Muriel speaks

I'm sort of the silent partner here, but only because Joanne is better than I am at this. Nevertheless, I have the floor today. We are still in Arusha and enjoying the amenities of the hotel. It is not quite the perfect hotel we thought at first, so far we have had to have someone come up twice to open our safe for us as it did not work, and housekeeping had to be called to bring some towels, but all in all we are relaxing and having a good time. The birding is interesting, because it involves carrying a 3 pound book, two sets of binoculars, cameras, pens and paper, and always big bottles of water. The looks we get as we stand on the roadside peering into the trees are somewhat bemused, or maybe amused, but we don't care. The people here are so friendly, we hear "Jamba" (hello) constantly and many people speak English and are quick to wish us a good morning. We love looking at the women in there beautiful dresses. The colours are spectacular and everyone seems to dress as if they were on their way to a party. Many of the women have large bundles on their heads. and even buckets are carried this way. We feel uncomfortable taking pictures of people , as they do not seem to like it, but this afternoon I will give some of the ladies some money and snap without guilt. The city is strangely devoid of dogs; most third world countries we are familiar with have feral dogs all over the place. Perhaps a good reason to avoid eating the street venders food offerings!
Tonight our tour officially begins and we will be departing for the Ngorangora crater tomorrow morning. All of the "big Five" live there and we are optimistic about seeing all of them, of course. The hotel is the start point for many tour outfits and is a busy place as different groups come and go. We all look like tourists with nice new safari wear and the ubiquitous tilly hats or tilly lookalikes. Its all very exciting just to be here in Africa, the air smells different, full of wonderful perfume and exotic scents. So far it has not been too hot, but the sun is harsh and we have to be careful not to burn. What a moment when we saw a red robed Masai walking down the street in town, complete with large walking stick instead of a spear. One of them was even talking on a cell phone. Wherever you go , old meets new. We will update when we can, please send us messages once in a while.
All for now, Muriel