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A birds-eye view of the Africa of our dreams |
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of your cultural visit?
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Inside Lake Manyara, Karatu, Mto wa Mbu & Eyasi
Cultural Tours
We cannot define a cultural tour! It means anything from visiting a market, harvesting fruits, walking to water falls, watching craftsmen and planting trees! The idea is to involve the local communities and the income is supposedly used to support a local school (very popular) or other community projects.
Mostly things work like this:
 | You arrive at a meeting point where local guides from the community brief you on the activities. |
| You then embark on a hike, a walk, or a drive accompanied by your guide. |
| Along the way you learn about the community and you get an insight into their daily lives. |
| Tours range from 2 hours to a full-day. Lunch may be provided so you can taste the local cuisine. |
| Costs differ but expect to contribute about $25 for a full-day tour. |
No-one can argue the fact that we should all support cultural projects. Unfortunately, we continue to see ever-expanding buildings at the cultural centers with rather lavish meeting areas, beautiful dining areas and manicured lawns while right next door the schools are still in disrepair!
On some cultural visits, the tours end at the large new homes of the project coordinators - complete with rich furniture and curio shops!
We often wonder where the money really goes - to the communities or to the leaders of the cultural projects?
Nevertheless, it would be completely selfish (and wrong) to advocate a boycott of cultural tours.
Instead, we ask visitors to do cultural tours but to ask tough questions.
We simply want the coordinators to get the message that most of the income should be allocated to projects that benefit the community as a whole - schools, hospitals, income-generating projects, etc and to stop building those lavish "welcome centers".
When I visit a local community I do NOT want to be pampered like a celebrity. Show me the schools, show me the kids getting educated, show me the shops of the local craftsmen and women. Show me how my money will help the poor and the disadvantaged. Tell me what percentage of my contribution goes to needed projects and show me the progress of the past year and more.
Here is a growing list of cultural tours in the areas surrounding Lake Manyara and Karatu:
Mto wa Mbu Cultural Tourism Programme -