That was what our cab driver backhandedly told us a couple days ago when we asked about the forecast for rain. Two days of rain later and the streets are now mud puddles. It hasn't really deterred us from exploring though, and we had another decent day today.
In this post: Safari, Orphans and Monkeys… Oh my.
We spent some time today organizing a safari that will start in July. We've shopped around a bit and three of us have decided to go for a camping safari of Lake Manyara, the Serenghetti and Ngorogoro Crater. 4 days, 3 nights under the stars of the African savannah. Can't wait. If I don't see lions eating an elephant I will be sorely disappointed. Hippos eating Cheetah would also suffice.
We also wanted to try to book some flights for our time after the program (more on the structure of the program in following posts), so we walked to the airline office, but being a Saturday, they had already closed for the day. We grabbed some lunch and decided to head to the Botanical Gardens, which were nearby. On the way, a guy named Marvin came up to the group as we were walking and started smooth-talking me. I'd heard this schpeel before… he is an artist, an artist who loves to help people with his art. He was trained in Bagamoyo (which makes him localish, but just far enough away to discourage travellers from coming to his office?) and has an all-new style of painting which he invented himself. He would be honoured if we "just looked" at some of his art. He also supports orphans with the money he makes from these paintings. Orphans are relying on him (In Bagamoyo… not here in Dar). I'm cynical because another guy told me the exact same story two days earlier and I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I hate being cynical and I hate that meetings like this are tainting my view of the people who approach me on the street. I'll have to fight in the next days to ward off this cynicism, to be replaced with healthy scepticism?
We ended up in the Botanical Gardens after Jeff and Lauren low-balled the guy's price big time and bought a couple of paintings pretty cheap. He didn't seem too happy. The gardens were nice despite it being the "Dry Season"; there were a wide variety tropical plants and trees and some Peacocks scattered throughout the park. And then… outta nowhere, a male monkey the size of a large house cat comes streaking across the grass towards Erin M, totally aggressive and looking like it was going to jump up on her! Luckily a firefighter was hanging around and shooed the thing away. Turns out that there was a whole troop of monkeys there… These were the famous blue-balled monkeys… I have no idea what their real name is. Got lots of pictures of them once they settled down and started doing normal monkey stuff. I think they just got excited because we were a new colour of hairless, upright ape.
Ah yes, the famous blue balled monkey. I believe they're called Vervot (sp?). Make sure your bananas are well hidden around those boys. After losing 2 bunches to them we would try to make them black & blue balled monkeys, but they climbed so much better than we did. With your experience in our front yard tree, you may have better luck.
ReplyDeleteNice hat, by the way. Don't know how to keep your mother from seeing it. Have you had folks try to sell you real elephant hair bracelets. Very cheap Mbwana. (We would always say we wanted the plastic ones, to which they had no reply)
Good to see some pics - hope you get the uploads sorted