We woke up the morning of our final day to elephants grazing right outside of our tents, and a wildebeest stampede (5000 plus) fifty feet into the bush, and finally, a family of hippos at the watering hole. We could hear the hippos every night after dinner. As we finished lunch before our final drive […]
Rise and shine at 2:30 AM for a three-hour drive to the balloon launch site. Ten of us boarded the hot air balloon for a sunrise lift off. Mary and I have been on a couple of hot air balloon rides, but none like this. The basket is on its side and tethered to a […]
One of the vagaries of traveling internationally during COVID is that you need negative COVID results to get out of the country AND to get back in. This morning we all travelled to a nearby clinic to get our RT PCR tests (the results of which would meet up with us in Arusha before our […]
Up early, our guide Bachu took us to the Ngorongoro Crater, the largest caldera in the world. It was formed not by an eruption of this ancient volcano but rather by its collapse. Fifty feet inside the park our truck (top still down fortunately) was greeted by Baboons, lots of Baboons. At one point there […]
On Thursday during our game drives we saw a Vervet monkey and two very tired but very full Leopards. Their kill was a young Cape Buffalo who got stuck in a nearby muddy watering hole. It is not clear if these two were going to be able to eat any more of their kill. If […]
Early the next morning before breakfast, Stan (with rifle – just in case) and a spear-carrying Maasai warrior met us for our morning bush walking tour. It was a beautiful start to the day and very cool experiencing the bush as everything woke up. We saw many of the same animals from the day before, […]
We stayed at the Arusha Coffee Lodge located on a 100-acre coffee plantation. After breakfast and an orientation with our outfitter, Sky Safari, we had a short coffee plantation tour, had a chance to visit some local artisans, then transferred to the Arusha airport for a 25-minute plane ride to Kuro airstrip in the heart […]
What a beginning to a trip. Tanzania requires(d) a negative COVID test valid within 72 hours upon entry. Delta requires a valid one upon boarding. In most cities that is not possible given the delay in test reporting. We didn’t know this until in three cities our posse was denied boarding. We started over, new […]
What to say. We had relatively low expectations for Venice. We’d heard comments like “too dark,” “too smelly,” and “too dirty.” We experienced none of the above. In fact we’d return to Venice in a heartbeat. We have visited a number of cities in the Baltic area who try to lay claim to being […]
On our way across Italy from Liguria to Venice we stopped in the outskirts of Modena. We visited a balsamic vinegar producer (an acetaia). Acetaia Paltrinieri has been in the business since 1845. We have long been balsamic fans and our interest has grown in recent years as we’ve watched our friends at the Terraces […]
