Jambo!
Mom and I are back in Nairobi at the Stanley hotel. Though I thought we would have more access to internet I was incorrect. Cell phone coverage was amazing but not so for internet so I will be doing some postdated up loads in the coming days. That is, if I have access to wireless when I am in Nairobi. I certainly hope so.
Mom and I had a wonderful trip. We started at Amboseli, which in the Masai language means dust. That pretty well sums it up! The ground is just dust with a few plants and trees. Its a very fragile ecosytem and the animals are a blessing and a curse to the ground is what we were told. We saw so many animals, up close and personal! Elepants, at one point a herd of 40, Wildabeasts, zebra's, gazelles, girraffe, and even lions! We had a wonderful guide named James who shared so much information with us about the Amboseli and it's inhabitants, inlcuding the Masai. We shared a land rover with a couple from Japan, and a young man from Mexico, though his parents were from China and he is currently living in Leggos. It was really neat to get to know them and share this experience.
From Amboseli we flew back to Nairobi and were taken to Lake Nakuru. It was about a four hour drive through some very interesting landscape. John, our driver, was so informative. We learned about the different communities we were going through and then once we got to the park he told us all about the animals we were seeing. The funniest part of the trip occurred as Mom and I were waiting in the parking lot outside of the Lake Nakuru park while John was getting tickets. Huge baboons were playing everywhere. We had watched them get into a car that the owners had left their windows open while they too went to buy tickets. The baboons had a field day in their car, dumping their sodas all over the inside and wrecking whatever they could find. John told Mom and I that he was rolling up his window so that they couldnt do the same while he was gone. I missed the fact that even if we were sitting in the car waiting the baboons might wish to come in for a visit as they were not at all shy. Mom and I were sitting in the van looking out her window and when I turned back around a huge male baboon was pulling himself up threw my open window. You always hope you will handle these situations with grace and little fuss.... yup-didnt quite happen that way, I screamed like a girl and pushed the baboon away. The baboon then sat under my window and pouted. Mom and I laughed. I really have no desire to see another baboon that close again.
From Lake Nakuru we drove back to Nairobi and flew to Masai Mara. We were greeted by a game driver that took us to our next home, the Governor's Camp. While signing in the manager explained to us that after 6 p.m. and before 7 a.m. we must be escorted by armed guards (who carried automatic weapons and rifles!)to our tents because of the animals that meander through the camp. The night before we arrived a lion and lioness had taken a courting stroll right in front of the tent we would be staying in. We both thought maybe they were exgarreating a bit, however as we were escorted to our tent we could see the lion tracks, elephant tracks, walked right past a wharthog and were shown a 6 foot crocodile nesting 200 yards from our tent! Needless to say we saw some amazing animals and I cant wait to post all of our pictures. I tried to post some tonight but the one I did get up took forever!
From the Mara we returned back to Nairobi and went to Swara Plains for two nights. It was wonderful to see what David Hopcraft has been doing and yesterday we had a very nice lunch together. We left Swara Plains this morning and had a very full day of sightseeing. We started with visiting the baby elephant sanctuary, then went to the giraffe sancturary where we were able to feed the giraffes, and finally we ended at the Karen Blixon museum. She was the author of Out of Africa and seems to have had large impact on the area just outside of Nairobi.
So that is our last week in a nutshell. Mom flies home tomorrow and I head to Mukuru Slums. It has been a wonderful week and I cant believe how fast the time has gone. I hope that in the coming days I will have more internet access so I can write more but if not I am sure when I get to a real hotel again in South Africa I can post more.
I hope you all are well and fall is in the air back home!
Much love!
E
PS- I am writing fairly quickly so please forgive the misspellings and typos!
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