From Dar Es Salaam

Hello from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

 

We arrived safely this morning after a fun-filled and exhausting two days in Johannesburg.

 

We stayed with our friend Jon in Joburg and together with Machaba, Agesan and other friends, we saw a part of the city that was quite pleasant and off the tourist path.  Highlights included going to a little part of Joburg called Melville which has some nice bookshops, coffee shops and art galleries and a peculiar passion for the movie Amelie; an afternoon on a grassy knoll at a test match of cricket trying to decipher how South Africa battled New Zealand; a night in the posh Sandton suburb (think Santa Fe, Mexico City or a smaller, walled-in Beverly Hills) drinking and conviving at a worldwide whiskey festival; and finally a night with our ex-pat pal Bill enjoying pan-African cuisine in insular, upscale but enjoyable Melrose Arch (this area was built so that businesses could retreat from the Central Business District after the increase in violent crime).

 

One side note, and a much-needed and non-existent section of our guidebook, is the fact that having a car in Johannesburg is as necessary as it is in Los Angeles.  We arrived and tried to use public transportation until we realized that overpriced taxis were our only option.  If you visit, rent a car.

 

It is surprising how similar South Africa is to Brazil and Mexico.  The similarities are eerie: the gini coefficient, the architecture, the stage of infrastructure development, the colors and the warmth of the people.

 

Also, it is a curious fact that Woolworth's is THE supermarket/department store of South Africa.  You can drive into a gas station and buy a sandwich from Woolworth's Express.  How this came to happen is a mystery we have yet to decipher.

 

We will write more of our impressions of South Africa later on when we spend more time here after returning from Tanzania.

 

And now we are in Dar es Salaam.  The city and this country feels like another world.  The city is not the nicest of places but our perspective is limited by the fact that we are in a semi-dilapidated, concrete jungle near the old bus station.  The call for prayer lent an air of peace to the hot day and as night fell suddenly the stale city came alive.

 

Tomorrow we are going to Arusha where we plan on hiring a safari operator for our visit to the Ngorogoro Crater and the Serengeti.

We will post pictures as soon as we have the opportunity.

 

We miss you all and hope to hear from you soon