Last Days of Freedom

So I've been avoiding the blog because I really don't want to admit that summer is coming to an end.... but it is :( Next week I start teaching half-days of summer school for two weeks, and then there's a week of inservice and work-days, and then all the kiddos come on the 23rd. I'm ready to be back in a routine, and I am ready to have the fun of teaching... but not quite ready for the stress that I know will come with it.
Anyway, just to catch you up on life stuff, I was in a bit of a post-Africa funk for a while. It was hard to come back to "normal" life after that amazing trip. Luckily, I got to go spend a week down at the parents' house and play with the Vermont Frostman crew. Since then I've just been enjoying the perks of living in a Colorado mountain town (although I would be really happy if I didn't have to share it with all the stupid tourists). I got to see my first Estes Park bear just across the road from my house (he was little and very cute!). A long-time friend (and life guru) from California stopped by for a visit and it was wonderful to see him. I also drove down to Colorado Springs for an unofficial reunion with my CC-Masters crew. Most of all, i've finally had time to hang out with my friends here and have enjoyed hikes, lunches, shopping trips, and dinners. Here's a picture of some of the gals on a hike that we did recently to some lakes up in RMNP.

In other life news, I'm also car shopping since Cujo is 10 years old and I REALLY want a new car. I'm 99% sure that I'll be getting a 2011 Subaru Impreza hatchback. I'll have to wait until I get my extra $$ from teaching summer school to pay off the final portion of the Africa trip before I bite into the new-car-loan debt... but the 2011's haven't hit the dealerships yet anyway, so I think (hope) I'll have time to find my perfect car before the snow gets here.
Anyway, today I'm off to get my hair cut, play some putt putt golf, and enjoy a summer concert in the park. Gotta enjoy these last days as much as possible :)

Trip Report Part VII (Nairobi, getting home, and memories...)

Sorry it's taken me a few days to get this last post done. I had a great weekend hanging out with friends, hiking, and especially watching the Estes Park fireworks show. Fantastic!! :) So anyway, here's the wrap-up of the Africa trip:

I'm putting the pictures link here, since this is a longer (and not-as exciting) post, and there aren't many pictures for these last couple of days.
Sunday (6/20) we had to say goodbye to the Masai Mara and head back to Nairobi. It was nice to see a herd of elephants, some zebra, buffalo, and wildebeests come to the road to say goodbye to us (apparently the cheetah didn't get the memo that we were leaving). We drove back through the Great Rift Valley, but the light was pretty flat, so the pictures aren't nearly as impressive as the valley itself is. We were all pretty worn out at this point, so there was a lot of van-napping. We also shared pet-pictures (Ben and Kathryn have two kitties and Tim and Susan have two bunnies!) and exchanged email addresses and such. Benjamin took us on a shortcut back to Nairobi which took us through the rich suburbs. It was really bizarre, after all the poverty we had seen, to be driving through this gated community of mansions and gardens (and I found it funny that the road was as full of pot holes there as anywhere else!) Ben and Kathryn were staying at a different hotel outside of the city center, so we dropped them off first and then headed back to the Stanley. I have forgotten in the last posts to tell about how now, whenever I hit my head, I'll think of Ben... as (being 6'4") he hit his head on Jesus or something else multiple times per day. I suppose it sounds awful to say that after the first several times, we just laughed, but he never really seemed to be bothered :) Anyway, I have to say it was kind of depressing to say goodbye to new friends and drive back into all that traffic and pollution and know that my time in the wild of Africa was over. It's a very good thing that I had my Jessica and Jordan with me, because I knew that WE would still get to have fun for these last couple of days. We had decided to share a room these last couple nights, so we checked back into the Stanley, and said goodbye and a HUGE thank-you to Benjamin (who was very excited to get back home to his friends and family to spend his tip-money on a big beer party). Then we also said goodbye to Tim and Susan (who were flying out the next day), and headed up to our room. It was actually a really nice, big room (the pictures of Nairobi are from our balcony), and while it took us over a day to figure out how to turn the lights on and off the way we wanted to (thanks Jordan, you're so smart!) we were glad to be able to relax.
I was really torn between taking a nap, and heading out to explore the city with Jess and Jordan, but when the concierge told us that the Masai market probably wouldn't be open the next day, we all decided that we wanted to give it a shot. Now I have to say that the people at the hotel had many suggestions of things for us to do in Nairobi, but going to this market was not one of them, and in fact we got the overall impression that they really did NOT suggest that we go. I am guessing that this is because the "suggested" activities were all things like museums and parks... things where you had to pay admission and thus were "safe" for tourists... but Jordan felt pretty confident that we would be just fine, so off we went. First we stopped at the Nairobi version of a fast-food place. Very surreal to be ordering a burger and fries while on a trip to Africa (even more of an experience to be the only white people in the restaurant...and probably on the whole city block) Honestly the food wasn't that great (especially as their version of ketchup is a watered-down sweet and sour sauce), but it was an interesting experience. So then we walked a few more blocks to the market. Basically this was just a big fenced-in city block with somewhere in the neighborhood of a hundred little booths (by booths, I mean blankets on the ground and sometimes a table, rarely an actual booth) that sold all kinds of things from jewelry to bead work to t-shirts to woodwork. I don't know if this market was reserved only for people of the Masai tribes, but many of the people sitting at their booths were dressed in the traditional Masai garb (although plenty of others weren't). As we headed towards the square, we were SWARMED by men. If I hadn't been with Jessica and Jordan, I would have been absolutely terrified, and even with them, I was pretty a little scared and definitely uncomfortable. I didn't exactly feel threatened physically... no one tried to actually grab me in any way, but they all wanted to shake hands, and there was absolutely NO personal space. We were kind of herded into the square, and then it took a while for Jordan to get most of the men to disperse. Apparently, these are the salesmen of the whole market, and while we never did figure out how it all worked, it seemed to be kind of like a furniture store, where the next salesman in line got to pounce on the next person in the door. So we were assigned a few men to help us, and we began to walk around the market. These guys were this bizarre combination of really pushy and really nice and helpful. They were dressed in regular clothing, and often seemed to talk down to the individual booth runners, but no one seemed to protest to this. I still would like to know how the whole thing works. Anyway! They wanted us to pick out anything that we might like and call it a "maybe" and then they would carry our "maybes" around while we looked at other things. Jordan said that this was very different from the markets in Nigeria (where you deal with each booth individually), but we adapted and found some things that we loved. Jordan and Jessica had been on the hunt for some rugs for their home in Nigeria, but we didn't have any luck. We did find some artwork, cloth, and jewelry that we liked, and after some interesting bargaining (thank you again Jordan!) we called it a day. I don't know that I exactly "liked" the market, there were more children begging and a good portion of the people working the booths seemed to be unhappy... but as it was late in the day perhaps they just wanted to go home. Either way, it was part of the experience, and I'm really thankful that I was there with Jessica and Jordan so that I was able to have that experience since I know I would never have done it alone. Oh... I also found out after the fact that my personal shopper/assistant, Issac, had offered to pay Jordan 200 cows to marry me. Now I don't really know if that is a good offer or not, but thank the lord for my friend who did NOT sell me at the market :)
So back at the room, we decided that we were really worn out and deserved a day of relaxation, so we went up to the spa and booked massages for the next day. Then it was back to the room for some long showers, catch-up-on-email time, watching tv, and order room-service time! It felt so good to just hang out with friends, look at safari pictures, and of course, watch some football (soccer) on TV :) We all crashed relatively early.
Monday (6/21) we were all planning to sleep in, but after a week of waking up early... yup... I woke up early. As we hadn't figured out how to turn on/off individual lights yet, and I wasn't up for showering in the dark, I decided to look at safari pictures instead, which I did until I got sleepy again. Eventually we all got up and had a big breakfast and then went up to lounge around by the pool. Unfortunately it got cloudy, but we still enjoyed just being lazy and not being on a schedule. After a while Jessica and I went and poked around the shops in/near the hotel, but didn't find anything good. Eventually it was time for our massages (which were heavenly) and then some nap-time. My tummy hadn't been feeling very well that morning, and wasn't any better by the evening, so Jordan and Jessica went to the Thai restaurant in the hotel (apparently very good) while I hung out in the room and watched a movie. While it was certainly no fun not to feel good, I was so glad that if I had to not feel good, it was when there was nothing better we had to do! We spent the rest of the evening just talking and watching TV... with a little bit of re-packing.
Tuesday (6/22) we had scheduled a late checkout time, so we weren't in any hurry to get up and showered. I went to breakfast with Jess and Jordan, but my tummy still wasn't interested in having food in it, so I headed back up to the room to finish packing. We checked out around noon, but the safari company wasn't picking us up until 2:30ish so we stashed our luggage at the front desk and headed back up to the pool area. We came back down around 2:00 and waited in the lobby until we were picked up. I had decided to go to the airport with Jess and Jordan even though their flight left like 4 hours before mine just to make sure I got there in plenty of time, so while I sat and read a book, they checked in and then we said our goodbyes. I think it helped the goodbye not be too sad since I knew I would see them again really soon as they are back in the states for a bit now... otherwise I think I would have been in tears. What amazing friends they are :)
So to keep a very long and boring part of this story relativly short, I had a very long but uneventful trip back to the states. Once my flight was posted, I checked in and spent a couple of hours wandering around the Nairobi airport, shopping and people-watching. Then I went through security at the gate and eventually got on another very big plane for another very long flight. I was a little worried about eating, so I picked at the food, but luckily my tummy seemed ok with the stuff I chose. Unfortunately, I think the dry airplane-air and overall tiredness of my body gave into the airplane germs and by the time we got to Amsterdam I felt like complete crap. Luckily after some exploring, I found a quite lounge-type area with lounge-chair type seats and was able to sleep for a couple of hours. Then I wandered around, got something to munch, and got on another big plane. I watched a couple of movies, napped some more, and coughed and sneezed a lot (sorry other people on the plane... although I always covered my mouth!). Eventually we got to JFK... which was a nightmare. Whatever idiot designs and/or runs that place should be shot. Although the immigration guy who checked me in did make me laugh by saying he would much rather teach 22 4th graders than do his job (I said me too!!) So eventually I got on yet another plane, and after sitting on the runway for an hour, we actually took off (the pilot said that most airlines predict this with JFK and thus it was built into our flight plan and we shouldn't be very late... which is just sad). Back in good old DIA, I found my mommy and my luggage and we headed back to my aunt's house. Mums really wanted me to spend the night there, but I was awake, feeling yucky, and REALLY wanting my own bed, so I rolled down all the windows and enjoyed driving home in the moonlight and fresh mountain air. It was nice to be home... although I think I will always miss Africa. It was certainly the trip of a lifetime and I am so very glad that I went. I'm so thankful that I went with friends (and met new friends!) and I certainly gained a new side to my perspective on life. There are still a lot of things that I feel like I need in my life, need to have, or need to accomplish... but sometimes it's good to remember, as they say in Kenya (and they really do say it!!) Hakuna Matata!! (no worries!)

Trip Report Part VI (Ballooning and Safari on the Masai Mara)

So Saturday (6/19) started ass-early. The wake up knock (no phone in the tent) came at 4:40 and we were all in the lobby by 5:10 (by saying that we were there, I mean in a physical sense, not mentally). We got in the Land Rover of the balloon company (I have to say it, definitely more comfortable than Jesus) and drove for about 20-30 minutes out to the balloon site. It was neat to be driving through the Mara at night, we were all on watch for "eyes in the dark" but all we saw were some huge bunnies. When we got there, the driver told us to stay between the car and the balloon "just in case" which we were all quite willing to do! It was a little creepy to be out in the middle of the African grassland with nothing but a car between us and the lions! We watched as the crews blew up the three HUGE balloons, first with fans, and then heated the air with the huge burners. We met our captain - Milton - from New Zealand who told us that we shouldn't smoke and to stay inside the balloon (pretty basic eh?). Then we all climbed in. It held 16 people, plus the pilot... and it was great because the 7 of us were all together on one side. The other guy on our side (Mike) was just along for the ride as his dad was a balloon pilot (not Milton) and so he got to go along whenever there was an open spot. We started by sitting down inside the balloon basket while Milton fired the burners (it took me about 5 minutes not to flinch every time he fired it) and got us up in the air. Then we were up and floating! Having never ridden in a hot air balloon before, I wasn't really sure what to expect, but "floating" is about all I can say. Other than the ground moving below you, you don't feel any movement at all. The air was chilly, so it was actually nice to have the burners fire every once in a while... kind of like being by a campfire! So the VERY first animal we saw once airborne was a lone lion with a kill. She was barely 300 yards from the launch site (yikes!) guarding her breakfast. Gave me chills!! From there we chased a small (relatively speaking) herd of wildebeests and zebras. Oh, I forgot to say that we named every wildebeest Forrest. Then we could say "Run Forrest!! Run!" it was very funny :) And then for a while we just floated over Africa and watched the sun rise. I have to say that I was a lot more interested in just soaking everything in than taking pictures. This was the most amazing experience of my life! I've seen the sun rise in a lot of places, but there was something about the light in Africa that was different... impossible to describe, but unforgettable. As the light grew, we were able to see further, and the most noticeable thing was the SWARMS of wildebeests that covered the Mara. Milton said that there were already more here this year than all of last year, and that more were coming. He pointed out (in the distance) where the wildebeest migrate from Tanzania across the Mara river. We felt very lucky that they had come early just to see us!! :) The other neat thing was to see their trails through the grass. It looked very much like some alien toddler had scribbled all over the ground :) We also saw a herd of elephants, several hyenas, giraffes, gazelles, and other animals. We passed over several small creeks (do they call them creeks in Africa?) and it was really neat to look over the side of the basket and see the reflection of the balloon float across the water. I also loved watching the other balloons (there were two others that took the same flight-path as us, and another one that we saw way in the distance). Milton was great about turning the balloon every couple of minutes so we were all able to see in all different directions. He also took several pictures of us with a camera that was hanging above/outside of the basket. Near the end of the flight we flew over a small forest where Milton said a rhino lived, but we didn't see him. Flying over the forest was very cool though :) The only really scary part of the flight was the landing. We sat back down in the basket and held onto some ropes. We hit the ground HARD, and Milton said "hang on! We're not done yet!" and then there was a couple more rough bounces before we felt like we were dragged and then slowly tipped over. By that time we were all in fits of laughter (Ben's fault... although I'm sure he'd blame it on me) and after an upside-down picture, we climbed out and then on top of the basket for a "we survived!" picture with the balloon crew. All-in-all the flight probably lasted just over an hour. It was one of the best hours of my life so far :)
So then we hopped back in the Land Rover for a quick drive up to the champagne tree. There we found a full service champagne breakfast waiting for us! There was quiche, sausages, croissants, fruit, yogurt, cereal, and of course lots of champagne! Nothing like getting tipsy before 9am ;) We sat across from another English couple on their honeymoon who were a lot of fun. The husband did a great rhino impression :) I also was in stitches over a discussion that included Tim's annual religious holiday (whenever he needs a day off work) called the Feast of Saint Fuckit. (Again, even funnier in an English accent!!) We also saw our first lilac-breasted-roller bird -- we ended up seeing a ton of them, but I never got a good picture.... but they are very cool!! So after a lot of good food, champagne, and laughter, we jumped back in the comfy land rover and headed back to the lodge. Our driver this time was Eric, and he was in no hurry, so we got a fantastic, meandering drive back to the lodge. The first thing we came across was a big bunch (flock?) of vultures picking the bones of an old kill. They are really ugly birds, but in a neat way! Next we saw a secretary bird (I will not repeat the joke about secretarial duties and eating worms... I'm sure you can work it out for yourself!) Soon after we recovered from our laughter, we came across our first lion couple! We named them David and Victoria (as in Beckham... being on a football kick) and enjoyed watching them snooze in the sun. This was the first male lion (like adult-with-a-mane lion) that we had found and he was SO handsome. After we left the sleepy couple, we found another lion not 5 minutes later! Eric (named after our driver) was snoozing in the shade and couldn't have cared less that we were oogling over him. He reminded me a lot of my Fat Kitty :) We left Eric to his cat nap and continued on to the lodge. We saw one sad young wildebeest that had been separated from his herd. :( He ran along the car (run Forrest!) for a long time, but finally veered off into the grass. We all think he definitely went and found his family and did NOT get eaten by a lion. Oh! This was also the start of our battle (which continued on the afternoon drive too) with the worlds biggest grasshoppers. There are probably millions of them in the grass and if they are jumping at the wrong time they get sucked into the car. Of course they aren't dangerous at all, but it is pretty freaky to have a grasshopper that is as big as your hand land somewhere on you!! Thank god for Ben, the grasshopper wrangler, who fearlessly wrestled the buggars, pinned them down, and threw them back outside :) We had the best time on the ride back to the lodge laughing and enjoying the sun and the incredible experience of being in that amazing place. The only bad part was the incredible number of bruises incurred from standing up/out the roof for 99% of the drive.
So once we got back to the lodge, we all headed straight for some nap-time. We had the chance to visit a local Masai village, but honestly we were just to exhausted from the late night before and the early morning. Jessica and I met up for a late lunch (Jordan wasn't feeling great, so he kept sleeping) and enjoyed some REALLY yummy sesame-covered ribs and a little sun-by-the-pool-time. Then it was time to meet up with Benjamin for the afternoon cheetah-hunt! As a cheetah was the only animal that we hadn't seen yet, we were all willing to do whatever it took to find one. We started off crossing a small creek/gully and drove along side it for a good 45-55 minutes. Other than some roller-birds, we didn't see any other animals, so Benjamin started looking for a place to re-cross the creek/gully. Every crossing we came upon was in REALLY bad shape, and after a while we ran into another van that was back-tracking as all the other crossings were worse. So we found the least-worse one, held our breath and crossed our fingers and toes, and....... we got stuck. Now I have to say that Benjamin drove over some pretty incredible roads for the whole time that we were in Jesus (which, by the way, was only front-wheel drive). He had an amazing handle of the vehicle, and as unsafe as the roads and other drivers were, he was very safety-conscious and really made the ride as smooth as possible. But... none the less... we were VERY stuck. So... we all got out (kind of nervously) and tried pushing the van, but we were REALLY stuck. So the other van that had crossed ahead of us went to get help, and we all were posted on lion-watch. It probably wasn't more than 15 minutes before a Land Rover came along and hooked up a wench to Jesus. Our safari boys were actually in testosterone heaven as they got to help rock and push Jesus back onto the road :) The official story is, of course, that Ben lifted the van with one hand while Jordan and Tim fought of 49 lions. Ahhh, those manly men :) Anyway! We were unstuck and (thankfully) uneaten and off to look for a cheetah. We never did see one (guess I'll just have to go back again!) but we were treated to some amazing sunlight-through-the-clouds breathtaking moments. We did find one group of vans that said they had seen a cheetah way off in the distance, but by the time we got there we didn't see anything. So we headed towards another group of vans and found three wonderful lions. On one side of our car (literally like 2 feet away) was a really lovely female, and on the other side of the car (about 10 feet away) was Fabio and Loleta... a couple in love :) According to Benjamin, if they are at the beginning of their courtship, they mate every 5 minutes or so and don't stop to eat! Well apparently these two were at the beginning of their courtship because we saw them go through the mating routine three times in about 20 minutes. We also had to hold in our laughter when Ben, forgetting for a moment that he wasn't watching this all happen on TV, yelled "YEAH!!" after Fabio finished "the deed." Fabio gave us quite a stare (which was intimidating to say the least). I was going back and forth between watching them and watching the really lovely kitty on the other side. I got a great shot of her yawning, and Jess got a great shot of her calling. I can't describe how incredible it is to hear and see a lion call.... it was so beautiful! Since it was getting late, we had to leave the happy couple to their baby-lion-making. (FYI - the game wardens in each park make sure that all the safari vehicles are out of the park by like 6 or 7pm... unless you have special permission I suppose) On our way back to the lodge, we saw several herds (wildebeests, zebra, buffalo, elephants, etc.) and some sleepy hyenas (it was neat to see them up-close as we had only seen them from the balloon).
I have to admit when we got back to the lodge, I was pooped! So I was a little annoyed when we went to the restaurant and were re-directed again. This time it was apparently a Masai holiday, so we were going to join in the festivities. We had quite a hike (ok... it was a ways, but not that far) to a big outdoor area. I am guessing that this is somewhat close to the Masai village that we didn't visit that afternoon. Anyway, they had a huge bbq pit, rows of clay pots that were being heated over a strip of hot coals, and a big bonfire. There were also Masai dancers dancing and singing around the guests. It took a little while for me to get un-grumpified, but eventually (after eating some incredibly good beef and naam - my new favorite kind of bread) I enjoyed the native dancing and of course the good conversation with our safari crew :) As tired as we all were, we went to the bar and had one last toast to Africa as we were headed back to Nairobi and our separate lives the next day :( It was heavenly to go back to my "tent" and crawl into my huge cozy bed (I forgot to mention that the turn-down service here included a hot-water-bottle in your bed!) and fall asleep. It is hard to have a favorite, since every day in Africa was such a unique experience... but if I had to pick... this was my favorite day. Click this link to see pictures!

Trip Report Part V (Lake Naivasha, Crescent Island, Masai Mara)

So Friday (6/18) was another early wake-up. I forgot to say yesterday that Lion Hill Lodge also sucked because of the massive amounts of mosquitoes. I mean there had been mosquitoes everywhere we had been so far, but here they were so bad you felt like you would inhale them if you opened your mouth to breathe. Yuck. So while the room had netting around the bed, they were still in the room and whining and made you feel like you were being bitten even when you weren't. Double yuck. Anyway, I was glad we only stayed there one night.
Benjamin had suggested that instead of another game drive at Nakuru that morning that we head to Lake Naivasha to take a boat tour and see hippos. I was kinda bummed as we didn't really get to see that much of Nakuru, but everyone was excited about seeing hippos (I was too, just not as excited as they were) so we all jumped back in Jesus and headed out. One funny thing about Africa is the very random name-brand clothing that you see. This includes things like sports teams, fashion brands, and other name-brand advertising. So anyway, one of the game wardens at the park checkpoint had a porsche jacket on. Ben said that he should have it embroidered to say "My other car is a rhino." (which was even funnier in an English accent of course!) Ahhh Ben made me laugh a lot :)
So it wasn't too long before we reached Lake Naivasha. This was another home of Joy Adamson, but I think she lived there after she wrote Born Free. We were kind of surprised because this lake is pretty hidden, and even walking towards it, we didn't realize how close we were. I am not sure if it has a freshwater spring, or if it has an outlet, but it is a freshwater lake (compared to Nakuru which was not) which means it is a great habitat for thousands of birds, and, of course, hippos! So we walked down to the shore and jumped in a boat with our guide named Paul. I honestly expected to be kind of disappointed with this boat-tour-thingy, but I was really pleasantly surprised! We started off puttering through a very shallow, marshy part of the lake. We saw tons of different kinds of birds including pelicans, ibises, and egrets. Then we came upon a big mass of hippos! There were probably at least 20 of them. They were very fat and cute... although I think we were all a little bit nervous (as you hear about how dangerous they can be). Paul kept us at a good distance, but you still had that little voice in your head that wondered if there was one swimming underwater to tip over our boat! :) Then we headed for the deeper part of the lake and Crescent Island. As we passed part of the shore, Paul yelled to a man on the shore who proceeded to throw a couple of fish at us. When we asked what they were for, Paul said "breakfast!" I was kind of thinking that he meant breakfast for him, but it turns out it was breakfast for the African Fish Eagles!! We saw them high up in the branches of some very tall acacia trees. Paul let out a very high whistle and threw the fish into the lake... and down they came. They were huge and fast and VERY cool. He threw the second one, and a second eagle swooped down... made me glad that I wasn't a fish!! Then we landed on Crescent Island and climbed out of the boat. This island is where part of "Out of Africa" was filmed. When making the movie they brought a bunch of non-predatory animals to the island (giraffes, zebras, impala, wildebeests, etc.) so it is safe to walk around on the island and not worry about getting eaten. It actually felt very Jurassic-Park-ish (thankfully without the being-chased-by-dinosaurs part) to be just walking around with these wild animals. I suppose to Africans it is a lot like how I feel walking around with the deer, elk, and coyotes that live in Estes Park... but it was MUCH more exciting to me when it was zebras and giraffes :) The only dangerous part was the occasional big holes in the ground, which I selflessly discovered for the benefit of the group (aka fell into one of them and twisted my ankle). Oh well :) It's a good thing I can laugh at myself! The giraffes on the island were Masai giraffes, which are different from the reticulated giraffes we had been seeing so far. Where as the reticulated giraffes have a cleaner, more geometric pattern, the Masai giraffes have messier splotches. We had a blast watching them, especially the younger ones who were playing! So after a while it was back to the boat and back to the shore and off to the Masai Mara!
Unfortunately this meant another couple hours of "free African massage" of which we were very tired. However, we entertained ourselves with a hilarious conversation about the differences between American and English swear words and slang. I haven't laughed that much in a very long time :) By the end of the trip my delightful new friends had adopted me as an honorary Englishman and I can't wait to and visit them in London :) So anyway... we finally reached the Masai Mara. When I dream of Africa, this is what I will dream of... it was my absolute favorite place, and I could have stayed there forever. We stopped at the Sarova Mara Tent Camp first, and I have to say that we were all a little wary of having to stay in tents... until we saw their version of a tent!! They were the crème de la crème of tents! A permanent frame and roof was connected to a HUGE canvas tent. The floors were hardwood and the four-poster bed was huge :) The attached bathroom was permanent and made of gorgeous marble and tile. The shower alone was bigger than my whole bathroom at home! It was spectacular :) So after a quick rest it was off to the Mara. Being in love with the trees, I was always watching them as we drove by, and I stopped the van when I spotted some huge birds. After having teased Tim for several days about how EVERY bird (from a stork to a sparrow) was a vulture, I said, "Ok, really NOT kidding this time... aren't those vultures??" And they were! Very creepy and cool :) We saw several herds of gazelles, buffalo, and wildebeest. We were very excited as the annual migration of wildebeests had started early. They do not usually appear on the Mara until July, but there were already hundreds of thousands of them there. This meant a much better chance of spotting lions! Sure enough we came across a lion kill and a lion! He was a young male in pretty rough shape. I think he was probably still trying to hang around his pride and getting beat up for doing so. We named him William (Bill) and watched him for a while before moving on to more zebras and wildebeests. Finally as the sun was setting we found a herd of elephants, and watching them interact was a perfect way to end the day. We drove back to the lodge in a hurry as my fellow Englishmen were very excited to watch the English football (soccer) match that evening. Jessica, Jordan, and I went to dinner around 7:30ish as we were very hungry and were 2/3 of our way through dinner when our hostess told us that she hadn't realized who we were and that there was a special dinner arranged for us (that sneaky Benjamin!). So we took our drinks and followed her quite a ways away from the main hall to where a private dinner had been set up under the African stars (we saw the southern cross! yay!). It was close to a water hole (on the other side of a fence) and we were told to watch for lions and elephants that often came there in the evening to drink. We were joined by Ben, Kathryn, Tim, and Susan, and while we had already eaten quite a bit, we found a little more room in our tummies and enjoyed another delicious meal and some extremely tasty African wine. Unfortunately, even though Tim did his VERY accurate lion-call, we didn't see any animals... but we did have a wonderful time. Then we all headed back to the bar to cheer on England. Sadly the game ended in a 0-0 tie, but we had enough drinks and laughter to make up for it. My favorite part was when Ben's brother texted him "what a pile of pants!" which became my new favorite English phrase :) We all headed to bed very late, moaning as we had to be back in the lobby at 5am for our balloon flight the next morning... but all the fun was well worth it :) Click on this link to see the pictures!

Trip Report Part IV (The equator, Thompson Falls, and Lake Nakuru Safari)

So Thursday morning (6/17) I woke up at 4am. I don't know if I kept waking up so early because of the screwy time difference or because I was just so excited for more Africa... but anyway, I spent about an hour looking at the pictures from the day before on my camera. Then I was up and showered and repacked as we were leaving that morning for our next lodge at Lake Nakuru. We headed to the restaurant for breakfast at 6:30 but were re-directed as Benjamin had arranged a surprise private champagne breakfast for us! This was slightly ironic as he was always on our case about being on time in the morning, and it was his special breakfast that made us late to the van :) But anyway, after a yummy breakfast, we piled back in Jesus and headed south. By this time the novelty of driving through Africa had worn off a little and the roads were worse which made for a really not fun couple of hours. Also, every time the van stopped (at checkpoints or to get gas) we were just accosted by people. It is a very strange experience to be such a minority - and as such a minority we were very interesting to anyone who saw us. In addition to that, with the poverty in the country, we were a target to sell to and beg from. We closed the windows every time the van stopped, but this did not stop people from knocking and yelling at us. I never felt like we were actually in danger, but it was uncomfortable - even worse when it was children. This was probably another reason that the government and safari companies set up established stopping points (where we could get out) along the way.
So our first real stop was the equator! The big science nerd that I am found this to be very exciting. Our demonstrator had a bowl with a hole in the bottom which he would fill up with water. First we walked about 20 yards north of the equator. He filled up the bowl and then as the water drained out the hole, he floated a match stick on the water. It spun counterclockwise, and even if you physically stopped it or spun it the other direction, it would correct itself to spin counterclockwise. Then we all walked about 20 yards south of the equator. This time the match spun clockwise and again would correct itself even if you changed it. Then the coolest part was we all went and stood on the equator - and the match does not spin at all!! If you make it spin in either direction it just stops! It's so neat :) Our demonstrator told us that the indigenous peoples of Africa have used this method for a long time to determine their north/south location. Very cool :)
After taking some pictures, we were off to our next stop, Thompson Falls. In order to get there, we started down into the Great Rift Valley. We didn't stop to take pictures as we were coming back on the way back to Nairobi... but it was a better view on this day than the day we ended up with. Anyway - it's huge. Enormous. Really REALLY big. It's been a long time since I've been to the Grand Canyon, but the rift is much much bigger. For a quick geology lesson - it is an area where the current African Plate (as in tectonic plate - not time-for-dinner plate) is being split into two plates. The area that we drove into (which includes Lake Nakuru) is known as the Eastern Rift valley. It is much more lush in vegetation than the Shaba area we had just been and was also cooler. There were a lot of coffee and tea farms along the road. So eventually we got to Thompson Falls (named after a Scottish naturalist - also who Thompson's Gazelles are named after) where the Ewaso Narok River jumps 243 feet down. (Just FYI the Ewaso Narok River is a tributary of the Ewaso Ngiro River - the same river we were on at Shaba - which also FYI translates to "the river of muddy water"). I have to say that Thompson Falls was just a big waterfall. Nice, but not all that impressive. I had more fun playing with the chameleons that a local guy had for tourists to hold (for a price of course!)
After Thompson Falls it was off to Lake Nakuru which we could see from a distance for a while driving down further into the valley. Lake Nakuru is an alkaline lake as it has no outlet and thus evaporation concentrates the minerals that are deposited by inlet sources. This makes it a perfect home for flamingos who feed on the algae that grow in the warm shallow water (by the way, flamingos are pink from the algae they eat - NOT shrimp!) So first we went to Sarova Lion Hill lodge. Honestly, this lodge was a disappointment after Shaba. The rooms were not as nice (especially mine which was like 5 miles away (slight exaggeration)) and the staff was certainly NOT as friendly or helpful (we had some issues here.) But anyway, we dropped our stuff and had lunch (one thing I never got use to on this trip was having an early breakfast and late - 2:00ish - lunch) but the bbq chicken, creamed spinach and waldorf salad was yummy!! Then we met Benjamin at the van around 3:30. He practically threw us in the van and floored it into the park. We were a little dumbfounded as we went flying past rhinos and buffalo and other animals we hadn't seen yet, but Benjamin said he had a surprise for us. So we finally got to our destination, and Benjamin told us that there was a leopard sleeping in the ditch about 20 feet from the car. (All the safari vehicles have radios to stay in touch and in case of emergencies) Now I was SO tickled as a leopard was #1 on my Africa list, and it turns out that it is also Benjamin's favorite animal. He had not seen one in over a year, so he was as excited as we were. Unfortunately, the leopard was apparently in no hurry to get up from her nap. We stayed there for a while watching for her, and watched as the troupe of baboons discovered her and barked an alarm... but she didn't get up. Fortunately, very nearby we saw a momma and baby rhino... and thus we met Julian. He was the most adorable little stinker :) We had a blast watching him challenge huge buffalo with no fear. It was hard to tell if the buffalo thought it was funny or annoying! At one point he was surrounded by about five or six adult male buffalo and you could kind of see him thinking "oh crap!" at which point Mom kind of strolled over to rescue him. We also watched him napping and nursing. He was SOOOOOO cute!!
AND THEN... we saw this beautiful spotted head appear from the ditch. I was so excited :) We watched the leopard watching the gazelles for a long time. You would think that all the willpower we were throwing out would have just sucked a gazelle right towards her, but they wandered close, and then far, and then closer, and then father... and then FINALLY she went for one. She was incredibly fast, but the gazelle spotted her and she gave up pretty quickly. Then she turned around and I think was quite surprised to see the audience that had gathered to watch her. She played it very cool and elegantly disappeared into the grass. It was the most incredible experience :) Benjamin was also thrilled as in the 10 years of being a safari guide he had NEVER seen a leopard hunting. So now in addition to the "happy bus" we were the "lucky bus" too :) We headed down to the lake to say hi to the flamingos (Ben named them Reginald Pinkington Smythe the I, II, III, etc... hee hee!) and then drove back to the lodge in the misty twilight. All the trees around Lake Nakuru are yellow-bark acacia trees. They really are this weird greenish yellow color and make the forests feel very alienish. We had another yummy dinner and then it was early to bed! This wasn't the best overall day of the safari (that's still coming up!), but the leopard and Julian were my favorite animals of the trip! Click on this link to see the pictures from this wonderful day.

Trip Report Part III (Samburu, Safari, and Swimming)

So Wednesday (6/16) I woke up again before the alarm went off (5:15am) and was wide awake, so I got up and showered. Kind of creepy side note - I had gotten up a couple of times during the night, walked around barefoot in the dark and such. So there is mosquito netting around the beds and apparently when Jessica woke up there was a HUGE spider in their net and another in their bathroom (and I saw it - BIG spider!) I'm very glad they were in her room and not mine!!
Anyway, I got up and then proceeded to watch the baboons playing in the trees by the river. This area, by the way, is one of the places that Joy Adamson (the lady who wrote Born Free) lived... and it was very surreal to sit there and watch something in real life that I had read described in such vivid detail. Also, baboons really do "bark" at each other. They are very noisy, but also fun to watch. We all met for breakfast at 7:00 (including fresh-off-the-tree pineapple... YUM!!) and then headed to the van to start our day.
The evening before, Benjamin had suggested that we visit a local village, and we were all game for that, so that was the first stop of the day. It was a very unique experience, starting with the women of the tribe welcoming us with a dance and "supa" which means "hello". Then they invited the women of our group to dance with them (which we did) they also put many necklaces on us and then men in our group. Then all of us were invited into the village. The women danced more, and then the men of our group were invited to dance with the men of the tribe. Then the men showed us how they made fire (pretty quickly!). This was followed by an introduction to their goats (herding is their livelihood - other villages we saw had cows, sheep, and camels too). They drink the milk, and often the blood of the animals, but rarely eat the meat. They gather wild vegetation for other foodstuffs as well. They were very confused when we named one of the baby goats! :) Then we got a tour of the school and one of their houses. Chili, a woman who had attended a missionary school and spoke pretty fluent English was our guide. She also helps teach in the school, and it was interesting to share perspectives with her. The children at the school were thrilled that we came to visit and sang us a couple of songs, including (oddly enough) "I'm a little teapot." Chili and I exchanged email addresses (I am assuming she walks several miles to the resort to have internet access) and I am looking forward to keeping in touch with her. As the Estes Park 3rd graders do a big Africa unit, I am hoping they will be able to send some care packages to this school. We also got to see the inside of one of their homes (very different from ours, to say the least). Chili also talked to us about the culture of the Samburu tribespeople - the roles of men and women (women do 90% of the work!) and their polygamous society. As the token single girl in our group, I received my first marriage proposal - a very good offer as I would be "first wife" but I had to decline. We ended our visit by buying some of their artwork and jewelry and then piled back in Jesus to head to another game drive. It's very hard to describe the experience that morning... I think I am still in the process of taking it all in. So while I certainly went to Africa for the animals, I am very glad to have had the experience with the Samburu people. Life sometimes is the most interesting when you least expect it :)
So then we drove to another park (I think it was called Isiolo, but that was also the name of the closest town, so I could be wrong). It was very hot, but there was also a really nice breeze. Benjamin said we were very lucky as that (breeze) was unusual for that area. We saw some zebras (both kinds), warthogs, ostriches, and more giraffes. We also found a troupe of baboons in the trees and several Grant's Gazelles and Oryxes. Benjamin stopped the van along the river when he hear a lot of birds making a racket. "They don't just make noise!" he said, and sure enough, we spotted our first lion. We got just a glimpse of him (Benjamin said it was a her, but looking at pictures, we think it was a him) and then he disappeared into the trees. We drove a little further along the way he had been headed and then Benjamin stopped the car. It took us a while to see what Benjamin had seen, but sure enough, we were being watched. Very creepy but VERY cool! I love those pictures :) Then we found a female elephant who's herd had crossed to the other side of the river, but she was quite content to entertain us for a while. We drove a bit more and found another herd of elephants including two delightful babies :) We watched them for a long time until they decided to move on down to the river. (Some of my favorite pictures are of the mom itching herself on the tree!!) Then we found a couple of giraffes (with a baby!) After a couple more hours it was VERY hot and very very dusty, so we were quite content to head back to the lodge. Many of the lodges welcome you with a cool washcloth that smells like eucalyptus - and it was disgusting to see how much dirt came off when we wiped our faces! We had another scrumptions lunch around 2:00 (a beef dish with fried bread and fresh veggies - and more "shooters" for dessert!)
That afternoon we had the option of going on a nature walk down the river, but Jess, Jordan and I chose to spend the afternoon in the pool instead. Ben and Kathryn also passed on the walk, and Tim and Susan went (but it sounded like we didn't miss much). We had a blast playing in the pool with my camera that could go underwater and laughed until we were in danger of drowning :) Then we went back to the rooms for showers and naps. In the evening Jessica and I had umbrella drinks (well, the umbrellas ended up blowing away in the wind, but we DID have umbrella drinks) and good girl-talk by the river while Jordan watched some football. Then we all went and watched the feeding of the crocodiles by the river and then had our own dinner. That night I had a pork stir fry. Yum-a-liscious! Jordan and I have great conversations/debates, so we really enjoyed dinner conversations. I was also entertained by the (cute) waiter who told Jordan that he could have free beer if he would leave one of his women (Jessica or I) for him. Jordan volunteered me, but I made him pay for the beer anyway :) After dinner we went and exchanged some money and checked emails at the hotel office. On the way back to the rooms, I unfortunately stepped on an acacia thorn. They are huge and very sharp and I had about 1/2 an inch go into my big toe. It hurt. Lots and lots of swear words. Luckily the thorns do not have any toxic chemicals on them, and we cleaned out my foot with hand sanitizer (which did NOT lessen the hurting!!) So all in all it was fine, but it certainly hurt for a couple of days. It was 11:00ish by the time I hit the pillow, but (other than the thorn) it was a really great day :) Click here to see pictures from this day.

Trip Report Part II (Safari Day 1)

So Tuesday morning (6/15) I woke up at 4:30am and couldn't go back to sleep. I re-organized my suitcase and backpack as I had brought a bunch of stuff for Jessica and Jordan and then took another heavenly shower. I laid around and watched soccer (of the 26 TV channels, 18 of them had soccer on) until a little after 6:00 when I called Jess and Jordan's room (we were meeting for breakfast at 6:30, so I knew they were up) and then took them all their stuff. We went down to breakfast together where we enjoyed the first of many delicious meals (more about the food later). We then went back up to finish packing as we were meeting the rest of our safari crew and our driver in the lobby at 7:15.
We all piled in the van (later named Jesus - the Spanish pronunciation) and made our introductions. Benjamin, our driver for the week is a native Kenyan who has been doing game drives for 10 years. Kathryn and Ben are from London where Ben manages 3 pubs (that's right, I've now got connections!) and they were on their honeymoon. Also on their honeymoon were Tim and Susan, also English, who were in the process of transitioning between London and New York. I have to pause here and say and extra-special thank-you to the Safari Gods because we got SO lucky with our safari crew. They were HILARIOUS and we had so much fun together. Benjamin called us the "happy bus."
So we were off!!! Or... so we thought. Because we proceeded to get stuck in the worst and scariest traffic jam ever. I honestly do not know how we didn't die at least 400 times...and add to that the fact that we had to keep the windows closed (for safety reasons - more on that later) and it was humid and about a million degrees inside the van - and Nairobi has VERY bad air pollution... I was miserable. If this is Africa, I thought, I want to go home. But, thanks to Benjamin, we didn't die 400 times, and we finally made it out of the traffic. The "suburbs" of Nairobi are full of very dilapidated buildings and make-shift camps. As the country of Kenya has between 30-40% unemployment, there is ALOT of poverty. It was certainly an eye-opener. However, the further from the city we traveled, the more we got into farm country. 75% of those that are employed in Kenya work in agriculture. There were pineapple, coffee, tea, wheat, corn, and many other kinds of farms. Another big crop for Kenya is roses, and we saw miles and miles of greenhouses. Anyway, the no-speed-limit was a good thing for us, as we were way behind in time from the traffic jam - so we made pretty good time for the rest of the 6 hour drive. Also, the pollution got much better out of the city, and the high 70's temperatures, while cool for native Africans, was really nice. The best part about the drive for me was all the different kinds of trees. I LOVE African trees. One funny anecdote - while driving out of Nairobi, Susan and I saw a bunch of huge birds in a tree. Tim instantly said they were vultures (which they definitely were NOT) and so from then on, EVERY bird we saw was a vulture :) Anyway...we stopped once at a designated spot (apparently a place that is approved by the Kenyan board of tourism for being safe) to have a potty break and do a little shopping. This was my first introduction to bargaining, and thank goodness for Jordan, who got my purchase of a really pretty big canvas silhouette painting thingy down from 14,000 shillings to 5,000 shillings!! ($65 dollars). We also drove past Mt. Kenya, but sadly it was covered in clouds so we couldn't see the top of the 17,057ft peak. The other rather-not-fun part about the day (and many days to come) was the state of the roads in Kenya. They are... basically... CRAP. And thus travelers often receive what is known as the "Free African Massage" aka getting bounced around ALOT. It was very much like riding in the back of a camp van (for those of you who can relate). So, needless to say, we were all VERY happy to finally reach our first lodge. This was the Sarova Shaba Game Lodge located on the banks of the Ewaso Ngiro River. Luckily Benjamin had radioed ahead to have them hold lunch for us (as it was 3:00 by the time we got there) and we were STARVING. We toasted to our survival and had a delicious lunch. We dashed off to drop our stuff off in our rooms, took a few quick pictures of the local vervet monkeys, and then it was off for our first game drive.
This part of Africa is very arid and hot. It is surrounded by 8 very old volcanoes and thus has a very rocky and unique landscape (kind of like Craters of the Moon in Idaho for those of you who have been there). It was late in the afternoon, so not incredibly hot, but definitely very warm. Anyway, the first thing we saw was a giraffe!! He was a lone male reticulated giraffe and was very cool :) This was followed by a guinea fowl and then our first elephant. Just to give you an example of how much I love my safari crew - it wasn't even MY idea to name the animals we saw :) and thus this handsome bull elephant was dubbed Bernard (pronounced Bernerd - the British way!) We watched him for quite some time, and then drove further to a lookout point. Another funny Tim-ism was when he was trying to point out some animals off in the distance and said they were near the tree -- the one with green on the top and brown on the bottom. The smartass that I am proceeded to ask him if it was the tree that had a vulture in it :) Oh dear :) On the way back we saw Bernard again (he was in the road, and thus had the right of way) and then a gerenuk gazelle (also known as a giraffe-neck antelope as they have a crazy-long neck). There were also a lot of tiny gazelles known as dik-diks which I don't think I ever got a picture of, but who are smaller than Sherlock! We made it back to the lodge as the sun was setting, had a quick rest in our rooms, and then Jess, Jordan, and I met for a fantastic dinner around 8:00. For dinner that night I had lamb-kabobs, caramelized butternut squash, fresh stir-fry veggies, and delicious bread. For dessert we had what I think is triffel - a alcohol soaked fruit-jam-concoction covered with cream. They were in shotglasses and were SOOOOO yummy. I think I had at least 3 of them :) After a lot of good conversation, we agreed to hit the sack, and I think I hit the pillow around 9:30 listening to the tune of African insects and the soft song of the river. I was already in love :) Click on this link for the pictures from this day.