We began our day well rested at the Peacock breakfast buffet. We enjoyed our first cups of Tanzanian Chi Tea, coffee, and fresh passion fruit juice. With full stomachs, Ephreum, our fabulous and fun tour guide, picked us up in a Land Cruiser and we headed out for some site seeing.
Our first stop was the National Museum where we got to learn about the history of Tanzania. It was neat to see the historic tools, pictures, skulls, and our favorite the prehistoric fossil preservation that displayed footprints of homo sapiens over 3.6 million years ago which were preserved by a series Volcanic eruption. From there, we headed to exchange money and search for a Sim card. The money situation proved to be difficult for Marilyn because they would not accept travelers checks. Once we got the money situation under control it was off to get the Sim Card. This too was a difficult task due to the fact that the Blackberry we brought along would not accept the Sim card purchased off the street. Luckily, Ephreum stepped up and explained that locals would no doubt rip us off if we tried to actually purchase a pre-paid minute phone, so he took off in search of a phone for 55,000 shillings while the rest of us met some young locals looking to sell us some dyed canvas paintings. We soon learned that their names were “Fantastic” and “Spock”, I think it’s safe to say they were playing us a little bit, but Amber found a painting she liked so she purchased and Epheum returned with a Nokia phone equipped with 15,000 minutes.
We had already experiences so much and the day was hardly half over! After all of our adventures on the street we decided to get some grub at “City Garden” a lovely outside restaurant where we relaxed with some local food including beef curry, buttered nan, and freshly squeezed passion fruit and pineapple juice. Oh aaaand some of ours new favorite… ORANGE FANTA! With happy stomachs we were off to the “living history museum” which featured replicas of tribal homes from various Tanzanian tribes. It was extremely interesting to see how these homes were built and was even neater that we could walk inside each one to see precisely how they were built and designed. Without hesitation, we also purchased “dance tickets” to see some local women perform traditional Tanzanian dances. Figuring this would only get us excited for this evenings festivities, we began sitting on the benches to watch the women. In no time at all, Tonya, Amber, and Melanie were pulled up to dance with the women while Marilyn, Ephreum, and Nicole stayed back to take pictures and films.
After the rump shaking and feet stomping was over we set out in the Land Cruiser to purchase some “conga” dresses to wear at this evenings “Tanzania Night” back at the Peacock. This was no easy task due to the crazy traffic on the streets of Dar. We were, however, entertained by the street vendors who did not hesitate to shove stacks of plastic storage bins into the front window of our SUV. Guess it is our fault for appearing as though we were interested in purchasing them for the school we are visiting tomorrow. Our car crept along in traffic and so too did the man selling the bins. Thank goodness for Ephreum, who explained to the gentleman that we were only interested in the one stack of bins and would pay precisely 25,000 shillings. It again, was quite the cultural experience.
Next on the agenda was “Tanzania Night” at the Peacock Hotel. It was an exciting night to say the least. We were handed coconuts with fresh coconut juice as we entered and escorted to our table near the front of the live musicians. We quickly order drinks; Nicole and Marilyn stuck with Serengeti while Amber went with the Kilimanjaro, Tonya and Mel the African White Wine. With drinks ordered we reviewed the adventures throughout our day and headed for the buffet of exquisite authentic Tanzanian food. Some of the items included cold yogurt soup with Maize (corn), beef/chicken kabobs, roasted sweet potatoes, and a variety of spinach/vegetable dishes, oh and we cannot forget the Goat Meat! All new tastes to us, we were adventuresome and tried most of it. A few drinks later, the Tanzanian dancers dressed in traditional get up began dancing. Our favorite was the extra flexible men. (Pictures below) It was not long before we were all up on the dance floor ending our night with a little cardio and napkin waving!
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