3-Day Weekend in Kenya

Early Friday morning the three of us flew to Nairobi (a 45-minute flight) and spent the day doing some of the tourist attractions there including the Giraffe Center where we fed giraffes, the Kazuri Factory, and saw the home from the "Out of Africa" movie.  We then went to Ramesh and Matt's home, which is beautiful, and had a lovely time meeting their daughter Shireen. We all went to a delicious Italian restaurant and had real cheese which is something we've all missed!!  We had a very relaxing evening and a fun time with the Cohens!!

Little Miss Shireen and daddy Matt in their front entrance way

Ramesh and I... friends since undergrad orientation over 10 years ago!!

Saturday morning we were picked up by our safari guide Duncan and we drove out to the Masai Mara which was about a 5-hour drive.  The Mara is a game reserve in South-West Kenya that covers over 580 square miles and crosses over into Tanzania.  On the ride there, we saw the Great Rift Valley, which spans from Israel to Mozambique, and overall the ride wasn't bad, but the last couple hours were quite bumpy!! But once we got there it was just amazing.... On our very short 2-day safari we saw, and I mean were REALLY close to, giraffes, gazelles, water buffalo, lions, elephants, mongoose, zebras, tortoises, wildebeest, jackals, antelopes, hyenas, warthogs, cheetahs, ostriches, and several exotic birds including the bird on the Uganda flag, the grey crowned crane.  Here are just a few a of the hundreds of pictures I took....

A herd of elephants on the mountain

A much closer elephant

An elephant herd walking right in front of the van

Wildebeest

A whole group of giraffes

This giraffe was totally checking us out

A water buffalo, which is the most dangerous of THE BIG FIVE

A female lion sunning herself

Momma lion looking after the cubs

Silly zebra

We felt very lucky to find these cheetahs, as there are only 3 living in this whole side of the Mara

A family of warthogs

Sunset

At our lodge, which was a really nice place if anyone is considering a safari in the near future, they feed hyenas off the back porch at night... the eerie laugh they make was really unnerving! Luckily, they are also guards that walk you to your villas after dark because the wildlife is so close!

The feeding of the hyenas... the video is gross!!

On the second day we visited a Masai Village where we learned a lot about their culture. The Masai wear red cloth and bright beads in order to appear threatening to animals that might be after their herds.  They have cattle and goats, and spend all day protecting the grazing cattle. Their diet consists only of meat, cow's blood, and milk because the land is too dry for them to grow crops.  The older generations also have the "stretched out" earlobes, but they younger generations are not continuing this tradition as it "gets in the way of playing soccer and other sports."  Their huts are made of sticks and cow dung, and you can't believe the flies that are around there!!

Masai teenager showing us how they make fire

The "older generation" Masai

We had an amazing time on the safari!! I would love to go again, and for longer!!
And as an added bonus, on our way back to the airport a baboon crossed the street right in font of us... certainly not something you see everyday!!