While my blog was on vacation...

I went on a one-day safari to Arusha National Park. It was AWESOME!! Tanzania has 14 national parks - the Serengeti being the largest and probably the most famous. Arusha NP is the second smallest park in Tanzania, but home to an amazing abundance of plant and animal life.

I can't explain how incredible it is to see animals roaming free in their natural habitat. After that, zoos just seem wrong.

This is us as we started out. (The roommates don't like having their pictures taken). Safari cars are cool because the top is removable so you can stand up and look out at the animals without getting out of the vehicle.


There are no lions and almost no elephants in the park (we didn't see any), but we still saw plenty to keep us open-mouthed in awe and in a perpetual state of "oh my god did you see that?!"


The giraffes were walking ON THE ROAD and didn't seem much daunted by our presence.

There were a lot of giraffes.


And zebras.


I have to put up one more picture of a giraffe. Those things are awesome. This one took an interest in the camera.


I was able to get pictures of warthogs, monkeys, baboons, cape buffalo (they look like they're wearing viking helmets), and some nice vegetation. We also saw lots of flamingos and other species of birds and monkeys as well as a waterbuck (kind of like a deer), but they were too far away or moved too fast for me to get a photo.

A la The Lion King, "when I was a young warthog....." I think they're so cute!


This is a black Colobus monkey - he looks a little scary to me. And also like he's related to a skunk


Baboons - they seem so normal here


But they apparently like it dirty too - no shame in the animal kingdom!


Vikings of Africa


Lush vegetation, honeycomb, and waterfalls were also part of an amazing trip.

This one has a parasitic viny overgrowth


So beautiful!


Bees were here


Wow. So amazing.