Mto Wa Mbu, pronounced
umto wambu, means mosquito creek. It is a very small town of only
a few thousand people and a stinking hot dust bowl full of the aforementioned
mosquitoes.
But it’s worth a mention because it’s halfway between
Arusha and the Ngorongoro Crater and close to the entrance gate to
the Lake Manyara National Park. Anyone going on a safari to these
parks will pass through it. It’s a mandatory stop
for all safari operators to buy a not-so-cold coke to wash down the
dust in their throats, and to visit the curio market selling carvings
and Masai spears to the increasing number of tourists.
You’ll be swarmed by curio sellers as soon as you get out of
the vehicle. Learn the Swahili phrase 'sina pesa': I have no
money. Bear in mind that prices here are double what they
are in Arusha and check that wooden carvings are genuine ebony. Black boot polish on inferior wood is a speciality here.
Mto Wa Mbu is also the secret location for two very unusual food items
- the Cadbury’s Chocolate Bar and the Red Banana. The Cadbury’s
Chocolate Bar is a rare item indeed in East Africa, but just ask at
any of Mto Wa Mbu’s small stalls and for a few shillings they
will magically appear. Just check how old they
are first. Red bananas taste the same as regular bananas but their
skins are a startling bright red. There’s even the Red
Banana Café located in the centre of town.
On the surrounding plains you’ll see many Maasai families
in their traditional bomas, and the tall, elegant, proud Maasai herdsmen
draped in red cloths and hung with strings of beads and intricate
earrings. If you’re lucky you might see one of the Maasai cattle
markets that occur occasionally on the plains outside of town. This
is a rare spectacle when thousands of colourful Maasai with their skinny
cows gather to trade.
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