Day 3—Safari Day One (5/23)
We left the hotel at 7am for the safari at Mikumi National Park, which was about 3-4 hours away from Dar Es Salaam. We stopped for breakfast at a hotel about halfway there and had chapattis, chicken, and juice. There were random speed bumps along the way in order for people to not drive really fast seeing as there are no stop lights or stop signs here. As we got closer to the motel, we saw giraffes, elephants, and baboons. We stayed at Genesis Motel which was also a snake park. At the snake park, some of us were brave enough to hold a snake. At 3pm, we left for the safari. Some of us were in a van and the rest sat in an open jeep/range rover. We drove around the park and saw a lot of cool animals such as giraffes, elephants, elands, impalas, hippos, zebras, and a crocodile. We actually got close to some of the animals. We went around the park for a couple of hours, until it got dark. The sunset was amazing! We drove back to the motel and had dinner. Some of us tried grilled goat meat with ugali, rice, or chapatti. Afterwards, we played Apples to Apples and then went to sleep.