Marangu Waterfalls

On Saturday, my friend Laura from high school, came down from Nairobi, where she is working in agricultural insurance with Syngenta Foundation.  We took a bus to Moshi and then a daladala to Marangu, which is a small village in the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro.  Marangu is also one of the climbing routes on the mountain, so we saw lots of climbers.  I asked our tour guide, Rogath, if he had ever climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro.  It turns out he has climbed the mountain over 40 times and set the return ascent record on the Marangu route in March 2000 (since broken) in 14 hours and 50 minutes! 

Laura and I at the Mt. Kilimanjaro National Park Marangu gate!

First, Rogath took us to the Mt. Kilimanjaro National Park gate in Marangu.  We toured some mud caves that were carved out by the Chagga tribe during colonization when the Maasai tribe came south into Tanzania from Kenya and invaded the Chagga land and steal their cattle.  The Chagga hid in the caves in the mountains until colonization ended and the tribal wars ceased.

A quick history of Tanzania’s colonization: Tanzania was a German colony from the 1880s to 1919 and then became a British colony until 1961.  In 1964, the mainland of Tanganyika and the island of Zanzibar merged to officially become Tanzania.

The caves were very dark and had many long secret tunnels with various exit points so that the Chagga could escape if the caves were invaded.

Picture above is of the lava rock deposits from Mt. Kilimanjaro in the Chagga caves.

We then started hiking through the village of Marangu, with Rogath stopping to show us various plants, such as peppermint, avocado, bananas, lemon, and many other fruits, vegetables, and herbs with medicinal uses.   Rogath brought us to the first of 2 waterfalls, where we could have swam if it was warmer and where there are sometimes cliff divers that perform for tourists (there weren’t any while we were there).  We then hiked to a second waterfall, which was much taller (about 60 meters) and very beautiful. 

After the hike, we tasted banana beer at a small restaurant.  There are 4 types of bananas in Tanzania: cooking bananas (they taste like potatoes), frying bananas (which are sweeter and bigger), eating (smaller and sweet), and bananas for banana beer.  It tasted a lot like wine, and was actually pretty tasty.  Who knew bananas had so many uses?

On the way home, the clouds cleared up and we had an awesome view of Mt. Kilimanjaro.  The weather here is usually cold, cloudy, and sometimes rainy in the mornings, warmer with some sun in the afternoon, and then clear, cool, and beautiful from 4 until it gets dark around 630 pm.  About 20 minutes from home, our bus broke down while climbing a hill.  After a few tries at restarting the engine, we got off the bus and caught a daladala back home.

Quite an adventurous and fun day!!

Word of the day: maporo moko ya maji - waterfall