Dar es Salaam / Travel to Arusha – Tanzania

Dar es Salaam was the fifth stop of “Reviravolta ao Mundo”. The capital of Tanzania is Dodoma, but the most important city in the country is Dar es Salaam (better known only as Dar) and it is there the largest international airport in Tanzania. Even being international, looks more like a small airport. We did not want to stay in Dar because we knew we had nothing to do, but in Tanzania things are not easy. Our destination was Arusha (one of the city base for safaris), which is 625 km from Dar, but in Tanzania the coaches do not circulate at night. So the coaches leaving from Dar to Arusha leave early in the morning and reach Arusha at the end of the day / early evening. Our flight arrived in Dar at 9:45 a.m. in the morning, so as much as we ran, we couldn’t arrive at the coach station in time to catch the last coach to Arusha which is at 10:00 am. The lost day in Dar would be inevitable. We profited of this day to buy a few things missing to the safari, some things to eat while traveling and getting used to the country and people. Our coach to Arusha was at 7:00 a.m. in the morning, but the hotel staff recommend us to go earlier to avoid possible traffic jam and we arrived at the coach station at 5:30 a.m.. After some waiting time, our coach arrived and to our surprise the bus had air conditioning and was manufactured by Marcopolo (a Brazilian company of coach bodywork). The trip started out quiet and the coach with few passengers, but we soon realized why. In the first kilometres the coach looked like a circular coach and every 5 minutes he stopped to catch someone. Every stop was the same, a lot of people selling everything (drinks, mango, tomatoes, nuts, etc.). When they saw that we were foreigners, they lined up in the window. After the first time the coach stopped to pick up people, but then with the traffic and the two-way road with many trucks it became very difficult for the coach to ride. Result of all this, we took 2h30 to do 60 km. Ok.... We had still 565km. After the initial 60 km much delay, finally the coach took another road and started going. 3h30 of travel, time of the stop for the bathroom because there was no toilets in the coach and then, more sellers ... 5h30 of travel, stop for lunch. The place where the coach stopped was not bad and even ate a chicken with fries. 8 hours travel, the coach suddenly stops to the roadside (the road had no shoulder) and some people get out. When we realise, it was an impromptu stop for go to the toilet. 8h30 travel, theoretically it was almost time to arrive (we were told that the trip would take 9 hours), but when we look at the GPS we’re 200 km far from the destination. 10h30 travel and still 100 km to go. 11h30 trip and there were still 30 km and the bus stopped everywhere again. Finally after 12h30 the coach arrived to the last stop in Arusha. Surely those were the longest 625 Km we did, but it was an interesting experience. Below, some photos we took during the trip:

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