Safari in Manyara
Mambo! (which means “whats happening doode!”) Today we woke up very early and left the hotel at 6am to get some pictures of the sun coming out! It was still dark when we left and the first thing we came across was a pack of hyenas on the open field. There were some rangers studying them and getting very close to them!
We headed towards Ngorongoro and on the way we saw the hot air balloons in the sky. What a beautiful secenary they had! I strongly recommend you to book that excursiĂłn weeks in advance. But do not do it through your travel agent, just do it straight calling the company. They speak perfectly English as most of people in Tanzania (used to be an English colony). I am attaching a review about the company organizing it. They leave the hotel at 5am so they can start going up around 6am, just in time to see the sun coming out from the air. When they get down, they have a nice breakfast under one of those impressive African trees. It is funny that they had CAVA Freixenet from Spain. Is not that good, but I guess that if you serve it cold under such a warm country, you do not even realise.
On the way out we came across a male lion resting next to the road. Our guide stoped and did something it is not allowed, he drove out of boundaries and drove next to the lion. Of course the lion got up and walked next to us. Fascinating!
Between Serengeti and Ngorongoro there is a frontier. We stopped there and we took some funny pictures i am attaching to this blog. After two hours of driving we stopped to have breafkast in a rest area. From Serengeti to Lago Manyara there is a 4 hour drive approximately. Before getting to the hotel we stoped in many stores which were on the side of the road. They had everything you can imagine but we were looking for something in particular! It is really funny the way they bargain… most of the time they start the negotiation asking you for how much would you pay for it. They do not give you a price. Then what you have to do is to go really low. Let´s say they tell you it costs 100 dollar, then you have to offer 10… then they will go down to fifty… and so on.
As in every hotel we have been we had a very nice welcome. They welcome you with a nice cold tower to refresh yourself. Then once you are done, they serve you a fresh fruit juice, mango most of the times. So we left all our luggage in the room and we went straight to have lunch. The restaurant had already closed so we were completely alone in the living room. We had a Safari at 4:30pm, so I just had 30 minutes to walk around the hotel an take a couple of photos.
Lake Manyara is divided in two areas (ground and the lake). The total area is 335 square kms, 135 square kms of ground 200 hundred of water. Its name comes from a Masai word which means “plant” (emanyará). In the lake there are no Masais, there is another tribe in the area, wich i do not recall right now!
It is been 7 days watching animals so today we were kind of bored of seeing so many animals.
Now, that our visits to the parks have finised I will rank them:
1- Amboseli
2- Ngorongoro
3- Serengeti
4- Manyara
Once we arrived, we took a fase shower and we went to the pool to have a drink.
This hotel is very well located as it has a very nice view over Lake Manyara. What I would recommend you is to see the sunset in the swimming pool, it has an awesome view! One morning I woke up very early and I wrote a travel blog sitting on a hammock. It is so nice there. The pool is just amazing. If you want to connect to the Internet you have a computer which costs 5$ per every 15 minutes. Food is good, as any other Serena. Although I still think that in Ngorongoro we had the best food.
Highlight: the swimming pool!
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