We had a final breakfast with our guide. The entire crew was in good spirits as it was our final day of the hike and they would get to headd home to their families for a couple of days before doing it all again... But possibly as importantly for them was that it was 'tip'; day...and looking forward to what might come from the pockets of these Americans.
We wanted to be fair with tips, so we generally went with the guidelines on the company website... And when doing so, we were given many handshakes, hugs, smiles, and much gratitude. That was very very nice...to depart on such good terms. In some touring groups in developing countries, guides or porters will try to push for getting more money or tell a story about their family's woes, but no one in our team said a word about tips until we brought it up, so we were even more glad to recognize them for their fine job. So if any of you are thinking of a trip up Kili (and for some reason didn't want to come with us!), we would recommend going with Good Earth Tours...specifically with James as your guide. We found out that this is his 19th year as a guide! So that number of summiting over 700 times in a previous note could be true. He was certainly the most experienced guide on the mountain.
One other special momento we had for some of our support team was perfect and made them smile almost as much as the the tips... We brought several Barack Obama buttons and bracelets (acquired from Walgreens in Chicago) to give to our porters and guides since there is so much hype here (and in Africa, in general) about Obama. Since we only had a few, though, we had to make sure we avoided ruffling any feathers among the hierarchy in the group by giving the items to the highest ranking 3 people... Our guide, assistant guide, and our cook. When we came our of our tent this morning they were all proudly wearing their new accessories and smiling! Well...except for the assistant guide...he apparently made a deal with a Porter buddy that the porter could wear the bracelet for 2 days and then had to give it back so he could wear it. We'll chaulk this up to playing our little part in contributing to international diplomacy! :-)
So we got to the final gate where the bus would meet us and we received our official 'gold'certificates indicating that we made it to the very top of Africa...Uhuru Peak!
We eventually made it back to our hotel in Arusha where we quickly sorted out all the dirty clothes we needed laundered for the safari and then we took what was probably the most desired benefit of civilization....a long, hot shower! Then a rep from Good Earth came to our hotel to ask us about our hike and asked for feedback on what was good and bad so they can make continuous improvements. Well...asking 2 consultants to dissect the 7-day experience into feedback was like throwing chum to sharks. :-) The poor guy expected a 10-minute discussion, but we kept him for almost an hour letting him know what worked and what needed improvements. I suspect that by implementing our suggestions they will double their business in the next 12-18 months. ;-)
The rep then also gave us the necessary details for our safari tomorrow... Departure is at 9am...he said we have a driver with about 15 years of guide experience, and they've also issued us a newer car / land rover for the safari. So it should be absolutely amazing! We will drive for a few hours to get to the first site, Lake Manyara! We'll see how much access to internet we'll have there.
But we also wanted to say thank you to our Moms and my Dad for their 'congrats' notes after following along with this blog! We love that you are following along and can share in these experiences. We hope everyone out there has gotten something out of these updates!
Lala Salama for now! (Swahili for 'good night')
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