Arusha National Park

We spent a wonderful last day in Tanzania at Arusha National Park. It was a bit chilly and rainy to start the day, but that didn't stop us! We left with "Green Footprints" early this morning to arrive in Arusha National Park, right at the base of Mount Meru. When we arrived, we drove to our spot and on the way got a great view of some of the same animals we saw on Sunday at Lake Manyara. This time, the giraffes were even closer. We went on a nature hike with our armed ranger and were able to view some other animals pretty close as well as Tululusia Waterfall. The water in these lakes and streams is very alkaline. When we got back to our jeep, we ate a quick lunch before proceeding to the lake to canoe "with hippos". This sounds much much more dangerous than it actually was. We canoed through little lake Momella and viewed a mama and a baby hippo on a small island in the middle of the lake. We did not go anywhere very close and it wasn't the kind of canoing I'd imagined (bumping into hippoes left and right) which is a good thing as this was much safer. The sun finally made a wonderful appearance while we were canoing which added to the surreal feeling on the lake. What a way to go! Here's a video of a monkey climbing through the trees above our heads.