Day 64 - Arusha

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No Photos Today - we're getting ready for Kili. We awoke just before 8 am to "meet" with our guide today. Turns out a no show again (they didn't give us a time this time though). At just before 10 am, we called over to the Ranger Safari tour office. We asked when they were coming - and they said in the evening. We were shocked, as we were first told Monday morning, then Tuesday morning, now Tuesday night. We were in need of equipment, and she said, no problem - we could pick them up on the way to the mountain. We were very scared of this, as we needed some eq to survive (such as a heavy jacket, baclava, etc. for the 15-20 degree summit), not to mention a sleeping bag. She was much nicer than the person yesterday, and said she'd call back. She did call back, and said he would come over at 4:30 pm (as if that made a difference with regard to our equipment). Frustrated, we just said ok and hoped for the best.

Jaimie was still feeling a little ill, so we just hung out for the day. We were wanting to get some snacks, etc. for the climb, so were going to head out about 1pm for that. At 12:30 pm, we got a call, "Hello, Mario?". I responded, "yes?". "Can you meet me at the front desk?". Again, I responded, "Yes." As I was asking who he was, the phone clicked. Ok, that's a weird call. I went down to the front desk, and a gentlemen was there. He introduced himself as Livingston. Finally, after asking, he told me he was with Ranger Safari. I know a bit long winded here, but it was just weird to have someone "summon" you to the frontdesk without telling you who he was (and unexpected), and then when he introduced himself, not to say who he was other than his first name! Strange. Another more interesting than shocking detail was that when we shook hands, I went to release, and he just kept the firm grip. I shook for another 3-4 seconds, tried to release, and our hands remained joined for another 5 or so seconds. Interesting. (This was repeated when Jaimie came down in a bit).

He said he was here to get a list of equipment we wanted. It looks like my vocalizing our concerns to the person on the phone actually worked!! I was a bit happy to here this. I went and got a list we had made so far, and grabbed Jaimie. We talked for a minute or two, and I told him that we needed to get some snacks for the trip. He said we could pick it up in town. We had ventured out about 50 feet the day before, and were a bit nervous - as we had no clue where we were, and no clue whether the streets were safe (and it was about to thunderstorm). So, with the previous days experience, we asked if he could take us into town. He said sure - and we were off to the ATM machine just around the corner. It began to rain on our walk into town, and then pour. We stopped off under a little shelter and waited out the rain. Funny, as we were waiting, one guy trying to sell us some goods said he saw us in front of the Impala hotel yesterday, walking 50 feet, and then going back. I said we didn't want to go out in the rain (which was funny, because it was now raining :).

The town of Arusha was quite large - with many modern cars on the streets along with hundreds of people walking as well (more walkers then any other town we've been in). It was a little weird for such a touristy destination to have no white people on the streets. They were, of course, in the cars going by. To be honest, I think we received more smiles on the streets, than we did with all the people in the hotel. Granted, we got more curious stares than smiles.

Anyways, we made it to the supermarket. As this was an uneventful day, I have some room to elaborate on the smaller things. At checkout, a lady just cut in front of us in line (I felt this was racially motivated). When the lady in front of us was done, the clerk pushed her items behind ours, and took us first. It was a good feeling to know that not everyone holds our race against us.

Moving on, from talking to Livingston (who also is a guide), we learned that our assistant guide would be able to carry my camera bag (major bonus here!). I'll probably just have him carry for the final summit day - as I hiked the Inca trail with my full backpack (which is at least another 15 lbs). Another thing we learned after questioning was that we were the only 2 people with this guide going up the mountain!! Scary but maybe better. While in town, because we weren't going to be carrying our big packs, we needed smaller day packs (but larger then the one we had). Livingston helped us get these - and even negotiated the price from $21 to $12 for 2 bags (nice guy to help!). We were starting to feel better about our climb tour operators :).

Since we had a bunch of groceries, we grabbed a taxi back for $1.80 and continued to relax (or tried at least, with the hammering and drilling in the room next door).

Our guide arrived at 6:30 pm to go over the climb with us. We're heading out at 8 am tomorrow morning, and will be back Monday the 6th. We of course, will not have internet access until then - so hang tight and maybe enjoy some photos until then! :)

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