How to Blend Friend Groups (Lessons from Arusha)

I can still see it- in Addis, running on the three hours of sleep I managed to snag on the flight, and wondering if I have enough activities to keep myself busy till I catch my flight six hours later.

Then, I had the idea to take this trip with my mom and niece. This was back in March and I immediately texted this to Dorothy. Then little by little I got buy in(I know, it’s holiday season Felistus, drop the corporate) from my other travel mates June, Gleris and Sarah and from 19th to 22nd December we went to Arusha.

Transport:

To get to Arusha we used Tahmeed bus services- we paid 2500 for the trip from Nairobi to Arusha and 4000 for the trip for Arusha to Nairobi- downside of traveling during the high season. During other non-peak times you would pay 5000 Kenyan shillings both ways.ie. 2500 each way.

For those that live in Kitengela, you can opt to be picked up at Kitengela mall and save yourself the trip to town.

Accomodation For our accommodation, we spent zero on this as our amazing accommodation finder Sarah found us free hosting on couch surfing.

For those that have read my previous articles this is nothing new. For those that are new, couchsurfing is an app which allows you to connect with hosts from all over the world who then host you for free in their home.

PS: You can also choose to host people in your own home and sort of pay it forward and get to meet amazing people that way.

The annual subscription fee is about 60 dirhams(about 15 euros)per year and just like that, you will have access to people from all over the world that will host you for free when you travel. The more people that host you and give you good recommendations then the higher your chances of getting a host but this is not the article for that so let’s get back to Arusha, shall we?

Activities and Costs:

We had two and a half days to explore.

On the first day post napping a little (the buses leave at 4:30 am and get to Arusha at about 10am), we went to the Cultural heritage village and explored all the amazing art there.

This experience was free of charge and the place is quite huge. I mean four floors full of art by artists from all over Africa- bliss! Who knows, you just might snag a beautiful piece of art for yourself. Overall, I recommend this activity.

Chemka Springs

To get to Chemka, we took buses to Moshi and dropped off at Boma. This cost us 4000 Tzsh each.

Drop off at the bus stop in Boma. You will then find tuk-tuks(or bajaji as they are referred to in Tanzania) to Chemka. We took a tuk-tuk that cost us 30,000 Tzsh for the entire tuk-tuk. The tuk-tuk will take you and wait for you in Chemka until you’re done.

Some go for 25,000 Tzsh. Now before you get excited with the lower price, be sure to agree with them on the timing as we got to Chemka and the driver turned on us and said that 25,000 is only for two hours. We eventually managed to bargain for 30,000 for the 4 hours we wanted to stay there for because I assure you that 2 hours is just not enough for this beautiful place.

The entrance for Chemka was 30,000 Tzsh for internationals(East Africans included) and 15,000 for kids. For those that don’t know how to swim, you can hire a floater for 10,000 Tzsh for the whole day. You can also get a guide to take you to the end of the spring as the current can be a little strong. We got a guide for 60,000 Tzsh- that we were able to split the costs being in a group made it not so steep a price to pay. Our guide took such quality pictures that I would say it was absolutely worth it!! Make sure to go on the swing and dive into the water. We all had a few tries on this (some more than others; hello Gleris!) and absolutely loved it!

Lake Duluti

Our host lived along the highway so this journey was a relatively simple one. We got a daladala(this is what they call a 14-seater in Tanzania), for 700 Tzsh each and asked to be dropped off at Duluti.

Once you’re dropped off you will walk about 3kms to get to the lake.

Here there are multiple entrances but the entrance we found with more activities and a restaurant to sit and relax at was the last entrance so walk past the first two entrances you find- or walk in, they do say to f**k around and find out for a reason.

Anyway, at Duluti we went on the canoe for about an hour and this cost us 25,000Tzsh each. My niece who is 8 was not charged for this experience.

You can also take the walk around the lake for 5000Tzsh each.

We left Nairobi on Friday morning and were back on Monday night. Four days and three nights and memories for a lifetime.

Now about the friend group mixing: I’ll admit, I had a hunch this friend-group blend would work: I genuinely love spending time with each of them, and somehow, they all seem to enjoy my chaos too. Turns out, that’s all the chemistry you need for a trip that feels like magic.

See you on the next adventure dear reader 😊