Out of Africa

Sung to the tune of Toto's Africa...

Its gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had

So sorry I have not blogged during my entire tour of Africa. Internet was patchy if non-existent in most places. I have seen some crazy things and I enjoyed my time here, though I may have grumbled along the way. I have plenty of stories that I journaled about which will make it on the blog in the coming weeks.

The highlights include:

Carla's horseback ride in Jinja, Uganda
The time we hit a man with a bus in Uganda
Bumpy roads numbered 67, 78 and 436.
The first time I saw a giraffe (or 15 of them)
My encounter with a leopard
An inquisitive-hostile-bush pig meets Carla's tent
Class 5 Rafting
Hearing a lion roar from 5 miles away
The first time I heard Toto's Africa playing
Negotiating the Nairobi markets


As I said, there are too many stories to name now but rest assured, my faithfuls, there is some good material coming. And without further ado, I will dive in to number one entitled, For Stress Free Writing...


For Stress Free Writing, Use Crown Pens

I flew into Kenya from Addis Ababa, and before that from Rome. The Rome adventure included the Italians as previously mentioned. I met a really cool Canadian woman who helped me to unwind. So then after negotiating a taxi price I made it to the hotel. It was in a quiet part of town near the University. I met the group comprised of 2 Missourians, a family of 3 Chinese Canadians, another Chinese man who lives in Canada, 2 Brits in their 20's and Alphonce our Tanzanian guide.

We had the opening meeting and got the trip sorted out. Our plan for the next day was to get up early to catch a bus to Kisumu, the 3rd largest city in Kenya. Never heard of it? Neither had I. So we get to the bus station via one stinky taxi ride. The bus rolls up. It is a coach bus with all the windows blacked out. As I ascended the steps in the bus I almost gagged from the smell. The body odor was horrendous not to mention the fact that there were 50 people and absolutely no air movement to speak of. I sat down and got the whole seat to myself. We took off and after a few minutes the gentle rocking lulled me to sleep.

Wa-bam. Wham. I jolted awake. It seems we had left the immediate outskirts of Nairobi and were on the "highway." I looked down the aisle and almost screamed as we swerved to miss an oncoming bus. It seems that though Kenya was a British colony and they are supposed to drive on the left side, all the drivers are tempted over to the right. The oncoming traffic wants to drive on their right. We want to drive on our right. Why don't they simply change sides of the road? That would prevent things like the last minute swerve from happening. But no, that would be logical. More logical would be to pave roads. But that is an entire other blog entry.

So we continue on like this for 5 more hours. Seriously, 5 more. We stop at a small gas station to eat lunch. Lunch choices were either a sketchy looking buffet (no thanks, the bus stinks enough) or the supermarket. I was excited with the prospect of eating some Kenyan snacks. I chose carefully a box of cream cookies. For about 35 cents, you can't be wrong.

But I was.

Since the selection in the store was limited to cookies or bread, I thought I chose wisely and safely. The cookies were the grossest sweet I have ever eaten. Manufactured sugar covered in sugar. You know that feeling you get on your teeth when you eat something so sugary that they start to hurt? Yeah. Exactly.

That was my lunch. We get back in the bus. The stink has intensified in the afternoon heat. I forgot to mention the noise. Apparently the bus driver thinks we like the talk radio on really really loudly. Two African woman discussing... who should paint a house. For 2 hours. On full blast. Nobody was enjoying it.

Another 4 more hours and we roll in to Kisumu. It was a booming metropolis. No, I'm just kidding. Another stinky taxi ride and we are at the New Victoria Hotel, right on Lake Victoria. It was simple to say the least. But at least it was quiet and had a bathroom. If you compare the alternative to camping, the NVH was a palace. After showering we had dinner at the hotel restaurant. It was mostly Indian food which turned out to be good. The next day we planned to go out on Lake Victoria and take a boat ride to an island with a crazy monkey population.

The next day emerges. We ride the boat that looks like it would have been condemned in the United States around 30 years ago. But it has a GAP sticker on it (the tour company) so it must be relatively safe, right? We head out and spot a hippo on the way. It was about 200 meters away from us and we were trying really hard to get pictures of it. Eluded. Then they started telling us about this crazy plant called Hyacinth that is taking over the Lake Vicky as we affectionately called her. The Hyacinth apparently was blocking the way to the island. So after a few hours on the boat, we turn around and go to this small island that has a fishing colony. It was interesting to see. Every tree we saw our local guide identified and then told us the genus and species name. Who knows if he was right. After a few more hours we headed back to Kisumu town and our lovely hotel.

That concludes day 2. And right before bed we got a lovely visit from Alfred the gecko hanging out in our room. It was an adventure trying to get him out of our room but some creative towel throwing encouraged his departure.