Africa!!!

29 hours after I checked out of my hotel in Cambodia, I checked into
my hotel in Kili. I ran into a few delays, a very uncomfortable flight
from Bangkok, and an unscheduled (at least to my knowledge) stop in
Kenya, but I made it in one piece. It was all worth it when I looked
out of the airplane window at 20,000 feet up (and 10,000 feet above
the cloud level) and was looking straight onto the summit of
Kilimanjaro. Suddenly, the exhaustion of nearly 40 hours without sleep
vanished and excitement set in.

After the sketchiest encounter getting a visa at customs ($100 for a
stamp and no receipt) our guide, Pasian, picked me up. I am currently
at the hotel (just took my last shower for the next week) and am
waiting for Sam and Jared who should be here shortly.

We start the climb tomorrow and are taking the popular Machame route
to the summit. This trek is usually done in 5 to 7 days with most
people opting for the average of 6. We were initially going to do 6,
but last minute changed to 7 after reading numerous horror stories of
altitude sickness that my Stanford friends (who are climbing next week)
passed on. Since my unwillingness to be vomiting on the side of the
mountain is about on par with my unwillingness to run into a poisonous
snake, I figured the extra day to hopefully take altitude sickness out
of the equation was worth it.

Our crew includes the three of us, a main guide, an assistant guide, acook, and 10 portors to carry all of the supples. With park fees atjust over $100 a day it is easy to see how the cost adds up.

I'msoexcited!!!Andthespacebarsuddenlystoppedworkingonthiscomputer...