Steve and Barnabas in Tanzania

This is the final installment for the recent mission team visit.  Every team that comes over should in fact do a safari because it is a part of the overall experience that is traveling to Tanzania.  In the past I have always recommended going to Ngorongoro for a one day trip and it is still an excellent place to go.  However, it is more expensive than most of the other trips because they charge per person and for the vehicle both and it is one of the most popular safari sites in Tanzania which leads to a lot of people being there.  In fact during the June-August tourist season it is not uncommon to have wait in a vehicle line of 10 or more safari trucks trying to roll their group into picture taking position of the main attractions.  Some times it feels a little more like a zoo than a safari. I have started to recommend Tarangire more often because it is less expensive and the only vehicle crowding issues are at the lunch spots.  They have a great vi...

To view almost all the photos I took you can go to  Steve's photo album The team arrived Saturday, June 17 at the Kilimanjaro International Airport which is about 1 hour away from Arusha where they would be staying their first night in Tanzania.  Normally we use the safari vehicles to pick everyone up at the airport, but this time our safari company (called Cheeky Monkey) used what is called a coasta.  A coasta is a medium sized bus which was perfect for everyone to get a comfortable seat and the luggage.  It took a rather long time for the team to get through immigration.  About an hour and a half but this is normal in Tanzania.  Also, normal in Tanzania is to have every bagged checked at the customs stop and when you bring in items for VBS they want to tax it.  This year it was the bears they wanted to tax.  It took me about half an hour to convince them they did not need to tax the bears and get them loaded up on the coasta.  ...