We just got back from a 2 day "trek" in the foothills of Kilimanjaro. It was incredible, and made me want to sign up for a summit trek. It'll have to wait until next trip though, as we won't have the time (or cash!) to do it while we're here.
We hiked the first 1.5 days of the Marangu route, which our guide informed us was "nicknamed the Coca-Cola trail." Already winded from the altitude, I asked (hoping against hope it was because we were about to discover a trail-side stand selling cold Diet Coke) "and why is that?"
"Because it's the easiest one."
Apparently there is another route which is nicknamed "the whiskey route" because it is very steep and requires some mountaineering skills as well. Needless to say I'll be avoiding that one!
It was raining when we left Moshi, but we were pleasantly surprised that it didn't rain on us at all while we were hiking. We started in a lush rainforest:
We had a beautiful sunset, from a vantage point I'm used to seeing only from the window of a plane. And a nearly-full moon at night made for a surreal landscape.
To our surprise, we awoke this morning to sunshine. The clouds came rolling in shortly thereafter, but as we hiked up the mountain another couple hours we did get to see Mwenzi peak, the small peak on the slopes of Kilimanjaro.
It was a great hike, although we were glad to make it back to Moshi and a warm shower. We were very impressed with our guides and our cook. Somehow they managed to make chicken curry and green beans and cucumber soup for dinner, while when Tricia and I have been left to fend for ourselves in the house it's peanut-butter sandwiches or spaghetti.
I need to write another post about the work in the hospital. It continues to be hard in many ways, both to get used to the Tanzanian system and to see such sick children. But I'm hopeful that we'll learn a lot and maybe be of some help to the team and patients while we're here. I'll post another update with work pictures when I can.
That's all for now, thanks for reading!
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