Lots of Pumbaas, No Pumas

Trip Start Feb 06, 2008
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5
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Trip End Mar 03, 2008


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Flag of Tanzania  ,
Saturday, February 9, 2008

We went to Arusha National Park today on our first safari and, with much excitement, we saw our first: giraffe, zebra, buffalo, warthog, black and white colobus monkey, blue monkey, baboon, bushback and hippo. The park is set in the shadow of Mt. Meru, Africa's second highest mountain after Kilimanjaro.

We also took a two and a half hour trek around the park with a ranger carrying a machine gun to ward off the sometimes unpredictable buffaloes. Our safari guide didn't think there were any leopards in the park but the park ranger showed us leopard poop which consisted of balls of fur, the only portion of the animal the leopard couldn't digest. Might we suggest some Metamucil?

After the trek, we piled back into the truck. Paul had taken Gravol for the brain-rattling ride to the park and, in combination with the Diamox we were taking for our trek up Kilimanjaro and jetlag, it was a total disaster. It was so painful to watch him try to stay awake. When the guide pointed out "Pumbaa" (the name of the warthog character in Disney's Lion King), Paul popped right out of unconsciousness thinking there was a "puma". Angrily, he went back to sleep.
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