Arusha is the capital of the District of Arusha. It has about 340.000 inhabitants and is situated at about 4.000 ft above sea level. In the north of the twon there you find the Arusha-National-Park with its 14.000 ft. high volcano Mt. Meru, with its summit called Socialist Peak, our first aim.
Arusha lies in the territory of the Maasai who deeply influence the towns- and landscape with their coloured clothes. In their archaic way they build a deep contrast to the dense traffic and the mobile phoning residents.
Tourism is the most important economic sector. Most tourists are here for safari, visiting Ngorongoro–National Park or Serengeti. The much smaller group of tourists consist of mountaineers, heading for Kilimanjara – Uhuru Peak, some less Mt. Meru as well, as we did.
Apart from tourism Arusha is living by agriculture, mainly coffee, grain and bananas. For some years even flowers are planted for export.
Since 1995 the International Court for Ruanda hold its meetings in Arusha to work off the genocide of 1994.
Somewhere in the middle between Arusha and the 30 miles eastward town of Moshi you find the Kilimanjaro International Airport. Though it is a small airport it has an enormous touristic and therefore economic importance for the whole region.
You find a lot of restaurants and bars in Arusha, some of them you’ll identify as tourist-traps immediately, others seem to be for residents more like. Everything important can be bought at the markets. If you don’t find what you’re looking for you can cross over the street into the supermarket that is held in very European style. This is the only place in town where you will see more white than black people.
In the touristic districts of the town we were incommoded as tourists a lot – but never threatened. On the whole the town seemed very coloured and lively to us.