Steve and Barnabas in Tanzania

These last couple of weeks have been full of adventures for myself, Barnabas Bear and my family visiting from the states.  I met up with them in Istanbul, Turkey for a couple of days before we flew over to Nairobi, Kenya then drove to Arusha taking in a Safari along the way.  In Arusha, we picked up the truck I use and I drove to Singida, then out to our site in the Iramba Valley before journeying through Dodoma, Morogoro and Dar Es Salaam to Ferry over and visit Zanzibar for a couple of days.  This wall all about two weeks in length.  And like most Hendrix vacations there was no sleeping past 7 AM so we could fit as much into every day as possible. In Istanbul we had my parents, oldest brother and two friends from Germany. We spent a good chunk of our first day walking to visit some of the mosques which have beautiful architecture and tile work as well as one of the more historical church to mosque buildings in the area. We also visited the cisterns under the city...

This was my last visit to Nairobi and I tried to make it a big one.  I added three days to the normal trip so I would not be so rushed especially since it is a day there and a day back on the shuttle.  Was glad I did as I was able to work in a couple of side trips and extra stops at my favorite places to eat. So to start things off I get into Nairobi on Tuesday evening and contact my friend in country to let her know I am there and see when she would like to get together.  She mentions she is already at one my favorites to eat at Mambo Italia at Lavington Curve (for when you want a taxi driver to find it say the Lavington Nakumatt).  We first discovered this pizza and Italian slice of heaven at the Karen Nakumatt Galleria I think.  They have a carnivore thin crust that is right up my ally.  So grab a taxi and off I go where I met one her local friends who just quit their job.  That poor bottle of wine never sto...