Day 8, Sept 26, 2010

After breakfast, we were treated to a song and dance routine by our guides, cooks, and porters. It was obviously geared to our group and mentioned each person by name, but it was in Swahili so who knows what they were saying about us. Joe recorded it all on his iPhone.

The itinerary called for a 3 hour hike through scenic forest to get to the gate and the bus back to the hotel. But descending almost 7000 feet on steep steps just like yesterday actually took me more like 5 hours (everybody else ran on ahead and Johnny walked with me, "pole, pole"). I was already sore and not moving too well; I had expected the going down to be hard, but this was pretty awful (and this lactic acid took another two days to clear!). But I did finally get to see blue monkeys!

At the hotel, we met with Johnny who gave us our certificates and we gave him the tip money to distribute. Some folks had told us not to trust the head guide to give out the money judiciously, and others said who would know better who deserved what? And someone said if the guide is fair, he'll have a consistent group of porters working with him. Which Johnny did, so we trusted him.

END OF STORY!! And thanks for following along.

Pics: (1) Porters led in song and dance by Johnny (2) Johnny (3) For Papa Joe (4) Blue monkey (5) The smelly bunch getting the certificates