This past week I travelled to Lushoto, which was very beautiful. I continue to have a bit of bad luck with travelling though. The guide I hired tried to take a shortcut through the rainforest because we had walked 36 km (~22 miles) the day before. He ended up getting lost and we found ourselves in very thick forest where I fell and twisted my knee a bit, then had to hike out about 10 km because there weren't any roads any closer than that. I decided to forego other hiking plans for a bit after that and I think I'll plan beach vacations until after I complete my climbs of Mt. Meru and Mt. Kilimanjaro. Hiking 36 km through the mountains again would probably kill any desire I had to climb anything.

Rainforests aren't quite as exciting as I had expected. Of course, I expected technicolor flowers and monkeys 10 feet away, which wasn't exactly realistic. In fact they're pretty much just like other forests, but the surrounding mountains were beautiful and the people were very kind and friendly. I also learned that it was easy to make friends with local kids by taking their photo and showing them the results, which was really fun.

The next things on the agenda are starting work in the hospital on Monday, making a reference book for local drug shopkeepers, and a bike trip though the Ngorongoro Conservation Area up to Lake Natron, which promises to be incredible, if for no other reason than I'll get to spend almost a week on my new bike, which is super sweet and came with an awesome bell that will be returning with me. I'm hoping at the end of October, beginning of November to head to Mt. Meru, then to Pangani to lay on the beach. The photos are from my travels this past weekend.