Sunday, August 4, 2013

Around Kenya



For the last week, I have been traveling around a little.   Spent 4 days on a safari organized by NVS - the volunteer organization I am working with here.  The arrange an inexpensive trip with 3 days in the Masai Mara National Game Reserve and 1 at Lake Nakuru National Park.  It exceeded all my expectations.  I saw all of the big 5 animals - buffalo, rhino, leopard, lion and elephant - and tons more!  Here are a few of my pictures. (More to come when I get faster internet) The lions on the left were fighting over a female.  We saw this in our first 30 minutes of our first game drive in the Masai Mara.  I was also surprised at the number of young we saw - lion cubs, elephant, giraffe, monkeys, hippos, rhinos.











After the safari, I went down to the coast and spent a few days in Diani Beach, south of Mombasa with a few other volunteers.  The weather was warmer here and the water beautiful!  The people are more relaxed here and the pace much slower, than the hustle and bustle of the capital city of Nairobi.  We enjoyed a few days just relaxing on the beach.  I honed my bargaining skills, while negotiating for rides on my new favorite mode of transportation, the picky-picky (motorbike).  I wouldn't pay more than 20 Ksh for 1 km - which works out to be about 20 cents US.


For the last two days I have been in Zanzibar, but I miss the sweet faces of the Children's Hope Home and have decided to head back there tomorrow, cutting my travels short to spend my last week with the children who have captured my heart.  They are hard to resist.