And onto Africa

 We left Boston five days ago(I think) on route to Kilamanjaro airport in Tanzania. 

The flights went smoothly, six hours the first flight, a 2 hour layover in Amsterdam, and about nine hours to Tanzania. 

Dolly and Paul Beaver had urged us to watch the Lion King before coming, which seemed rather comical to us.  Hakuna Matata? We didn't watch it at home, but it was available on our flight, not just the original one, but a more recent one with music by Lin Manuel Miranda and voices including  Seth Rogen, Beyonce, and also her 14 year old daughter. I watched about fifteen minutes of each. That was plenty.  The second one had much more sophisticated animation, of course. 

They had also suggested several books, including Sy Montgomery's book about the great migration of wildebeests, which we aren't going to see. Wrong time of year. 

You may be familiar with some of Sy Montgomery's books or her regular appearances on Boston Public Radio with Eagen and Broude. We first encountered her writing on our trip to the Amazon, about six years ago. Her book about the pink dolphins was at the lodge, and I read it. We met her later on at a book signing, told her about our Peru connection. She had stayed at the Amazonia lodge also, and knew Dolly and Paul. 

But we have seen an incredible amount of wildlife in the last three days, on our pre-safari safari with some of the group we'll now be travelling with . There have been thirteen of us so far, plus our two guides, in two vehicles. 

Paul is the founder of Amazonia and the lodges, and Dolly is his wife, and is Peruvian. We had met Dolly in Peru, and went with her to purchase baskets from a women's collective of artisans, which she had created.  She also founded Angels of the Amazon which is supporting the same village by building two schools, providing Christmas gifts for the children,  and more. 

One of the women on our current trip has done volunteer work with Dolly and the Angels of the Amazon, and has been there twice. Anothe couple has stayed at one of the lodges as well. It's an interesting group of people. About half are from the West, California, Arizona, maybe another state as well. The other half of us are from the Boston area, two couples who know each other well, and us. Coincidentally, the Easterners all wound up in one vehicle, and the Westerners in the other. But we all spend time together, at the lodges, at lunch and dinner, etc.

We will meet up with Dolly and the rest of the group tonight, at the Arusha Serena Hotel, which is sort of our home base. We stayed here the first two nights, back again now, and back once more at the end of our trip.