We got up, had breakfast, and then it was time to move on to the second coffee plantation. We were supposed to stay at the first one for three nights (plus the one 3am arrival night). But the travel agency screwed up and we suspect didn’t actually book the hotel correctly originally. So they were forced to upgrade us. We were none to happy about having to move hotels as the whole notion was to chill and relax the first few days while we are travel comatose. But in the end, this was probably a happy accident as the second hotel was a significant upgrade. Our room is really a house with a living room and giant bedroom, with space for two desks.
Shabani, our guide in Tanzania, gave us a briefing on what we would see along the way for the next 12 days. He was also ecstatic that the airport had called him to report that Melissa’s missing bag was on the way.
Shabani also claimed that we should stop taking our malaria medications. He said that there was no malaria here and that the medications have side effects. Melissa did a bit of research following the conversation. Turns out, that while Tanzania’s second leading cause of death is Malaria, there are places in the country where progress has been made (thank you Bill and Melinda Gates foundation). In the local town we are in, the incidence of Malaria is way down, and we might have been comfortable stopping our malaria medication. Alas, where we are headed to the Serengeti, this is not the case. Dave has experienced some of the side effects – in particular dizziness. But after careful consideration, we decided to stay the course and continue to take the malaria medications despite the possible downsides as malaria can be deadly.
The staff here at Legendary Lodge is amazing. The service might be the best we have ever seen in our lives. After dinner, we had a half bottle of white and half bottle of red wine left over. The waiter put it all on a silver tray with a bucket of ice for the white wine and carried it to our room.