Dora Machado

A huge shout out to all of the great moms out there, including a very special mom…mine!

Thank you for stopping by my blog. If you follow me, you know it’s been quiet in here. That’s because I’m super busy, writing.  Writing is a silent pursuit. The louder the silence, the more intense the author is at work. I’m working hard on my next installment, and I find it really hard to interrupt my creative process. But more is coming. I promise.

Meanwhile, I’d like to thank all of you who’ve made The Curse Giver such an astounding success. With over 170 awesome reviews on Amazon, I couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you so much for choosing to read and review my novels. I really appreciate your support.

Best wishes for a happy holiday!

D.

My trip to Africa was AMAZING. True, it’s a long trek halfway across the world, and air travel is not getting any easier, but once we hit the ground, the sacrifices to get there were worth it. We landed in Arusha and, over the course of several days, travelled overland to Arusha National Park, the fabled Ngorongoro Crater and the legendary Serengeti. From the Serengeti, we flew east across Tanzania to the island of Zanzibar, where we stayed for a couple of days before we returned to the continent, to Saadani National Park. From Saadani we drove to Dar es Salaam right before we flew back to the United States. I could write a novel about our trip, and maybe someday, I will. But today, I’ll just share the highlights and some of my favorite photos.

 
Tanzania is an incredible destination, and our itinerary ensured that we were exposed to the best wildlife viewing a safari can offer, along with an excellent snapshot of the culture and history of this beautiful country. We usually prefer to travel on our own but, for this trip, we chose to travel with Smithsonian Journeys. It was the best choice we could’ve made and it provided us with comfortable transportation that took away the logistical headaches involved with complex traveling and freed us to enjoy our trip.

 
All of the lodges and hotels we stayed in were full of character and especially well located to our activities. The food during the entire trip was excellent. The Serena lodges at Ngorongoro and Serengeti offered breathtaking views of the crater and the plains respectively. The African Tulip in Arusha and the Serena at Zanzibar were particularly responsive to our needs, with very personable staff. The Saadani River Lodge offered stunning accommodations right on the Wami River and exquisitely trained and friendly staff.

 
Special thanks and kudos to the drivers who navigated us through the bumpy roads on the Ngonogoro Crater and the Serengeti, especially to Mr. Godson, who drove the Land Rover I rode in. A loud shout out to our tour director, Malley Simon for anticipating all of our needs and taking the work out of traveling. Our study leader, Grant Nels enriched our traveling experience, sharing a wealth of knowledge and a gift for story-telling that infused us with his passion for Africa and left us wanting for more. I can’t imagine what it’s like to travel with someone as curious as I am, firing questions all the time—annoying, right?—but Grant was generous, sharing his extensive, impressive knowledge with us and answering my millions of questions with patience, grace and enthusiasm.

If you crave the outdoors and you enjoy wildlife viewing, put Tanzania at the top of your list.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures of this amazing trip:

Baby elephant at the Ngorongoro Crater

Giraffes at Arusha National Park, amazing how they blend into the hill!

Cheetah on the prowl at the Serengeti.

A majestic Baobab at Saadani National Park.

A mirage of giraffes on the way to the Serengeti.

Cape Buffalo drinking water from our hotel’s pool.

Hippo in the water at the Ngorongoro Crater.

Jaguar stretching after a nap at the Serengeti.

Lion, king of the crater.

Lion, sleeping in the crater. Yep, that’s what lions really do all day.

Lioness, eyeing dinner at the crater.

Massai Boma on the way to the Serengeti.

Garden of Eden at the crater.

My Massai friends and I.

Fiery sunset over the Serengeti.

All my bags and packed and I’m ready to go. Remember that old song? Well, that’s me at the moment, except we’re only talking about one very small bag, a twenty-five pound duffle to be precise, a challenge for a gal who likes to travel with a five-pound hair dryer. The hair dryer is staying home, but the laptop is coming, so there might be an occasional post/picture/update on FB or Twitter, should I find reliable Internet along the way.

 
We leave tomorrow for Tanzania, where we’ll be visiting the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Olduvai Gorge, Saadani, and Zanzibar, all places that figure high on my bucket list. I’m looking forward to exploring the legendary “cradle of mankind” and learning more about the people of Tanzania, said to be warm, hospitable, kind and gracious, including the Maasai people, a culture that has always fascinated me.

 
I’m especially excited about experiencing the wildlife of Tanzania’s most famous national parks and getting to see these magnificent animals in their natural habitats. If we get lucky, we might even get to see some of the wildebeest migration. I hope I get some great pictures to share with all of you. I’m going to Africa with a sense of wonderment and an open heart. I feel so lucky that I finally get to explore this part of the world. And if along the way I get a few moments to refresh my Hemingway under the shade of Kilimanjaro, well, that would just be another dream come true.

 
Wish me luck!

D.