Our bodies and minds are in San Diego but our imaginations are forever in East Africa
With a screech of tires and a plume of rubberized smoke, our landing at San Diego International Airport marked the conclusion of the 2025 Anthropogeny Field Course. The ten Anthropogeny Graduate Specialization students traveled thousands of miles traversing the globe to Ethiopia and Tanzania to get...
Just a minor layover
By a stroke of scheduling luck, our connecting flight was at the very first stop of the Field Course: Bole Addis Ababa International Airport in Ethiopia. This visit, however, there were no reunions with our "new-old" friends, Ardi and Lucy. Instead, we spent the long layover in various states of fat...
Departure! (Take two)
And with that, like déjà vu all over again, we found ourselves once more at Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam. This time, however, marked the true beginning of our long transcontinental journey from tropical East Africa to sun-soaked Southern California.
The last real sleep for the next 24 hours
With our bellies pleasantly overfilled, we rolled out of Chapan Bhog and made our way to the Wistas Inn, our night's accommodations. Located just across from the University of Dar es Salaam campus, the Wistas Inn featured tropical themes and very comfortable rooms. Once checked in, a few of us ventu...
Ravenous appetites
Our now sizable contingent descended upon Chapan Bhog, a subdued Indian restaurant tucked in the Kisutu district of Dar. The staff were clearly overwhelmed by our sudden and rather loud arrival. We filled every available seat and ordered an almost comical amount of dishes. Our combined hunger knew n...
One last night in Dar
Due to the inefficiencies of air travel schedules, the next available international flight that connected to the US wasn't until noon the following day. Therefore, the Field Course was forced to overnight in Dar. Coincidentally, at the same time we landed in Dar, so too did a group of undergraduate...
So began the return home: Kigoma to Dar
With our belongings packed, we departed the Jacobsen Beach and Guest House and made our way to the Kigoma Airport. Each move from here on brought us one step closer to home, which was reflected in our collective mood. We were somber but accepting of the reality of returning to our normal lives. This...
Vervets, Zebrastian, a swim, and dinner with a view
Our lodging for the night was the Jacobsen Beach and Guest House, a small retreat with several cottages, complete with kitchens, and tented accommodations perched just meters above Lake Tanganyika on a quiet peninsula outside Kigoma. This unique stay provided us with an amazing opportunity to swim i...
The Kigoma Quest: Ingredients shopping at the market
We retraced our route from Issa Valley back to Kigoma, passing once more through the now bucolic town of Uvinza. Our first stop upon returning to Kigoma was the bustling local market. Since this marked our final full day in Tanzania before our transcontinental relocation to San Diego, we planned a c...
Field Primatology: Issa Valley and GMERC
The race against the sun to reach Issa Valley and the GMERC site ended in a draw between the last of the dying rays of light and our arrival at the turnoff that would take us to the camp. As dark settled in and the relative-ease of the brick-red dirt road now a distant memory, the beams of light bro...
Pouring salt on the wound of history
Our touchdown at the quaint Kigoma airport (TKQ), a place imbued with the spirit of the frontier, brought a renewed sense of adventure. Here, the Field Course not only entered new territory but also shifted to a new purpose. Our mission: to engage in comparative primatology by observing and particip...
The gateway to western Tanzania, we presume.
With that, we were back at the Dar airport to board our flight to Kigoma, a lake port city in western Tanzania. Our travel this day was a modern reenactment of Henry Morton Stanley's famous 1869 expedition to find Dr. David Livingstone. Stanley’s two-year journey began in Zanzibar, followed the coas...
Nothing to see here
This post is purposefully scant as little can and should be said about the overnight stay at this motel. Let's all just forget this momentary stop and proceed to the next adventure.
It's not too far to Dar!
From Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam, or just Dar, is literally a hop, skip, and a jump. More precisely, it is roughly 30 miles across the narrow Zanzibar Channel from Zanzibar Island to Dar. By the time our plane had put its wheels up, it was time to put them back down for our landing at the Julius Nyerere...
A dark legacy in the shadows of paradise: Zanzibar
Welcome to Zanzibar! Ok, no feet actually touched the ground here as it was a simple stop-and-go while en route to Dar es Salaam. Despite this, the historical significance of this archipelago, composed of the islands Unguja (often called Zanzibar Island) and Pemba, is worthy of reflection. Situated...
The Less Said The Better: Dar es Salaam
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There is much that could be told about this night that, if anything, should be used as a reminder for the next Field Course. But that's getting ahead of things. Our flight to the Dar es Salaam airport (DAR) was uneventful, although it included a short stop over at the nearby Abeid Amani Karume Inter...
The Small Airport Vibe: Arusha Airport
In past Field Courses, our air travel to and from Arusha had always been routed through Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO). This year, however, our course took a different path. Instead of navigating the hectic sprawl of an international terminal, we departed from the smaller but closer Arusha...
It Must Have Been A Simulation: Back to Arusha
The drive back to Arusha felt almost surreal. Had we truly navigated the entirety of Ngorongoro Crater, stood at the very site of important discovery at Olduvai Gorge, or wandered beneath the towering face of Nasera Rock? Had we really seen the Shifting Sands, or spent four unforgettable days living...
Just Trust Me, Good Things Are Coming: Tarangire National Park
And so, with heavy hearts, we left Hadzaland behind. Our convoy hugged the lake’s edge, retracing part of the southern shoreline before veering east onto a dirt road that wound its way out of Yaeda Valley and up towards the Mbulu highland. The scenery shifted with every mile as sparse woodlands gave...
The Great Gideru Ridge: Hadza Camp 2
We awoke to a glorious morning in Hadzaland, the air cool but the sky promised heat later in the day. After a quick breakfast, we dismantled our camp and gathered to discuss the hike ahead. The plan was ambitious: we would spend the next four to five hours crossing the breadth of Yaeda Valley to Gid...
Goodbye, Lucy: Snake Stop 2
After lunch at Maji Moto, we continued southward along the eastern shore of Lake Eyasi. The landscape here felt almost lunar. It is flat, it is dry, it is desolate, it is dry as bone. It seemed impossible that anything could survive in such a barren, desperate, and harsh expanse. Yet life endures an...
A Picnic Among Deadly Flowers: Maji Moto
We descended the last slope of the Ngorongoro highlands and motored past sprawling onion fields that perfumed the air with that unmistakable onion smell. In the baking sun, laborers tended to the rows of dark green shoots as the tires of our Land Cruisers churned up clouds of reddish dust. On we con...
How to Become Infamous: Snake Stop 1
Imagine heading to your job on the coffee plantation and stumbling across a group of tourists depositing a venomous snake right next to the rows of plants you tend. You probably wouldn't feel too great about that situation. Well, that's exactly what happened. After leaving the Karatu market, we took...
How to Haggle: The Karatu Market
Tanzania's economy is primarily centered around tourism and, as such, tourists are seen as vital opportunities for income. On this morning, we visited the lively Karatu Market, a vibrant mix of everyday local trade, such as produce stalls and butcher shops, alongside alcoves aimed squarely at touris...
Prepare Your Minds for Maximum Amazement: Hadza Campsite 1
With Lucy safely re-homed, we pressed on toward our destination in the eastern ridges of Yaeda Valley. Our home for the next two nights would be a campsite in the wilderness near the village of Yaeda Chini. Yaeda Chini is part of the home range of the Hadzabe but now also hosts a settlement of other...
Honey Chicken and Hot Showers: Doffa Safari Campsite
Our home for the night was the secluded Doffa Safari Campsite on the western outskirts of Karatu. The campsite featured a small grassy lawn for our tents with hedging surrounding the perimeter. A central pavilion was our meeting and dining area. We even had showers and bathrooms—nothing fancy mind y...
The Sands of Time: Magnetic Shifting Sands
A short drive from Nasera Rock and just north of Olduvai Gorge, lie the Magnetic Shifting Sands, a rare natural phenomenon formed from iron-rich volcanic ash deposited during eruptions roughly 3,000 years ago. The fine, black sand is magnetized and clumps together, allowing the entire dune to move g...
The Isle in the Plain: Nasera Rock
Nasera Rock rises 50 meters (165 feet) above the surrounding plains with herds of giraffes and is a dramatic inselberg (an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain) located 20 kilometers north of Olduvai Gorge. The natural striped coloration of the rock, combined with ancient paintings in...
Dry as a Bone: Olduvai Gorge and Museum
The trek down the western face of the Ngorongoro highlands offered yet another example of Tanzania's striking environmental diversity. The cool, grassy highlands, dotted with Maasai bomas and herds of cattle and goats, gradually gave way to rocky, whistling thorn acacia-speckled foothills, which the...
It Will Be Cold: The First Night of Safari Camping
Back in early June when the students were attending their pre-trip meetings with Pascal and Jesse, they were given stern warnings to pack down jackets and warm layers for this night of the course. "It will be cold," they heard on repeat. And it was! Simba A Camp is a public campsite perched on the N...
Prepare to be Awed: Ngorongoro Crater
We departed at 6 AM for the three-hour drive from Arusha to our first safari destination: the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a UNESCO World Heritage Site celebrated for its spectacular wildlife and vibrant Maasai communities. At its heart lies the famous Ngorongoro Crater, the world’s largest intact...
Welcome to Tanzania!
We touched down at the Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO) at 1:30 PM; however cloudy skies prevented us from seeing the famous mountain for which the airport is named (thankfully, Pascal snapped a photo of the peak from his window seat while en route to JRO). JRO sits in the broad flatlands ben...
Off We Go Again
With the museum session completed and a night of rest under our belts, we navigated our way back to the Addis Ababa Bole International airport for our flight to Arusha, Tanzania. The experience at the Addis airport was one of comedy. First, Pascal and Fiona had to retrieve confiscated binoculars and...
Organized Chaos
The first thing one experiences in Arusha—and Tanzania in general—is organized chaos. Things simply work, though the mechanics remain mysterious. It's prudent to just sit back and enjoy the flow of life, traffic, people walking, animals being herded, and the seemingly random shops, shacks, street ve...
A Day at the Museum
After a well-deserved but brief night's rest, the day began with an early morning run through the cool, damp streets of the city. We've found that these early morning jaunts are the best way to see an unfamiliar place as we can wake up and cover more ground, discovering what is typically missed when...
A Long Haul
We made it! The official start to the 2025 Field Course began at the San Diego International Airport where the students assembled and boarded for the long flights to Addis Ababa Bole International Airport. This airport is Ethiopian Airlines' major hub connecting Africa, Europe, Asia, and the America...
A City Evolving
Arriving at night in Addis Ababa revealed the dramatic transformation the city has undergone since the first Anthropogeny Field Course in 2011. What was once a large but comparatively modest city 2,355 meters (7,726 feet) above sea level and nestled between the mountains of the Ethiopian highlands n...
An Adventure of a Lifetime Begins!
CARTA welcomes you to the 2025 Anthropogeny Field Course Travel Map. Within these posts are narrations of the extraordinary journey shared by ten UC San Diego graduate students* (representing five academic departments and who participate in the Anthropogeny Graduate Specialization) and the faculty a...