The Chemka hotsprings

First of all, I was very busy with school this week. Normally, when you do you internship in Holland, you go one da per week to school. We dont do that here, we’re going to our internship for 5 days. So we had to catch up a little.

Friday we’d been here, in Tanzania for 2 weeks! Times flies, it really does. But on the other hand, it feels like I haven’t seen all of you for ages. Now when we have finnised our first two weeks, Nadine and I also finished our first part of the internship, the maternity ward. Next week we will go the pediatrics in and out patient. But what that means, what they do there and what we are going to do will you here next week.

First I’m going to tell you something about yesterday… Yesterday we went to one of the most beautifull places I’ve ever been: The Chemka Hotsprings. This beautiful mineral spring originates from Kilimanjaro ground waters.

The Chemka Hot Springs are about 40 kilometers away from Moshi, in a small village called Chemka. They are underground springs with warm water. The water forms a clear pond which is ideal for swimming (that was what we were looking for). The pond is very deep, in some places up to 10 meters, but the water is so clear that you can see the bottom well all the time, especially when the sun is shining. The pond is situated under lush trees. On the shore you can camp, enjoy your snacks and let yourself dry after swimming under the trees. We were there on Friday so it wasn’t busy at all!

The drive to the hotsprings was almost as extraordinary as the place itself! You can go there with a gide who tells you stuff about the places, brings food, water and picks you up at arusha and brings you home. This costs about 30 dollars so we thought: ‘’nweh’’. As I told you before, we are tourist here, but also we’re not. Now that we know so much lokal people we also know a lot more about the neighbourhoud.
Such as public transport… well, public it is and it is but it’s a little different than the train to your boyfriend in another city of holland, let me tell you about our adventure.

First we took the daladala, then the motercycle, the same as to the hospital. From here on we needed to take some langer daladala, you just have to scream at them where you want to go and hope one of them stops. Then we needed to bargain because we hearded what the regular price was from someone who lived here. This al went very good! Than some man entered… with chickens… who were alive and tighed up! First they were quite but whan the man came to sit next to Nadine the chickens starten moving all around and cackle so loud! So all of us (Nadine, I and the other girls, not the local people) starten screaming and laughing because we where completely in shock. Luckly the man laughed with us and we had a little talk. Then when he left another man (and almost 30 other people so it was nice warm and cosy…) entered the bus, this time not with chickens, no with sheeps! First they tried to put the sheeps in the bus, but the bus was so full so the sheeps went to te rear seat! The whole time they where in there you could here them walking around with there little feet and here them had a nice talk with each other.

After the animal parade was over we needed to get of the bus sometime, but when? We had no idea, we where suppose to get out at a busy place with many tuktuks called: ‘’booma’’. But here there aren’t bus stops or trafic signs as with us. So we had t ask people and gable where we we’re. Quit funny it was but when we finnaly got to Booma we where very happy that we got out at the right stop.

From Booma with the tuktuk to the hotsprings, this was an amazing experiance. You drive trough an very dusty, dry and bare area. And then suddenly they stop, we thought okay and were are we… but then you have to climb under a tree and there it is! So beautifull, the water really was cristal clear, it was Friday, so not many people and a lot of beautifull birds and little fish. Those fish are the same as the ones who nibble at our feet in tourist cities in spain.
First, everyone went for a swim, there was this swing you could swing yourself into the water with (I loved it). And everyone had a really nice time. Then we ate a local lunch; pilau, this is rice with all kind of spices trought it, really a must.

On the way back we almost had a fight with are tuktuk guy... They’re supposed to wait untill your finised with the swim and then bring you back, you pay them afterwards so they really have to wait and most of the time they also go for a swim.

When you got off the daladala at Booma almost 20 tuktuk guys run at you trying to get you in your tuktuk. We said that one of us would do the bargainig and make the appointments cristel clear, Mellany did this for our group and it went very smooth. But when we were swimming our guys wanted to leave early and they almost did! When we were changed we only saw one of the two tuktuks but to out luck they were just driving around with the other one. So we got in the tuktuk and 3 hours back…
You may think 3 HOURS but the nature was so beautilfull adn you see so many things that it are 3 great hours.
But our tuktuk guy drove so fast over those extreme bumby roads. You needed to hold yourself very good so you wouldn’t fall out of the tuktuk. One moment I smelled something weird, first I tought it just was the tuktuk itself but then I realized the driver was drinking! We said he couldn’t but he didn’t care that much, he asked if maybe I could drive back but I said that I really would cause some excident.

Luckely we arrived safe and sound to the daladala and after 3 hour back home, and we had an amazing day, with experinces we would never have had with a tourist guide!