Day 23: Dar Es Salaam (January 30, 2011)

Today wasn't that great, but the city was better than I expected after my initial impression (so far, at least, the day is not over).  Abdul and I walked to the National Museum, which is mostly a natural history and anthropology museum.  If you didn't know, Tanzania is the site of many/most of the earliest human ancestor remains.  As in, millions of years old.  The museum was a bit "small town" but it was worth our time.  And the country is quite proud of having so many ancient bones -- human, animal, even dinosaur.  It made me sigh a little, knowing a country that's supposedly not as developed as the US understands and fully embraces concepts like, you know... evolution, and half of the people in the US do not. 

The city is not all as crappy as the area around our hotel.  I'm not sure why our neighborhood is so shady.  It's home to several hotels, so you'd think it would nicer than the surrounding areas.  But many of the streets a little farther away are wide and tree-lined, without the shifty folk hanging around. 

Go Buckeyes!

We wandered down to the Fish Market on the coast, too.  It didn't impress me so much after seeing the fish markets in Ghana, but it was still pretty big and impressive.  Think West Side Market, only all fish and not particularly sanitary.

I've paid for only one hour of time here and I need to finish learning about Sri Lanka, which is where I'm heading in two days.  I'll upload a couple of photos from today soon.  Not that they're all that interesting, especially after the safari photos.  [Updated:  Uploaded!  But a letdown.]