Arrival in Tanzania!

After departing on Wednesday from Denver, we arrived in Tanzania on Friday morning. We were fortunate to have no flight delays, which made everything run smoothly. The hardest part was just making sure we all stayed awake during our 8 hour layover in Frankfurt so that we would sleep on the flight to Kiliminjaro! As we were descending in Tanzania we had the most stunning views on Kiliminjaro (19,341), it felt surreal to being seeing this iconic mountain in person.


We landed in Kiliminjaro at 7:30 and the morning and met up with our guide. We drove about an hour to our hotel in Arusha. We are staying at the Grand Melia Hotel and the grounds are beautiful. The hotel has beautiful views of Mt. Meru (14,968), their own coffee plantation, bee hives, and farm. At breakfast I enjoyed a latte and the coffee was so smooth and delicious. Of course it made me think of Karen (my amazing mother-in-law) so I had to go take a picture of these coffee beans! 

The boys enjoyed all of the pastries at the buffet and fresh juices. It was a wonderful way to begin our first full day here in Tanzania. 

Here is Rick drawing and enjoying the views from our room and the boys enjoying the patio at the hotel.


We were all feeling the jet lag pretty strongly, so we spent most of the day outside, walking the paths, playing card games, and trying to identify any local birds and lizards that we spotted along the way! We also enjoyed some snacks on the rooftop restaurant. 

Ring Necked Dove (above)
The Village Weaver Bird Nest (above)
The Village Weaver Bird (above)
Local slug with Richard (above)
Ant nest
The African Pied Wagtail (above)
House Gecko (above)
The Hamerkop bird (above)
Striped skink (above)

After a day of exploring we met up with my family for a beautiful dinner on the roof! Tomorrow we have one more day to rest up before our tour officially begins with orientation at 4:30pm. Below you can see what we have to look forward to!

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