Kenya (Rachel)

Well we're back online here in Lake Bunyonyi, Uganda, but more about that after we do a little catching up!

Kenya was amazing. The night after the last blog, we went for some traditional Kenyan nyama choma (bbq, mostly goat) at a place in town. The boys ordered 3 kilos of goat meat to share and I ordered fish and french fries. Three hours (and a few beers later), we headed off to the infamous Florida 2000. This place is a nightclub over a gas station, complete with sketchy tourists, their young Kenyan "girlfriends" (if only for the evening), and more neon lights than the entire town of South Beach put together. We had some beers, danced a bit (Andrew made friends with a group of Chinese tourists and danced with most of them, including one man's wife at his suggestion), then sat down for the "cultural show." Kevin had told us about the show, but every time he said "cultural," he laughed a bit, so we weren't quite sure what we were in for. The show consisted of six Kenyan dancers recreating dances from different areas of the world. It's hard to explain what made it so funny -- Kevin summed it up best when he called it "tasteless but harmless." We were cracking up the whole time, but most of the people were watching the show intently.

After having shown us a good amount of Nairobi, Kevin organized a trip for us to go with a big group of his friends (some from work, some other fellow ex-pats) to Lake Nakuru, a game park famous for its lake populated with thousands of pink flamingos. We left in the morning and caravanned the three hour drive, stopping to pick up some Massai blankets at a shop overlooking the (gorgeous) Great Rift Valley. When we got to Lake Nakuru, we had the first of many encounters with monkeys when we saw some climb into another person's car and steal some fruit. We got to our lodge, the Flamingo Tented Camp, and Justin, Andrew and I were shocked at how much nicer it was than some of the places we've stayed on this trip. We were greeted at the gate with cool towels, given fruit juice, and fed a fantastic buffet lunch that included custom-made naan (delicious!) before we headed out on our first game drive. The boys had been disappointed that we hadn't seen any rhinos in the Serenghetti, but we were spoiled in Lake Nakuru! We saw about two dozen rhinos in the first game drive and we stopped to take pictures of the beautiful flamingos (not too far from a skeptical-looking cape buffalo standing nearby). We brought wine to have "sundowners" (cocktails + sunset = sundowners), so we went to Baboon Cliffs to enjoy our drinks. Enter the baboons. We left the windows open, and the baboons were itching to get in to the car. Ginny, one of the girls we traveled with, stood up to one of the monkeys and was nearly attacked. When Justin had to go into the car to get a wine glass, one of the baboons stood on the windshield, angling to jump in when he opened the door. But the best moment was when one of the girls left her wine glass in a gazebo and a baboon walked up, picked it up (over a lot of vocal -- but no physical -- protest), took a sip and tossed it away. After that, we decided to cut our losses and head back to camp.

That night, we had dinner at the camp, but I wasn't feeling great so I decided to head back to the tent halfway through dinner. The waiter stopped me as I was walking out and asked what was the matter; when I told him I wasn't feeling well, but it wasn't the food, he leaned in and whispered: "I hope you are not starving yourself." I thanked him for his concern, turned down his very kind offer to bring me toast, and headed back to the tent, laughing. When I got back to the tent, I saw that they had left hot water bottles under the sheets to keep the bed warm, and needless to say I didn't make it back out that evening. Everyone else had drinks and hung out on the porch chatting, and we all had a great time. After another game drive in the morning, we headed back to Nairobi.

The next morning the boys went to hike Hell's Gate gorge, outside of Nairobi, while I ventured into downtown Nairobi to buy our tickets for the bus from Nairobi to Kampala, Uganda, for the next morning. When I was done, I headed to the cute bakery near Kevin's house and read a book while I waited for the boys to get home. When they arrived, we dropped Andrew off at the UN Environmental Program and Justin, Kevin and I headed for lunch at the Riverside Cafe, a gorgeous restaurant with a little lake with cute ducks. The next morning, we headed out early for our 12+ hour bus ride to Uganda.