Green farms of banana and coffee climb the lower slopes of Kilimanjaro above Moshi. On a Chagga village tour you see the heart of Chagga country: waterfalls, coffee gardens, hidden caves and a people who have farmed the mountain for centuries.
01 A village of steep coffee and banana gardens, with one of Kilimanjaro’s tallest waterfalls a forest walk away. The classic Chagga day out.
02 The village at the start of the Marangu Route, known for the tunnels the Chagga dug to hide from raids, its blacksmiths and the Kinukamori waterfall.
03 A relaxed market town with Kibo standing over it on clear mornings. Hotels, cafés and the central market make it the natural base for the villages and the climb.
The Chagga are one of Tanzania’s largest peoples. For centuries they have farmed the fertile lower slopes of Kilimanjaro in home gardens where bananas, coffee, beans and vegetables grow together, watered by channels cut from the mountain streams. On a village visit you pick, roast and grind coffee by hand, taste mbege, the local banana beer, and hear how families have lived on the mountain for generations.
01 A walk through banana and coffee gardens into the forest to the foot of the waterfall. Bring shoes with grip; the path can be muddy.
02 Pick the ripe cherries, peel and roast the beans over the fire, grind them with a wooden pestle and drink the coffee you made, with the family who grew it.
03 Crawl through the tunnels the Chagga dug to shelter from Maasai raids, with a local guide who tells the story of the clans and their wars.
04 Watch village blacksmiths at work and see how tools, spears and bells are still made by hand.
05 The villages are the gentlest way to spend a rest day in Moshi, and a good first taste of the mountain before you set off.
Add a day in the Chagga villages to your Kilimanjaro climb or safari. We arrange the village, the guide and the family lunch.
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✓Based in Arusha
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