Karibu everyone, welcome to our blog or at least the first Chris McBride contribution. I am writing to you from the beaches of the Indian Ocean on the Tanzanian coast. The heat of the day is in full effect, but up on the second floor porch in the shade with a breeze it is very pleasant. We are taking a break from playing in the surf to rest and re-charge. The boys got up and at em, they barely made it through breakfast without running into the water. Being winter here it has only been in the 80’s, but it doesn't cool down much under 80 at night so it is swimming weather as soon as the sun comes up.

We love the beach much more than big city of Dar es Salaam where we spent our first few days. But we wish we had the independence of our car. The freighter with the car is sitting in the harbor and our paperwork has started processing. We are not sure which will happen faster the car being unloaded or the paperwork being completed. In either case we are looking at several more days at the beach. With the German’s playing techno a couple cottages down, we are looking forward to leaving the beach tourist circuit. Although, taking a Taxi through Dar and loading on a ferry where the volume and weight of the pedestrians far exceeded the vehicles I am a bit concerned about getting out of Dar with the car reasonably intact. Not to mention, with 85% consistency I have tried to get in the driver’s side of the taxi. Still got to figure that opposite side of the road deal.

Ferry from Dar Es Salaam to the Southern beaches

We have been planning and planning and researching and fretting over the trip yet we have still managed to skip some important preparations. Flying into to Dar for example, we very carefully filled out the immigration documents and prepared our story in order to get a multiple entry Visa. Getting a Multi entry will allow us to enter and leave for the next 90 days without paying each time. Sounds serious right! Well actually not so much. The gal looking at Visa application spent 10 seconds looking at the paper and asked one question. So while we prepped to get the Visa we failed to recognize that we needed $400 USD CASH! Actually, we knew we needed $400, but failed to carry $400 USD. We had $100...which was good enough for me to get my visa and leave the family behind in search of the remaining cash. Exactly 10 minutes into Africa and the family was splitting up! Anyway the immigration folks were very kind and understanding and safe.

A 20 hour layover in Amsterdam only allowed us a glimpse of this beautiful city but we walked a few canals and had a delicious tapas dinner.

In contrast here is Dar es Salaam. This is actually the city business and embassy district!

Simple plan, run outside pull out all the Tanzania Shillings my card would allow and all the cash Kelly’s card would allow, run to an exchange for USD at the airport and back to rescue the family. The entire airport had only 2 ATM’s which an official kindly showed me. Guess what? both machines out of cash, not going to be so simple. So grabbed a taxi, here is where the money comes in. Tough to negotiate to save 5 or 10 dollars when you just want to get out and back as soon as possible. Anyway I got the cash and got the family into the country. Victory! The next day the same cabbie helped us get to the Tanzanian Revenue Authority office and secure a Tax Identification Number and then got us over to our car’s broker’s office. Luckily we negotiated a half day price for his services before we left the hotel. Actually very lucky… For him that is. All our stops occurred within 4 blocks of the hotel.

Anyway, we are finding our way and having an adventure, rolling with the punches and making friends. We tend to meet Swedish families on these African adventures. We made fast friends with a couple Swedes who have a daughter and will be living in TZ for the next year. We have been invited to stay with them in Southern Tanzania during our Trek south later this year.

Cute Swede Agnes and folks Andreas (note the Sonics cap) and Sara

Mongoose.  Not just a brand of bikes.

Here's where we watch the mongoose

Update:

Just tried to upload this blog and we ran out of pre-paid data. Everything is pre-paid vouchers and nothing can be topped-up over the internet. We need to physically find a vender and buy more minutes and only option is 250MB for 24 hours. My phone ran out of minutes during a very important call to Chase bank! Tough luck, have someone from the hotel on the next trip into the village to pick up a voucher.

I want to make our blog entries quick to read with lots of photos. Well Sorry internet is no go, and I am in a writing mood.

As we know George has some life preservation or injury avoidance issues. Heavy surf causes absolutely no fear in George. At one point he jumps up after a pummeling, stands his ground and yells “you can’t stop Georgie” the next wave knocks him ass over tea kettle, and all I see is his butt bobbing in the surf like a cork. He stands up after he gets his bearing and is laughing hard and screaming “is that all you got!” Kelly and I haven’t had much chance to play in the surf because we are afraid to get more than 10’ away from George.

Henry, showing a more reasoned approach with the waves, has really gotten good at body surfing. On one wave he actually rode it up high enough to be left high and dry on the sand. Henry the trapper extraordinaire has actually caught three Gecko’s with his hands. He is not only not afraid of reptiles, but he is good at sneaking up, and fast enough to grab them. He has a journal started in which he is drawing all the animals he finds (Great idea proposed by his buddy Christian).

Kelly is a rock star traveler and has now become a photographer which unfortunately means our blog may appear as if Kelly was lost in Dar. I will make it a point to get some photos of Kelly.

Okay Kelly has returned with 250mb voucher, so I am going to stop hogging the blog and computer.

Chris

Mzungu Runner