Yes, we're in Dar!

Yes, we're here in Dar Es Salam!

The flight was a bit of an ordeal, not that anyone need feel sorry for us. After all, as you can see, I got a window seat. We left Toronto at 6 pm Monday, and arrived at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam 6 and 1/2 hours later. It's a huge airport, something like O'Hare in Chicago (if anyone's been there) only better. The Rijks Museum (famous collection of old masters) keeps an exhibit there. There's also a casino and a hotel where you can rent rooms by the hour if you need to freshen up or anything.

After a three hour layover, it was 9 hours to Dar, with a stop at Kilimanjaro Airport to take on passengers and look at the full moon while we waited on the tarmac.

Dar Es Salam is like many third world cities - teeming with rich street life, down at the heels, clogged with traffic and fumes, filthy, and exotic.

We're now sitting in our hotel room sipping gin and tonics to chase away the last of our jet lag. Tonic water is full of quinine, so it will help keep the malaria at bay. It's 3 pm local time on Wednesday. We just bought our ferry tickets for Zanzibar, and we're heading there tomorrow morning. It's about 37 degrees and humid out (how tropical). We'll nap while the cool of the evening approaches, then go out for dinner.