Birthday Weekend in Zanzibar

For my birthday this year, Lucy surprised me with planning a trip to Zanzibar to go swimming with giant sea turtles at the Chumbe Island Coral Park off the western coast of the island.  I returned from the field early Friday morning 28 January, had a few meetings in the office, and picked up Lucy to get on the last ferry of the day to Zanzibar (4pm).

We arrived in Stone Town around 6pm to make the sunset at the Africa House Hotel.

Kilimanjaro Half Marathon

After a few weeks of training (Lucy) and trying not to be hobbled by said training (Jon), Lucy and I are running the Kilimanjaro Half Marathon this weekend.  Lucy is in prime shape and ready to tackle part of the highest mountain in Africa (from base to peak, Kilimanjaro is actually the highest mountain in the world).  I hope to survive 21.1km (half uphill, half downhill) starting at an elevation around 3,500 feet.  We have to finish in the first 1,650 to receive medals and t-shirts so we have a goal.  This video pretty much sums it up.



We fly to Kilimanjaro Airport on Friday night and plan to go on a safari in Arusha National Park on Saturday.  The race begins at 7am Sunday morning (10pm Saturday night, CST) at the stadium in Moshi, home of this  business.

We fly back to Dar on Sunday afternoon.

Wish us luck!