This morning we wake up and get ready, today we want to visit the city of Arusha in Tanzania; it is not a city that offers particular attractions, but it is still interesting to spend a day before leaving for the safari, or once back, before returning home.

From here all the Northern Circuit safaris leave, so it is often a must for travelers; it has a temperate climate all year round, thanks to its 1,350 meters of altitude, and offers good facilities and excellent restaurants, as well as some places of interest and lots of greenery.

First, we take a tour of the area where the clock tower is located, here you will also find one of Arusha's historic hotels, the Arusha Hotel; in the past we stayed here and we can say that it is very nice, even if a little outdated, it also has a beautiful garden with the pool.

This is the area where there are several restaurants and cafes both European and Tanzanian and Asian, a bit for all tastes in fact.

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Not far from here is the Masai Market, here are many shops and stalls selling statues, masks, paintings, jewelry, accessories, bags and many other things; you can find everything and it's a good place to shop to bring home some gifts.

Then we go for a ride in one of the markets, in the city there is more than one; the city of Arusha has many inhabitants and a market only obviously would not be enough.

Usually the markets are divided into zones, based on the products that are sold, and cover a very large area.

One of my favorite areas is where fruit and vegetables are sold, often a seller sells one or two types of products, probably the fruits of his own harvest; although the goods are placed on the ground on top of sheets in the dust, they are placed in an orderly and precise manner, I love taking pictures here.

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There is also the butchers' area and where they sell other products such as bakery products; finally there is a large area where clothes and shoes can be found, where there are many counterfeit clothes and where you can see how much Tanzanians love football, especially the English one, there are in fact entire stalls of soccer shoes and Premier League T-shirts.

Another interesting market to visit is located near the bus station, but it is not very different from the one we visited this time.

In Arusha, as in other parts of Tanzania, they grow coffee and, in some parts of the city, plantations can be seen; here they collect the coffee berries by hand, choosing them one by one, so to catch them when they are ripe at the right point.

The city is cut in two by the main road that connects it to Moshi, another Tanzanian town, from where they organize trekking on the Kilimanjaro, and to Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, that is only five hours drive from Arusha.

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Along the main road there are shops, restaurants and businesses; there are several petrol stations, tire shops and mechanics, but also other types of shops.

Today at lunch we ate in a restaurant, that serves African food, that is located right on the main road, it has a nice quiet and cool indoor garden; there are only locals and we really like to experience places that are frequented by the locals because the feeling is to live an authentic experience.

They bring us the bananas cooked on the grill, the ugali, that is white corn polenta, the sukuma wiki, that are similar to spinach but a bit more bitter, baked chicken, some lightly spiced vegetables and chapati and, of course, they do not bring the cutlery, because in Africa they use their hands to eat: they take a bit of ugali or chapati and with that one collects the food.

Although Arusha does not have much to offer, it is still interesting to spend some time, even just to buy some craft items and also to realize how the locals live.

You can visit the Tanzanite Experience, a shop that sells the tanzanite and has also set up a small museum; this marvelous stone is extracted exclusively in Tanzania, precisely in the area of ​​Mount Kilimanjaro, it can be interesting to take a ride here and see the museum and, why not, buy this stone, that is rarer than diamonds.

Another place that we went to visit, and that is located a little out of town, is the Meserani Snake Park, this is a small centre where there are several reptiles, especially snakes, that can be found in Tanzania; since it is not so easy to sight them during the safari, we have come here to see them, even if, observing them in a shrine, it is not exactly the same thing.

tanzania arusha exploringafrica safariadv