Arusha/Dar es Salaam/Amsterdam/Atlanta

We leave camp early, around 7:30, and make it to Ngorongoro Crater in two hours. We cruise the Japanese road to Arusha, making good time. As we drive through Arusha, the activity on the streets is amazing. Everyone is walking or riding a bike or pulling hand carts the size of truck beds. We pass through the commercial district, streets of old-fashioned shops. A male voice sings out over the loud speaker, above the city's noise, calling the Muslims to prayer. The busy streets soon turn into wide lanes with trees overhead and houses with fences and gates.

We lunch at the Flame Tree Restaurant, enjoying a buffet of Mexican rice, chicken pilau, curry vegetables and chili con carne. We go back to Moiravo Lodge for the day, to shower, relax and eat dinner. Only when we get to Kilimanjaro International airport at 9 p.m. do we hear about the tsunami that hit Asia yesterday. The devastation is simply too overwhelming to watch.

It's a looooong flight from Arusha to Amsterdam via Dar es Salaam. And it's another looooong flight from Amsterdam to Atlanta. My seatmate grew up in Nigeria and he's returning from his father's funeral. His father was 115 years old. Remarkable. We touch down in Atlanta 22 hours after leaving Arusha, and four hours late, but I don't mind.