This is the first of a series of posts following me and my friend Amy to Kenya to visit her sister, Ali, in the Peace Corps there until this upcoming December. I am using a majority of my online travel journal to write these blog posts. We left on our adventure on March 31st from Minneapolis.
Well, after two 8 hour flights and 8 time zones, we got to Nairobi and then passport control took forever. We finally got through, and then through baggage claim and saw Ali! The two of them and their reunion (18 months apart I think?) made me cry too. Got a taxi and made it to our hotel, one the peace corps uses. Not fancy, but safe and has running water. We then went to the bar next door for our first Kenyan beer - Tusker, since we apparently weren't tired enough yet (or trying to adjust to the time zone). Pretty good and a nice atmosphere in a thatched roof thing. We went back to our room to go to bed and an Indian bar next door blared Indian music long into the night. Had to break out the earplugs, but that didn't even work too well. Amy and I had our first experience sleeping under mosquito nets. Amy had seen a mosquito flying around earlier and yelled out 'Malaria!' It was too funny.
We woke up in Kenya, but I don't think any of us three slept very well, although Amy and I should have been exhausted. Had breakfast at the hotel. Papaya is gross here. Unsweetened and tastes like crap. My scrambled eggs and the sausage was good though. The pineapple juice was wonderful. Then off to the local mall to exchange some money. And buy a smoothie. Then we bought our tickets for the bus ride tomorrow...which ended up being a long and tedious task, everything moves slow in Kenya. We then set up a taxi to take us around for a half day.
First, we went to the elephant orphanage. So freakin cute! We got to watch them feed for only 500 shillings. There was a four month old there who was just adorable. And one whose mother had been poached and them he was attacked by hyenas and lost most of his trail. While we were there, a thunderstorm rolled in and unleashed holy hell on us. Amy and I clamored for shelter under the eaves of a nearby house. The lady who owned it was so nice and actually let us inside to get out of the rain. The house was gorgeous with preserved cedar trees used as beams and incorporated into the cement walls. She also had gorgeous dark wood furniture, some 100 years old. We finally decided we should go and find Ali, even though it was still raining quite hard out. She apparently had been hiding out in a stable. The path down to the elephants had turned into a red mud river by the time we tried to run back, which of course slowed us down and soaked our feet and shoes. We ran into some local rooms and under some more eves as we made our way back to the parking lot. Luckily the cab and Ali were waiting for us a little father into the property. We were still soaked and I was thankful I had left my sweater in the car and that I had invested in a waterproof purse for my camera.
This is the 4 month old baby.
Next up, a trip to the giraffe sanctuary. The rain had subsided by the time we got there. There was a big elevated platform there so the giraffes were at eye level with us. We got to feed them carrots and 'treats'. One giraffe named Arlene was very friendly and loved the carrots. We each held a piece of carrots in our mouth and she 'kissed' us to get the piece of carrot. It was so fun! And we got some awesome pics. We did that for awhile and then checked out the gift shop. Bought a few things. Our taxi driver brought us to a little shop on the side of the road for souvenirs, but they weren't willing to haggle enough, so we left empty handed.
Kisses from Arlene!
This is one of my favorite pictures! Would you believe this is after Amy had already had a couple of giraffe kisses from her?
We got back to the hotel and were starving and tired. We decided to eat first at the restaurant attached to the hotel. It had more 'americanized' food. We met Ali's fellow peace corps volunteer Cindy here. After eating we went back to the hotel room for a much needed nap. We had decided to go to an Ethiopian restaurant for supper. We walked there, probably for 15 to 20 minutes. It was pretty good, nothing like I had ever eaten before. Hard to explain, but the bread was in rolls (really, they actually unrolled) that we tore bits off of and then used it to dip or pick up different kinds of dip and other toppings.
Amy had brought Flat Stanley along with us for a local kindergarden teacher, so you may see him show up in a few pictures
We cabbed it back to the hotel since it was dark out. Back at the hotel room we packed a bit, showered, and just did some more catching up. Bedtime brought more Indian music.
The next day (our 3rd) started out pretty interesting as Ali accidentally turned off her alarm and then we had 5 minutes to get ready before the taxi came for us... it was 6am. Then, we got to the bus station and they pushed back our departure time by 1 hour. When we finally got going, we traveled to Ali's village, Amagoro, close to the Uganda boarder. We took the Easy Coach and it took 9.5 hours. Crazy! The first bit was okay, we drove by the Rift Valley, I journaled, and read and finished the book The Hunger Games. The last part of the journey got very long and very bumpy. Once there, we hired bikes called boda bodas to haul our luggage to Ali's house. She made us a wonderful meal of rice and veggies. We sat and ate it out her back door enjoying the view and watching her neighbors chickens. By then, we were so tired and with full stomachs that we were all ready for bed - at 7:30!
