Habari!
Today twenty of us decided to walk from Rhotia village to Karatu which is about a three-hour hike/walk. This idea was introduced by our leader and it sounded like a nice easy walk for a not so athletic person like me, but that was not the case, it was a full out hike! Even though I was not expecting the intensity of this hike, it was beautiful, the path and views were absolutely amazing. The views were so beautiful that sometimes my friends and I would stop for pictures and one time we might have stopped for a little longer and fell behind a little bit. In the beginning, we were distanced from the rest of our group, but they were still in our site of vision until we went through a town with a lot of people and started to encounter multiple paths. There were a lot of people coming out of church as we were walking so we ran into them and started socializing. With all the talking and slow walking, we might have gotten distracted and lost site of the group even more. At that time, we had to navigate and ask people for direction using our poor Swahili skills, but nonetheless, we managed! There were definitely some nervous laughs throughout the way but all was good after we found the rest of the group.
After that long hike, I went to the African Galleria with a few people. This place is for tourists and is more Americanized with a lot of typical souvenirs. It is however famous for selling Tanzanite. There, were able to get a nice American pepperoni pizza, after about a month of eating Tanzanian food, it was a nice change.
The views form our walk
We’re the three musketeers that eventually get a little lost
Riga enjoying the hike and the pigeon pee farms we’re walking through
Goats, sheep, and cows on the side of these paths
Made it to the top, I’m smiling but I’m also out of breath (2 hrs in… 1 hr to go!)
A beautiful abandoned building at the top of the mountain
The African Galleria
Wooden statues all around the entrance of the African Galleria
Until next time, Baadaye!