Arusha - Arusha Coffee Lodge & Arusha National Park

Arusha is at the foot of Mount Meru and is known as the safari capital of northern Tanzania.  We stayed for 3 nights at the beautiful Elewana Arusha Coffee Lodge which is located in the middle of a verdant coffee plantation.  On our 1st day we recuperated from jet lag and we were entertained by the numerous black faced monkeys that were on the roof of our chalet.  The next day was my birthday, when we experienced our 1st game drive in  Arusha National Park.   There were a number of "firsts" on this game drive.  About a couple of hours in, while stopped to take photos, a rambunctious baboon jumped onto the hood of our jeep and then jumped right in between Diane and me.  We were so shocked and scared!!   Luckily he was looking for food, which there was none, and he jumped out after being yelled by our guide.  That's him looking smug sitting on a rock right outside our jeep (3rd last pic).  Our guide, who has been doing this for 13 years,  said this had never happened to him.  Our subsequent guides echoed the same thing.  We then spotted the only albino baboon  in the 300 square kilometer park.  It was our guide's first sighting of him too.  Finally we were able to photograph the elusive black and white colobus monkey. We lunched looking at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro.  It was an awesome day.

Then to top off a perfect birthday, the hotel staff (arranged by our butler Denis) came to our dinner table singing and dancing with a birthday cake.  Very special.