Malawi!

So the hummus place, it turns out, no longer exists, but you'd amazed at how good a mashed-up can of chickpeas and some serious amounts of garlic powder can taste after 3 months of longing.
The train ride was a blast -it was 5 hours delayed which dragged out a bit at the end - but our cabin was relatively roomy, and triple-layer bunk beds were enough of a novelty to keep us happy for the night.
The train got in at Mbaya which is in the south of Tanzania. We found a hostel to crash in and then spent the next day hiking Mbaya peak. It took us 3 hours to reach the third fake summit (1 more fake was still aparently between us and the real one) when the whole expedition was called on account of thunder. Fabulous view though and my legs are still screaming from the exercise. We got up early the next morning and caught a bus to the boarder. It took two more buses to get us from the boarder to Kogonga and then to Livingstonia. Livingstonia is an insanely remote little village that costs a fortune to get to because the road is actually dirt trail full of potholes and ill-placed rocks that winds 16km straight up the mountain. Our cabins at 'the mushroom farm' were sitting nearly on the edge of the cliff and you could look out clear to lake malawi. The guy working at the mushroom farm is actually a McGill-alumni who was biking from Cairo to Capetown with a big group , but lost interest when he hit Malawi and is spending the next two months running a couple of the lodges in the area. So weird. Even weirder is that he's Jen's roommate's ex-boyfriend. I love that even in Africa its a small world. We stayed for 2 nights, hiked to the village and toured the museum and Livingston's church. Apparently though Livingston himself never actually made it there which was mildly dissapointing - there was however a large collection of his random personal effects, like his spoon, and the blanket from his bed. Also an cross-stitched picture that the Girl-guides of scotland apparently made for the Girl-guides of Nyasaland (pre-indepence Malawi).
Yesterday we came back down the mountain and took a bus to Mzuzu. We are staying at the Mzoozoozoo which is alot of fun and has a great book exchange. We not only met up with the other malawi group from the trip but also the cool Ottawa couple that we met in the north of Zanzibar. The night was chill because everyone was tired from travel days, but this morning there were banana pancakes with honest-to-goodness CANADIAN maple syrup. Like a little easter miracle. Happy Easter by the way!