May 16th

Greetings from Africa! Today was an amazing day. We woke up early and ate breakfast at the hotel. The food was really good. Then we went out in the safari jeeps to Arusha National Park. This is a smaller park compared to the others, and the guides said today was an "appetizer". If that is true then I can't wait to see the main course. The jeeps were really nice with big windows and a pop up roof that we could stand up and look out. We didn't drive more than 10 minutes in the park when we saw giraffes right next to the road. Out in the small plains there were zebras, cape buffalo, giraffes, warthogs, and baboons. It was such an amazing view. All the vegetation and animals are very different and beautiful. It was cloudy in the morning but as the sun rose higher the clouds moved away to reveal Mount Meru and Mount Kilamanjaro on either side of the park. It was an amazing view. We drove around the park through different environments. Part of the park was a jungle area and we saw lots of monkeys in the trees. Some of us saw a Dik Dik, which is an antelope the size of a house cat. We also saw some really cool birds. It is so awesome to see these animals in their wild habitat. We all really enjoyed the day. The guides driving the jeeps were very nice and eager to point out to us all the animals. We learned some Swahili words. "Jambo" means "hello" and "twembe" means "let's go". We got back from the safari and had time to relax, eat dinner, and write in our journals. Tomorrow we head out at 8:30 in the morning for Lake Manyara where we hope to see elephants, hippos, flamingos, and maybe lions and leopards.