And that’s a wrap – Kilimanjaro, Day 7 (25 July 2008)

A four hour hike downhill and we’re done. There are a few things about Kili that I regret, some based on expectations from Jen’s last trip:

• In spite of 8 years of stories about latrine prowling Leopards, we were never in danger from wildlife
• Likewise, the hard-boiled egg never made an appearance during the trip
• I was too chicken to get pictures of the A&K “experience” - I could have used some of Kris Provincio’s pluck
• Tanzania isn’t as wild as it was 8 years ago. Cell phones work everywhere – Jen’s actually rang the first night, and our guide is texting the whole way up. Evidently phones even work at the summit. Sadly we don’t know how to dial the states.

Other notes:

• If you go up Kili, you want to get to the latrines as quickly as possible. Not everyone is considerate and Jen’s unfortunate experience is not atypical. The morning at Karanga I looked down into the corner of the latrine to see a frozen sheet of ice. Then I realized why there would be ice in the bottom of a latrine.
• It looks like the guide gets a cut of the tips from the porters. We gave directly to each porter, but saw some transfer going on later.
• Some (lucky?) subset of the porters rode the bus down with us. We stopped at a little roadside store; they called out to this woman and started handing her money. Confused, I watched her go into the store and come back with beer. Evidently there’s no open container law. NOTE: The driver did not drink, at least not that I could see.
• I had to go into Arusha to visit the ATM, since we borrowed some money from Helen to cover the tip (courtesy of the Precision Air shakedown). The machine wouldn’t let you take out more than 200,000 shillings (about 200 dollars) per transaction, and gave it to you in 10000 shilling notes (which are the largest). I made three transactions of 200,000 each – so I had 60 bills in my wallet, certainly the fattest it’s ever been. The problem is that no one wants 10,000 shilling notes. They’re impossible to get change for

I hope you’ve enjoyed everything so far. I’ve put up a gallery of pictures from Kili on the right. Next will be our 7-day safari, which will seem like relative luxury.

I’ll give the answer to the poll question once the voting closes.