The sweet aromas of Arusha

It’s coming up on a year since Chuck and I went on safari in Tanzania… and I kinda forgot to write about it. Whoops. But if you’ve met up with me in the last year, I probably waxed poetic to you already about it, so please, feel free to continue on to another more interesting read, I can’t say I’ll be saying anything new here.

And to be honest, the reason I’m writing these blogs now is to help me diarize my thoughts about the place before my aged mind and scatta-scatta brain stores most of them away on the back shelf. I like to look back at my writing after a few years to see where I was at as a human and how I might have changed — or not! — since then. And also grimace at my poor sentence structure.

A place like no other

Anyways, back to the star of the show: Tanzania. It truly is a star. Every spot we visited came with its own special terrain, own special beauty, leaving us speechless as we explored each place with deep curiosity and an insatiable zest for seeing more, learning more.

You know that saying, “Just hook it to my veins!?”

Yep. That was us the entire time. Except when we had to spend a day with Fucking Jean! More on that another time.

Safari thoughts

So if all you want to know is if a safari is worth it, well, I don’t think you need my confirmation, it’s the number one travel experience for a very good reason. It’s like meeting a genie and instead of asking for immortality or money you wish for things like, “help me feed my soul,” or “show me something so special the memory of it will thrill me forever,” or “I wish to understand my place in this world.” And after those wishes are granted, you find a safari grants you one last wish you didn’t even know you were asking for: Perspective.

Perspective on:

• How small we humans truly are.
• How true community still exists. And how it can beautifully exist between the entire animal kingdom. (that includes us humans.)
• How some of the most amazing things happen in silence. (Something I really need to remember.)
• How animals view humans. (spoiler alert: they could care less. I actually think they are looking at us like, “ew, stalkers.”)
• How absolutely blessed we are to be in such a place of wonder.

Ultimately, it gave me a greater perspective on how I see the world and all the life within it.

See, I told you I would wax poetic (with my Grade-12-English-level thoughts).

Highly elevated

For our first stop in Tanzania, we spent a couple of days in Arusha, located on the southern slopes of Mt. Meru with Mt. Kilimanjaro not too far off in the distance. A hub for folks who are either ready to embark on safari or climb Mount Kilimanjaro. And it’s all surrounded by coffee plantations. We actually stayed on one.

Ok, now I’m instantly taken back to how amazing Arusha smelled. *looooong wistful sighhhhhhh*

Coffee talk

I never liked coffee. I never drank it. I never thought about it. I never felt I had a need for it. And then one day in February 2015, I was with friends in Maui and one of them offered me a sip of their iced Kona coffee and I instantly reversed course. Was that what coffee really tasted like? Yum.

But I still didn’t invest in making coffee. I just hit up a coffee shop here and there or stuck to an Earl Grey tea at home.

And then we visited Arusha Coffee Lodge. Being only around 400 km south of the equator, you would think Arusha would be steamy hot, but its elevation is around 1,400 metres and is situated in a cool, dry area perfect for coffee production. (and good smells)

When we stepped into our cabin we were instantly met with fresh fruit, handmade chocolates and cookies. There was also a lovely French Press sitting alongside a big glass jar filled with fresh coffee grown from the arabica bushes just outside our door.

We spent our two mornings in Arusha brewing the most delicious coffee and sitting on our deck looking out at the vibrant bougainvillea vines throwing shade over the rows of coffee plants.

After three flights, — one being 13 hours! — and two days of travel, spending a couple days replenishing our energy banks before embarking on safari was heavenly.

Bean to cup

Whether coffee is being brewed or not, you can’t beat the aromas that envelop you living on a coffee plantation. And since Chuck and I had extra time to spare in Arusha, we decided to take the lodge’s Bean to Cup coffee plantation tour.

I’m pretty sure we learned about as much as a person possibly can about coffee. We finished off with roasting our own beans to brew our own cups. You don’t get fresher coffee than that!

It was at this exact moment I knew I needed a French Press in my everyday life at home.

During our tour, we learned that women usually pick the beans (one-by-one by hand) as they are more meticulous at it than men. And that those women pick around 20 kgs a day (two giant baskets). They get $5.00 USD per 10 kgs. $10.00 max a day!! And after learning it takes about 30 beans to make one cup, it makes one think how little we pay for something that is such a labour-intensive product.

Around Arusha

The only other excursion we did in Arusha was trek to the Cultural Heritage building. It’s gigantic and houses an amazing collection of African art for sale.

Our guide took us through floor after floor of paintings and statues trying to find us (really me) the perfect canvas to roll up and take home. On the last floor I found it. A sweeping landscape of elephants and zebras on the Serengeti. A perfect souvenir for what we were about to embark on…