In October 2011, a crew of us from my Microsoft days in Seattle, went to Africa for two weeks to visit our friends who were living in Nairobi for a year, Matt Krueger and Jessica Wang. There were three parts to the trip - climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, relaxing on the beach in Zanzibar and going on safari. This is the first batch of pictures from the that trip. I know I am so late to sharing them on here. What got me to finally post was booking tickets for my next overseas adventure, vacation in Croatia. There is so much great stuff planned for this summer, I have to get these pics out of the way so this blog can be ready for 2012 stuff.
I wish I could still remember enough to give a play by play re. climbing Kili. Its not super fresh in my memory. Fairly continuous rain made the time hiking, climbing and camping outdoors pretty miserable. Rain clouds blocked most of the great views and we were usually soaking wet and cold. Still it was a great challenge and bonding experience. The guides and porters are simply incredible. I wish they had extra ponchos for my friends who only brought rain jackets but it is hard to complain about an impoverished dude caring all your extra clothes, gear and totally unnecessary luxury items 15k feet up a mountain in flip flops.
I am glad I did it though I don't see myself going back to that part of Africa. Access to Kili is via a very poor city in Tanzania called Moshi that is not particularly pleasant to hang out in. We were stoked to get to tropical Zanzibar after a week on a muddy mountain.
