it back to Dodoma of transfer it to a Mwanza bus, since I was leaving Kigoma. I got to Mwwanza without incident and bought a ticket to Moshi. I missed my luggage again and told them to forget it, just get it back to Dodoma. I got on a bus the next day to Moshi and was met by the expat that had invited me to visit. When we got to the house he borrowed some clothes from his housekeeper so they could wash the ones I'd been wearing and we went to the used clothing market in town to get me something to wear until I got home. I got to hang out at the house for a few days, watch movies, play on the internet, and eat nice food (no rice and not a single bean). Then I came home and found that my luggage was STILL not here. I went back to the village without it and picked it up a few weeks later when I went to town.

That was my spring vacation. Who's in for Spring Break Tanzania 2011?