After 5 cool days in Lushoto, a village in the Usambara Mountains, we decided it was time to bite the bullet and head into Kenya. I say "bite the bullet" because the guidebook, US travel security site, and a few locals all say that while Kenya is amazing you really need to watch out as muggings are quite common. :-( But, before arriving to our doom we spent a day in Tanga, a quiet but not so little town on the Tanzanian coast and just south of the border. We signed up with the local tourism office for a full day touring the nearby caves and Tongoni ruins.
My favorite part was the caves, mainly because we (Froody, our guide Emelius, and me) got to ride bikes the whole way (8km). It was a chance to actually see some of the area- mangrove trees, Ziggi River (main source of drinking water for Tanga), and villages. It's amazing to me how many people live by subsistance farming and in wood and mud homes with coconut frond roofs. (We learned in Lushoto that most people in Tanzania don't have money but they aren't starving because they are able to farm corn, beans, potato, yams, bananas. Whatever is extra is sold at the market for enough money to buy kerosene, firewood, rice, cooking oil, and clothing.)
Anyway, we made our way to the caves and Emelius shared with us, along with a trio of school boys, some of the interesting structures in the limestone caves. These caves are oceanic in origin, formed over 2 million years ago when Eastern Africa was under water. So, the structures are very old as they aren't really growing anymore. I've never been in such dry caves! Froody thought it was interesting how many structures looked like elephants and lions and the continent of Africa. :-) There was one that "looked like" the statue of liberty and a natural chair. There were also a lot of bats!! I don't think I've ever seen so many bats before! And in the walls were fossil molluscs, so that was neato for me. After the main caves he lead us to a smaller cave to show a stalagtite with a lot of sparkle and structures in the ceiling that looked like a penis ("a big one" to quote Emelius) and a vagina which, he said, when they come together will form a baby 95% of the time. ???? Maybe this was to warn the school boys about s-e-x??
Anyway, we washed up a bit afterwards and got to check out a small group of black and white colobus monkeys eating just across the stream from us. Then back on our bikes and on our way, stopping long enough to sample some fresh coconut wine. The three of us split a liter in what looked like a family's backyard. Emelius said that the wine was fresh that day. To make it you cut off the tip of a branch on a coconut tree and place a bucket under it to collect the liquid. You climb it and collect it twice a day, recutting the edge each time. You serve it right away, but if you let it sit for one day then it gets very strong with a high alcohol content. You can only keep it for about 3 days, as there is no refridgeration and it goes bad. Emelius asked the woman to bring a bottle of banana beer (which we tried while touring the coffee farm in the foothills of Kilimanjaro among the Chagga people; was good even with the millet "texture" and had an after taste that reminded me of sake) and wanted to know if we wanted to try it. The label said it contained 10% alcohol! So we said no and while he went to settle the bill, Froody and I admitted to each other that after drinking about 330ml of fresh coconut wine we were feeling it a bit. Not drunk, but enough to make you go "whoa".
We had a nice bike ride back and, with an hour and a half before our afternoon tour, Emilius suggested a local pub for lunch and we gladly joined him. Yup, we were the only mzungu ("tourists") there and the "menu" was the owner telling us in kiswahili what was cooking- rice and beans and greens with fish or chicken. We opted for fish and had a tasty lunch. BTW-we are eating really well here! Breakfast is a bit light, mainly bread with jam and butter, coffee or tea, and an egg and/or fruit. Or just the bread and tea. But lunch and dinner we definitely make up for it!
That afternoon we waited a bit while Emilius grumbled about the lateness of the hired car and swahili time. But, eventually the car and driver arrived and we got into the sedan and drove out of town to the ruins about 20km away. It was a bumpy ride and I remembered reading how in TZ only about 20% of the roads are paved. (In fact, our guide said that when we take the bus to Kenya we'll know when we're there because the road will be nice tarmac). Again, drove through some villages and I got to see a couple of men putting the finishing touches on a mudhouse. Don't get me wrong- some are very simple but others look really nice, with separate rooms and a smooth exterior and paint.
The ruins were made in the 14th-15th centuries when the arabs arrived in East Africa to trade, bringing Islam. We saw what was left of a mosque built out of coral. Then we went to a "newer" mosque built by the locals in the 19th century. The interior was probably very nice once, but now it was all in ruins. It did give us a look at how the roof was made, supported by mangrove timber. At the end of the tour we got to eat baobob fruit. I didn't even know the fruit was edible!! It was rather tangy and not bad, but I was still full from lunch so didn't eat as much as our guide would have liked.
Travel Day
I'll say this: traveling has been a bit more stressful than I thought. We just arrived in Kenya yesterday via bus from Tanzania and there was a little snafu at the border. Seems we didn't fill out the correct paperwork so had to fill it in and go to the end of the long line. Fortunately, the man on the bus (who seems to be in charge of the border crossings), dragged us right into the office! However, the customs officer was not going to let that bother him, and he continued to help people at the window for about 5 minutes, all the time the bus-guy is trying to push our passports right under his nose. Of course, he had a schedule to keep and a bus full of people who were done and sitting in a bus w/o air-con. Anyway, we finally got done and found a hotel in Mombasa, right on the coast. Today's agenda is to do some interneting, see Fort Jesus, and get a room in Tiwi. Some of the stress comes from not knowing the language (and we'll "not know the language" for about 9 more months!), not being able to walk around at night (sun sets at 7 here and everyone says it's unsafe after 8), and having to re-learn how much everything costs! 2,000 was an awesome price in TZ (less than $2) but not so much in Kenya (almost $30).
Froody and I seem to get grumpy on travel days for one reason or another. For me, I know I'm tired and being unsure of my new surroundings doesn't help. Also we didn't eat lunch yesterday and had to change money at the border which meant giving our Tanzanian shillings to a guy with a handful of Kenyan shillings and hoping we get a fair rate.
But, now we're here and this part of Mombasa is just like any other big city. We're hoping to get in on a group safari out of Nairobi, do some snorkeling among coral reefs, and bike around Hell's Gate before heading to Egypt.
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