Djibouti

September 15-22

I went on vacation with Katie Cole and Kat Whitton. We originally were to go the week of September 22-26, but plans changed and they continued to change throughout our time in Djibouti. The plan was to stay on Moucha Island, however tourist season hadn't begun and the island was closed. So upon arriving it was like 100 degrees to begin with and when we walked into the airport there was a guy checking everyone’s temperature. We didn't have a hotel reservation or anything, so we arrived at a hotel and checked in for the week. Since Moucha Island was out of the question, we looked into other tourist attractions, but they all fell through or we just decided to not go. So we found the Sheraton and Kempinski Hotels and lounged there most of the days. We also found amazing grocery stores and food. We frequented a place called “Melting Pot” which has Japanese food. I tried new food, sweated off a few pounds and got a nice tan. During the week, we spent two days at the pool at Kempinski. There was a swim up bar in the pool, which was nice. Everything seemed to be closed between noon and four, the hottest part of the day, so on some days we would stay in our hotel and watch movies. The views were beautiful. The harassment was very little, very different than Ethiopia. On Saturday night we attended an American Party at the Kempinski, where we met a few American contractors working on the military base. Overall vacation was amazing! I would love to go back during tourist season and visit some of the islands and swim in the gulf, I hear there is great snorkeling and swimming with whales. *I wish I could explain how beautiful it was, but I’ll add photos to help with the description. The comparison between Djibouti and Ethiopia is very difficult to explain. 

*photos to come later*