sistaweotch's PhotoBlog

The New Hotness.

2009-09-13T00:31:40Z

Dario's new haircut and new duds. Omg, the hotness!

Stromboli.

2009-09-13T00:17:38Z

Took a trip to Stromboli in July, but didn't bring the good camera. Finally went back and had dinner at the observatory again. Great show!

Mom in Rome.

2009-07-03T10:09:25Z

Cell phone pic from Venice.

2009-06-13T13:15:02Z

Dario was in the bar chatting with Allessandro and grabbing a sammich. So I snapped a cell phone pic of my tired, sweaty self to send to my friends. ;)

Snow. :)

2009-02-24T23:42:17Z

A nice Sunday drive to the mountains with Dario. We went in search of snow. We found it. :) I hadn't really planned on taking my camera that day, as I just wanted to have a relaxing, no-responsibilities sort of day. I had my little camera with me, though, so eventually -- and inevitably -- the pictures started. Many of them are drive-by, car photos and not up to the usual Canon quality. But today is just for storytelling, not as much for art. Cheers! :)

Onward to Unguja! (9 Jan.)

2009-04-25T18:55:07Z

Adios to Moshi and Kilimanjaro. Hello to Zanzibar! We arrived at the Ras Michamvi Resort to relax for a few days and do some Zanzibar touristy stuff. Sooo beautiful. Wow. The first half of the pictures was taken with one of the little point and shoot cameras. The second half was with the Canon. Enjoy!

Dario at the doc, dinner in Moshi, Amani kids (5, 7, 8 Jan.)

2009-04-25T15:52:22Z

Alas for poor Dario and his daring eating habits, he ended up with food poisoning. I got some, too, but he got it really badly. Like waking up at 3 am with fever and shakes badly. We were so freaked out, as he had all the same symptoms of malaria and we had been in Tanzania just long enough to have possibly contracted it. We went and got the Masaai guards at the hotel who, in turn, got the manager, who tried to contact someone at the clinic in town. We ended up going back to bed until 6 am-ish, with wet towels and much water to drink to keep Dario from boiling off into a little cloud of steam. At that hour, we got up, met with Fabian, and went to the clinic. It was closed, but one of the night workers got in the car with us and showed us the way to the doctor's house. Turns out "Dr. Frank" is an American who came to Tanzania 7 years ago and fell in love with the country. He came out of the house sipping coffee, spoke to me and Dario a bit, then reassured us that even if it *was* malaria -- which he doubted -- that waiting 2 more hours would be ok. He didn't want us to feel like he was blowing us off, but the lab techs would not be in until around 8 and they were necessary to properly complete the tests. After "...[dropping] off this security Maasai," as Fabian called him, we went back to the hotel for a bit, then back to the clinic later. Then tests, some of which I'm sure were humiliating, a very short waiting period, and WHEW! Food poisoning, not malaria! So we got some drugs and headed back to the hotel. Again. Dario looks pretty chipper for a guy who spent the night flailing and sweating, no? Well, it was the one time in the day where he did. On the way back to Moshi, he looked like pale, yellow death. I was quite worried about him. But we made it back to Moshi, and collapsed into the hotel room. Sean continued on to Kilimanjaro the next day, we stayed in the room. (No pics from that day!) Dario started to come around the next day. We hung out in Moshi for a few days and managed to convince the tour company to transmute our payment into a flight to Unguja (Zanzibar), a few days in a hotel, and some local tours. Later we heard tales of a few people dying on the mountain, including a porter or 2, and felt we'd gotten off easy with a small dose of food poisoning. ___________________________________________ On the 7th of January, we ventured out into town to try some non-hotel food. We found an Austrian(!) restaurant there, if you can believe it. (Thank you Bradt Safari Guide!) The food was vaguely Austrian with Tanzanian flavors. Still, a nice change from hotel and safari food. ___________________________________________ The next day we headed out into town twice -- once to go to DHL and see how much it would be to ship our bags of unused winter gear back to Italy (too much!) and once to have lunch. The restaurant was called -- get this -- Indo Italiano Restaurant. HAHAHAHA! I kept telling Dario he should get pizza, but for some reason he declined. I don't know why a Neapolitan wouldn't want to see how people around the globe have destroyed your native dish. Pfft! Guess Americans aren't the only snobbish travelers! After lunch we found a taxi that helped us find the Amani Children's Home, a really nice place for homeless kids around Moshi. I'd first heard of them when I was searching on iTunes and CD Baby for some theme music for the trip. CD Baby had a CD called Amani - Songs of Peace for the Children of Kilimanjaro. I bought it and, a few weeks later, received a thank you note from the organization and a hand drawn picture from one of the kids. *tears in eyes* Awww... And I was just looking for music! Anyway, we found the place with the taxi driver's help, met Joe, an American guy who does the marketing for the group, and met some of the kids. Wow, nice place! Oh, and we gave them the pack of kazoos and some of the candy we'd bought for the climb. Remember the 'playing kazoos on Kilimanjaro' idea? Yeah, didn't work out the way we thought, but Joe assured us they'd be put to good use. ;) We did a quick bit of shopping, then headed back to the hotel to spend time with our pet gecko.

Ngorongoro Crater (Part 2).

2009-03-07T20:09:43Z

More Ngorngoro MAAAADNESS! There will be more Ngorongoro pictures soon. For now, I must sleep. Cheers!

Ngorongoro Crater (Part 1).

2009-03-07T15:27:33Z

(To make sure we're trackin', this was actually the 4th of January.) After waking up at Ikoma Wildcamp on the far side of the Serengeti, we did an express trip through the park on our way to Ngorongoro Crater. The official schedule had us doing another half day on the Serengeti and the crater on the following day. This schedule, however, only allowed a half day in the crater and we wanted to be there for longer, having heard how wonderful it is. We were pretty satisfied with our Serengeti experience and were willing to forgo a brief morning trip if it meant quality time elsewhere. Andy, our Swiss safari partner (sigh. long story -- nice guy, but not really happy about the tour company pressuring us to take an extra passenger) had rejoined us the previous day. He had put in a special request for "real African" food the night before. Sean and I were pretty full on snacks by the time dinner arrived, so we only ate a little. Dario and Andy, however, tucked in and ended up cleaning their plates. Silly us! We thought a bunch of wazungu would be able to handle African food. D'oh! Half way through our crater excursion Andy politely but urgently requested a trip to a restroom. Aww, poor Andy, we thought, part of his lunch disagreed with him. It wasn't until later that night -- say 3 a.m. or so -- that Dario found out he was likewise afflicted. (I would call it Montezuma's Revenge if we were in Mexico; not sure whose revenge it would be in Tanzania.) Sean and I got milder cases that didn't show up until later. But more on the drama, if not the gorey details, later. For now, enjoy the pics of the crater! Btw, now when I play World of Warcraft and visit Un'goro Crater I can laugh with scorn. "Ha, I say, HA! The real crater looks nothing like this!" More pics from today now showing on the next page! -->

Serengeti Day 2 (Part 3)

2009-02-14T21:22:26Z

This set is a all about lions. There are some other beautiful critters, of course, but the lions are the stars. Wow. So much beauty it's hard to take it all in!