Machame village

On one saturday I and some other volunteers went on a one day walking safari in Machame village at the base of Kilimanjaro. During the day we saw waterfalls, a cave, a traditional Chagga house (Chagga is one of the local tribes) and a coffee farm and had a taste of the traditional Chagga banana beer. At some point of the trek we were lucky to hear distant but powerful drumming in the jungle. When I asked about that from our guide, he told that it is the local hunter messaging to the people living in the area that he's got some meat to sell now. Isn't that the coolest thing ever?!


This is the minibus (much like the local daladalas) we travelled with to the starting point of the trek.

The sign, just to prove to you where I was. ;)

This is where we started to walk.

A banana tree. Every day is a "banana day" here.

See: we really were walking in the village! We saw so many locals doing their daily tasks...

The waterfalls:

Our guide in a cave, where local women and children used to hide during the wars.

The view from the cave.

Just a house.

The road - this actually lookes quite good compared to how it was after the rain surprised us. You have to be an African driver to be able to get a minibus full of people alive back from the mountain: the road was so slippery because of the rain that at one point the bus was sliding sideways towards the edge of the road and starting to fall on its side at the same time becauseof the deep bumps on the road. Are you wondering what was next to the edge? Tens of meters of a drop down. Yep. At least there was no lack of excitement!

The Chagga house.


Their cows.

Their fish pool.

The bowl where the coffee beans are smashed up.

A local woman, another volunteer and I smashing up the coffee beans.

Our guide straining the smashed up beans.

The owner of the Chagga house/coffee farm roasting the coffee beans.

This is where we then had a taste of the freshly made coffee.

Then we got to taste honey straight from the wasp nest.

This is what the babana beer looked like.

Me having the banana beer. As I was the oldest person in the group, I had to be the first one to drink from the horn. Yes, I know that I don't look particularly attractive in the picture. Despite of the drunken look in my eyes, I did not empty the whole horn - I only had one zip! ;)