Monday, January 8, 2024 and Tuesday, January 9, 2024:
Joyce, Pete, and Gayle left Centreville for BWI to get on a Delta flight leaving around 2:00 pm. We arrived in plenty of time and ate breakfast for lunch at the airport before our flight to Atlanta. The Atlanta flight left a few minutes early and we were happy about that because we had a very short layover in Atlanta before our next flight. We made the plane to Amsterdam in Atlanta and had an uneventful 8 hour flight to Amsterdam. After arriving on time, we walked a long ways to the gate for the flight to Kilimanjaro. We made it with time to spare and started the final leg of the trip.
Tuesday, January 9:
After another 8 hour flight, we arrived to 80 degrees and humid weather in Kilimanjaro. It was crowded and a bit confusing but we made it through customs okay. We were glad to have acquired our Visas online prior to the trip. Met Doreen and our fellow travelers in the parking lot about 10:30 pm local time. We were transported by Regal-Africa Tours via a van ride to Under the Shade Lodge. They had dinner waiting for us; we ate about midnight. We got to our rooms and were in bed around 2:00 am, up at 6:30. It was a very short night!
Our fellow travelers included:
- Doreen – trip organizer and Joyce’s friend from Concord College 1969-70, from Montana and Costa Rica
- Ian – Doreen’s son, fisherman, avid surfer and surf board builder living in Costa Rica
- Zara – Ian’s girlfriend, geologist, avid surfer and surf board builder living in Costa Rica
- Kendra – a physician from Michigan and friend and neighbor of Doreen’s in Costa Rica
- Jessica and Jamie from Bethesda, MD. Relatives of Doreen’s. Jessica teaches early childhood education and Jamie was a financial advisor and now organizes start-ups.
- Sophia – recently moved to NYC from Bethesda after getting a degree in social work in Georgia, daughter of Jessica and Jamie, sister of Jackson
- Jackson – a software engineer in the Bethesda area, son of Jessica and Jamie, and brother of Sophia
- Jennifer – a respiratory therapist from Montana and relative of Doreen’s
- Molly – daughter of Jennifer and a paramedic and firefighter, lives in Montana.
And a few words about us:
- Joyce – college friend of Doreen’s, retired school psychologist, lives in WV but has a boat in Knoxville, TN
- Gayle – Joyce’s sister, retired computer programmer and web developer, obsessive gardener, lives in MD
- Pete – Gayle’s husband, retired wildlife biologist, avid hunter and fisherman. Perceived elder of the group and called Papa by many natives. Also called Uncle Pete by Molly.
