Rafiki Returns

Mwanza is a BUSTLING city. Pedestrians, motorbikes, bajajis, cars, busses, all moving around the city in a chaotically choreographed dance. Just getting to our hotel, Hotel Kingdom was a challenge because Alfred had to make a u-turn in the middle of all of it. So here we had to bid farewell to our amazing driver and guide and meet up with Richard, my rafiki who I have known since 2005. It was just so good to see him and introduce him to Liz. He is ageless and looks exactly the same. The reason we are in Mwanza is because Richard suggested it as a place where a lot of Tanzania vacationers go on holiday.  Don’t be fooled by no one on the road - this place was chaotic! Fish centerpiece at a traffic circle in town Richard met us in our “posh” hotel and we headed to this awesome nightclub right on the beach. He wanted to take us to Lake Victoria which is a huge lake that is surrounded by Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. We were right there on the shore - it was just beautiful! We took a Bol...

Our days in the Serengeti were long, dusty, exciting, and so fun. It never got old seeing any animal from a “pumbaa” to a lion. Fun new fact about warthogs- they are also nicknamed V8 because of how fast and powerfully they can run. We stayed at Serengeti Heritage camp for a couple nights which was in the middle of the park. It looked like it was there permanently and run by a Maasai man who formerly led tours. The Serengeti is truly vast, not like Ngorongoro where you are aware of so many jeeps around you. We spent most of our first morning looking for a leopard and wow did we see a couple beauties. Leopards are Alfred’s favorite and he was so excited to be so close. I loved hearing him say “wow”, like it still brings him wonder after 17 years. We stopped for lunch under a random tree and began plotting our music video that was super fun to make though it turned out curiously similar to Kristen Bell and Dax Sheppards video from over 10 years ago. We ate dinner with Alfred both nights ...