Materuni Village: A Waterfall, Coffee Plantation, Local Lunch - and Chemka Hot Springs

Today is a public holiday. And there is supposed to be a nationwide protest. 

However, Fabian - our guide for the day - tells us that people are staying home due to lingering fear from the deadly October 2025 election crackdown. The country erupted in demonstrations after the president's re-election. Reports of up to 1,000 citizens were killed in the harsh crackdown.

The US has the travel advisory for Tanzania set at Level 3 exactly for this reason. Although I’m enrolled in STEP (U.S. Department of State Smart Traveler Enrollment Program), the U. S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam gives us no warning about the planned protest. Not a peep. I guess that’s all part of the advisory’s “you’re on your own” bit.

However, we are safe, due to a stroke of luck during my planning process. Today we are spending our day three hours away from Arusha in a small, quiet village - far away from any protesting. Materuni Village and Materuni Waterfall are on the lower slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. 

On our drive to the village, Mt. Kilimanjaro is right in front of us. She is massive. If we turn our heads 180 degrees, we can see where the giant starts and ends. But the mountain itself is still not visible. She has been hiding in the clouds ever since we landed a week ago.

After another uncomfortable drive that climbed a saturated, rutted, bumpy road up to an elevation of 5,600 feet, we arrived at Materuni Village where the Chagga people would be hosting us for the next few hours.

Along the drive, Fabian’s commentary about the trail to Materuni Waterfall made us a little anxious about what we were getting ourselves into.

“It is a little bit of a hike. Have you hiked before?”

He told us about the last tourists he went there with just two days earlier. They were not hikers and didn’t have very much fun. They asked to turn back.

In their defense, it was raining. Do not go if it is raining.

As a smart precaution, Greg wore the rubber boots that Fabian offered. There wasn’t a spare pair small enough for me.

Materuni Waterfall plunges roughly 250 feet down the side of Mount Kilimanjaro

The hike up to the base of the falls, at 8,000 feet above sea level, took us 1 1/2 hours to go three miles roundtrip. We took it slowly. Even though it hadn’t rained for two days, the ground was slick and still a bit muddy. The hike was very similar to a very soggy hike to the Vernal Falls bridge viewpoint in Yosemite. The ground reminded me of trails in Hawaii right after a rain.

The trail starts with rolling hills and then narrows to a path half as wide as the Mist Trail in Yosemite

After the hike, someone from the village scrubbed my muddy running shoes until they were spotless. Even the dust from the Serengeti was gone. Maybe the villager could help Greg get the Serengeti dust out of his tonsils.

Next was our tour of the coffee plantation located at the waterfall’s trailhead. Roasting coffee is a simple concept. I know I’ve been to at least one coffee plantation before, but the Chagga tribe is teaching me something new - correcting a misbelief I’ve always had. They told us that the dark roast has less caffeine; light roast has the most caffeine. I always thought the opposite - the stronger the flavor - the more caffeine it had. Having a mixture of both is why many people prefer medium roast, which is what we made.

First, a village representative summarized how coffee goes from a bean on a tree to the cup in our hands.

Next we started the traditional coffee making process. Using a human size mortar and pestle, we participated in separating the coffee bean from its soft outer shell. To not get bored, the tribe sings and claps in rhythm with the pestle’s thumping.

Then we roasted the beans over a fire for 10 minutes.

The dark color from roasting the beans longer is what gives coffee a strong, bitter taste.

After the beans are roasted, they go back into the mortar to be ground. The dark outer layer of the bean creates the dark roast. When you continue grinding the bean, you reach the lighter layer that contains more caffeine.

The last step is boiling the ground coffee for one minute. Rather than filter it, they let the grind rest to the bottom.

Coffee doesn’t get any fresher than this!

A locally prepared lunch was included with the tour. Since their other primary crop is bananas, they served banana soup and a curry banana side dish - in addition to rice, sauce with a bit of beef, beans, fruit, and spinach. Cooked spinach has been served at all of our meals. It was a ton of food, and she told us several times we had to finish it all. Greg gave it his best shot.

After spending the morning hiking to a waterfall, making coffee, and eating far more food than we needed, there was one stop left before our flight.

Our last activity included with our tour was a visit to the Chemka Hot Springs. Although the literal translation is “boiling,” it is only 81°F.

Chemka Hot Springs consist of two connected pools of clear turquoise water

Except for a few other people, we had the hot springs to ourselves before the groups arrived

As a lady was getting in, she screamed, jumped out of the water, and exclaimed, “there’s definitely something biting you in there!” After that she was perfectly content sitting on the shore.

There are tiny fish that like to nibble at your dead skin. But as long as you keep moving, the fish keep their distance. We spent about an hour swimming before it was time to start making the way to the airport.

By the end of the day, we learned that the government had successfully preempted the planned demonstrations through a massive security deployment.

Our exploration of mainland Tanzania had come to an end. Fabian dropped us off at Kilimanjaro Airport so we could catch our evening flight to Zanzibar.

Safari is exhausting work. Other than losing track of time, I wouldn't exactly call it a vacation. Anticipating this, I had scheduled a few days of downtime in Zanzibar before heading home.

The propeller flight to Zanzibar is quick, taking barely one hour. Since we arrived late in the evening, we are staying nearby in Stone Town at Zanzibar Coffee House.

The hotel sent a driver to pick us up. Wanting to help us for our entire stay, he had to pass my screening first. I read you can get pulled over and have to pay a bribe. This could be due to the driver having outstanding tickets (with fines that increase) or just a corrupt policeman. I asked our driver if he had any fines. Yes. If we get pulled over, will we need to pay them? No. If we get pulled over will we have to pay a bribe? No. Satisfied with his answers, I made arrangements directly through him, not the hotel which makes a commission, to drive us to Kiwengwa Beach tomorrow.

Zanzibar is known for having unreliable electricity and internet. So far, neither our eSIM or the hotel's WiFi were working for us.

 

Logistics:

• If you haven’t tried banana beer yet, you can sample it at Materuni Village.
• Nothing is included with the entry fee to Chemka Hot Springs but everything can be rented or purchased. We brought a bathing suit and towel. You can also rent an innertube or even scuba diving equipment.
• There are two airports near Arusha. JRO (Kilimanjaro) handles both domestic and international flights; Arusha is domestic only. For us, JRO was closest to the hot springs.