Away From My Desk: Hiding out in Africa

I guess this could be our last blog post since our trip is officially over. We arrived safely back in Florida last week after a smooth, 25-hour-long assortment of flights. We spent the 12 hours f...

http://jeanetteandanne.blogspot.com/2011/12/back-safe-and-sound.html

Aside from, of course, seeing family and friends and our cats, this is a list of things that we look forward to the most about going home after traveling around Africa for just under nine months....

http://jeanetteandanne.blogspot.com/2011/12/top-ten-things-i-look-forward-to-most.html

I’m not sure if Jeanette has mentioned this before, but traveling by public transport can be exhausting and takes much longer than planned. We decided to break our journey from Queen Elizabeth ...

http://jeanetteandanne.blogspot.com/2011/12/shocking-ssese-island.html

Clearly a visit to East Africa isn’t completely without a game drive. My mother visited me twice in Tanzania and had already seen the big animals, but we decided to spend a day in Queen Elizabe...

http://jeanetteandanne.blogspot.com/2011/12/queen-elizabeth-national-park.html

Before you read this, please note that my mother agreed to every form of transport and that she was never in any danger. In fact, every family member who reads this should really be grateful that...

http://jeanetteandanne.blogspot.com/2011/12/portal-to-another-world.html

Oh, internal flights of Ethiopia, how I miss you.  You were so cheap, largely punctual, relatively fast, surprisingly efficient, and quite comfortable.  It has been but a week without you, but ...

http://jeanetteandanne.blogspot.com/2011/11/ode-to-internal-flights.html

The day before Anne’s mom arrived here we met a woman working with the Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary and when we got to chatting she said there was a tour going out the next day with space...

http://jeanetteandanne.blogspot.com/2011/12/chimp-sanctuary.html

Note: Anyone on the email list who got 17 notifications that we updated the blog, it's because the computer was acting funny and would only let me post one photo at a time.  This is the final v...

http://jeanetteandanne.blogspot.com/2011/11/bwindi-impenetrable-national-forest.html

I understand rich people now. I understand why they seem to have this glow about them. This “something” that’s so desirable and unachievable. It’s because they belong to the airline clubs...

http://jeanetteandanne.blogspot.com/2011/11/sheba-miles.html

Djibouti is a tiny little desert country with a giant U.S. military base bordered by Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somaliland, and the Red Sea. It’s bloomin’ expensive but boasts random geological forma...

http://jeanetteandanne.blogspot.com/2011/11/djibouti.html

Our moods and opinions of Ethiopia have vastly improved lately. The country really does boast some of the most beautiful landscapes we’ve seen on the continent and the most interesting historic...

http://jeanetteandanne.blogspot.com/2011/11/happiness-update.html

Some Ethiopians believe that the 11 rock-hewn churches in Lalibela were created entirely by God, others that King Lalibela was empowered by God to carve them on his own in only 23 years, and then...

http://jeanetteandanne.blogspot.com/2011/11/churches-of-lalibela.html

 For the umpteenth time that day one of the four-wheel drive cars in our caravan was bogged down in the mud and sand. Our vehicle was forced to stop behind it and was soon stuck as well. Night h...

http://jeanetteandanne.blogspot.com/2011/11/danakillers.html

(Long with lots of photos. Enjoy!) The food: it’s cheap and delicious.  Plus there are huge portions so we can usually split a meal and both eat for less than $2.  The only downside is that ...

http://jeanetteandanne.blogspot.com/2011/11/ethiopia-good-stuff.html

Warning: Ethiopia has turned out to be much more difficult to travel in as a white person than expected and this blog entry contains a therapeutic release of some of the accumulated bitterness ...

http://jeanetteandanne.blogspot.com/2011/11/ethiopia-youve-got-to-be-kidding-me.html

Note: These are some of Jeanette’s observations from her first time traveling around the continent. One thing about Africa that I’ve noticed, and this is true everywhere we’ve been except...

http://jeanetteandanne.blogspot.com/2011/10/eastern-and-southern-africa.html

It finally happened. How could it not? Yes, I finally got sick. Usually it’s Jeanette who is suffering from a range of maladies. I seemed to be born to live in squalor. My mother did always tea...

http://jeanetteandanne.blogspot.com/2011/10/kenya-coast.html

We ended up spending over a month and a half in Anne’s beloved Tanzania, a country I have been hearing stories about for years.  Traveling here was made significantly easier for me having Anne...

http://jeanetteandanne.blogspot.com/2011/10/reflections-on-tanzania-and-east-africa.html

Just a quick note to say that we fly to Ethiopia tonight and will be there for roughly one month.  We have a Kenya blog to write and post but that will take some time.  Our guidebooks warn that...

http://jeanetteandanne.blogspot.com/2011/10/ethiopia-bound.html

Warning: This blog entry contains some graphic photos of the circle of life, so if that sort of thing bothers you please skip the photos directly following the part where I talk about the lion e...

http://jeanetteandanne.blogspot.com/2011/10/warning-this-blog-entry-contains-some.html

Warning: This post is ridiculously long. Feel free to just check out the photos. All photos are now posted. Prologue The last post told you the punch line, so here’s the back story. A long...

http://jeanetteandanne.blogspot.com/2011/10/mount-kilimanjaro-super-long-version.html

Enough said.

http://jeanetteandanne.blogspot.com/2011/10/mount-kilimanjaro-short-version.html

Let me just tell you, Jeanette may look younger and prettier than me, but I am worth about 400 cows. At 600,000 Tanzanian shillings per cow, that means about $150,000 for a bride price. I hope my...

http://jeanetteandanne.blogspot.com/2011/09/useful-proposals.html

Traveling through the Usambaras has taught me a remarkable number of things about life in Tanzania. Most importantly, villages here vary greatly. In Lushoto, where it rains at least once a week ...

http://jeanetteandanne.blogspot.com/2011/09/what-difference-rain-makes-iringa-vs.html

  Note: Once again technology won and I (Jeanette) incorrectly saved the photos to the thumb drive.  Will try to post tomorrow or later this week. On our last day in Dar es Salaam we booked a...

http://jeanetteandanne.blogspot.com/2011/09/usambara-mountains.html