Typed up: at Morad’s place in Cairo
Posted from: Morad’s place in Cairo

The bus ride to Kakamega was awful. It started out nice enough. We just wandered into the office, bought tickets, and with a little confusion got on a bus earlier than they told us we’d be able to catch. Our seats were in the back of the bus, and as soon as the bus took off some people raced from the back to some open seats closer to the front. That should’ve been a big hint that the back of the bus was not the place to be. The ride was extremely bumpy. It was of course continuously a bit bumpy, but we’re used to that. The real problem was the big bumps that came along every other minute or so. The bus was equipped with seat belts, and we used them so that we could stay in our seats without using our hands. Because of the many bumps, we didn’t see much out the window, although we did enjoy some rolling hills full of tea plants. Luckily, all bad things come to an end and after about 6 hours (including some short breaks) we arrived in Kakamega.

The reason to go to Kakamega is to see the last little bit of surviving rain forest that Kenya has. There used to be a lot of it, until the British came, built a rail road, and hauled it all away. From the description in our guidebook it sounded like Kakamega was nothing more than a few buildings on the side of the main road. In fact it is quite a bustling little town with several hotels, grocery stores, a market, etc. Because our guidebook didn’t list any hotels which sounded nice, we asked a lady from the bus company (Easy Coach, pretty good outfit) if she could recommend a place. She promptly personally walked us to the Golf Hotel. Unfortunately it’s a very nice hotel with a matching price. So after she’d left we talked with the receptionist a bit and eventually god her to recommend a cheaper place: Shyewe Guest House. We took too long finding a cab, and got to a now-familiar tired-and-carrying-our-packs-through-a-new-place state, but we found a cab who took us there.

Shyewe Guest House was exactly what we wanted. It had small rooms in our price range, was clean, and had a decent restaurant. The manager was very accommodating, and we even got a room upgrade because the hot water in the cheaper room he showed us wasn’t working. (I suspect that will work in general. Just ask to see the room before you buy it, and check the hot water.) We were very happy where we ended up for that night.

We got up early (again) because we only had 2 days for the forest, including getting there and back. At breakfast we met Kathrin from Germany. She had a ride set up for the forest in a real car, and thought we could come along. So we went and got our groceries (there was reportedly no food available where we were going). We managed to acquire a minimum of bread, fruit, hard boiled eggs, and water. We took a boda-boda back to the hotel, where we discovered that Kathrin’s ride was to the other side of the forest. So we did what the book suggested, and headed out for a matatu to Shinyalu.

The usual tactic of wandering into the main stand and saying the name of the place we want to go in a questioning manner got us to the right bus. In this case it was a Toyota pickup truck, with a hard shell. We got to sit in the back while our bags and food sat on the roof rack. While we were waiting for the truck to fill up, two women unashamedly breast-fed their babies, while the one sitting next to me held on to a live chicken. Eventually we had the required 13 people crammed in, and our truck took off. Along the way we picked up a few more, and it was crouching room only while another 2 passengers and the conductor hung onto the truck from the outside.

In Shinyalu we were immediately accosted by some boda-boda drivers, and we moved our stuff and attempted to get on 2 bicycles with it all. That didn’t work, so we got a 3rd bicycle for our bags, and we took off. Boda-bodas are a lot nicer than matatus in that you’re not crammed in, and you get to look around, and we took full advantage. We were biking on a dirt road, with small farm plots, stores, huts, etc. on either side of the road. It was quite busy with people and even bicycles, but cars were quite scarce. At a few points we had to get off and walk a bit because the hill was too long. It wasn’t very steep, but it doesn’t take much hill to slow you down when there’s 150 pounds on your bike rack.

We stayed at the KEEP Bandas. KEEP is the Kakamega Environmental Education Project, but the project has been successful enough that it has branched out into helping people with HIV, orphans, and other needy people. The bandas are simple cottages with cement walls, a thatched roof, and several beds. We were the only guests, and our banda was pretty nice. By the time we got there, it was lunch time and we ate a very basic lunch from the food we’d brought. Afterwards we met Gabriel, who would take us on a guided walk through the forest. The guides here are very reasonably priced, and it feels like a good deal. (This is in contrast with some other guided activities we’ve done, where I haven’t had that feeling.)

Gabriel took us into the forest, which is not like you imagine a rain forest. The growth is dense, but the terrain is pretty flat. The trees are tall, but plenty of sunlight still reaches the bottom. The main animals we saw were beautiful butterflies. There are about 400 species of them that live here, many endemic. Of course we spotted maybe 10, but it’s the idea that counts. We also saw a few colobus monkeys, which we learned have only 4 fingers. The best thing we saw were some of the huge strangler figs. Apparently they are taking over the forest, but they sure look cool with the buttress roots and hollow centers.

After a while we came to a grassland clearing in the center of the forest. This used to be swamp, but over time it’s slowly closing up. There was a lookout tower, and we spent quite a bit of time on the top relaxing, and talking about the differences between our countries. Gabriel talked about his volunteer work through KEEP, helping the needy. We agreed to do a “community tour” where Gabriel takes us to some of the homes of the families they help.

Then we walked back, and sat in the covered dining area while the local weather put the “rain” in “rain forest.” Contrary to what the guidebooks say, there is a kitchen at the bandas. Two women made us a simple meal of sukumu (green vegetable) and rice, which we supplemented with some hard boiled eggs. We ate next to a fire in metal/ceramic insulated bowl while talking to Anton, who is the caretaker. It was still raining as we went to bed, but not like the downpour that we had earlier. We slept great, and were not bothered by bugs at all.

The next morning we got up really early (again) so we’d have time to hike up a hill a ways away and enjoy the sunrise. Gabriel met us just after 5am, and we set off on a trail that felt too narrow, too overgrown, and too slippery. I had put new batteries in my head lamp in the morning, and was glad for it. But after not too long we got to a road, which we walked on for most of the way. There was some suspense when we heard a car up ahead, and Gabriel ushered us into some bushes by the side of the road. He said that sometimes, in other parts of Kenya, tourists get kidnapped, and he was just playing it safe. The truck was driving very slowly and passed by us without seeing us.

When we turned off the road, the sky was getting a little bit brighter. We walked another wet clay trail to go up. As before we saw several fox prints, but of course no critters. This was the time when the forest started to wake up a bit, and we could hear some colobus monkeys make their scraping calls, soon followed by the first bird calls. As we made our way up the final bit of the hill, the clouds turned a bright orange which had somewhat faded when we got to the top. The view was still really nice, with misty rain forest below and the sun creeping up behind a mountain range in the distance. The sound was really what made the experience, though: countless bird calls coming faintly from all directions.

Satisfied that we’d seen it all, we continued after a while down a different trail. We stopped at an old abandoned gold mine. The shaft went horizontally into the hill. Not very, but far enough that we needed our flashlights. Inside we saw fruit bats hanging from the low ceiling, so we really got a good look at them. We were maybe a foot away, and not all of them flew off immediately. It was very cool to see them so close. The rest of the walk was a straightforward walk through the forest, still listening to all the activity. We only saw a few birds, though. The main activity was talking about politics. The common thread here is that everybody we’ve talked to want Obama to win. We’ve also yet to meet anybody who has a feel for how big and diverse the US really is.

After a brief break at the bandas, we were ready to go on our community tour. In addition to Gabriel we were joined by 5 others who do a lot of work with the organization. For them this was maybe an even bigger event than it was for us. The group had brought some soaps along to distribute to the people so we wouldn’t feel empty-handed. Gabriel had warned us that this might be a very sad tour, and we were not disappointed. We walked on the main (clay, dirt) road a bit and then turned off onto a trail which led to a few huts on a small piece of land, with a small garden as well.

This was Rael’s home. She’s HIV positive, and has been for 11 years. She has 11 children, and the youngest (she’s in the picture) is also HIV positive. For having had that many children she still looked amazingly well. Overall she didn’t look very suck, just tired. She had the kind of tired excited energy you have when you stay up too late with the new video game you bought. It’ll keep you going for a while, but it’s not good. Her husband doesn’t have a steady job, so money is big problem for this family. They farm what little they can on the small plot they own, but it’s not nearly enough.

In general Kenyans have tight family and community bonds, and help each other out. However, there’s a strong stigma attached to HIV/AIDS to the point where people might move away if they find out their neighbors are infected. KEEP helps first of all by educating the people on what AIDS is and how it’s transmitted. This helps the people with the disease to understand what’s going on, but it also reduces the stigma associated with the disease. In addition, they also guide people on nutrition, help with HIV testing, and provide occasional financial support.

Our next stop was to look at two orphan boys, who lived with their grand parents. They suffered from a parasite locally known as “chiggers.” This is a small worm/leech-like thing that burrows into your skin, most often in the feet. By laying eggs and making baby parasites, they spread over the surface of the foot. If you scratch at it you may get the same thing on your hands when an egg gets stuck under your nail. The real cause is people walking around barefoot in a dusty area that is not kept clean enough. This is a big reminder that shoes and vacuuming are not just a luxury, they are in fact very important to our health!

John, who is in charge of health care for KEEP, had brought with him some drugs that kills the eggs and the critters. To use this was a 3-step process. First they washed the feet with soap. Then, using a razor blade and a needle (which weren’t sterilized as far as I could tell), he removed all the chiggers he could. This involved shaving off the bit of dead skin covering the chigger, and then prying it out with the needle. It looked quite painful, but the boys bravely took the punishment. Finally they washed their feet in a dilute solution of the drugs.

They had been undergoing this treatment for some months, and are much better. When they started they could barely walk because of the pain, and barely sleep because of the itching. This family appeared to be more well-off than Rael’s family. Their plot was slightly larger, and they even had a small lawn in front of their home. But they still would not be able to afford the required drugs without KEEP’s help. A single bottle of medicine costs about Ksh 170, which is about $2.50, and lasts for just a few treatments.

After this home, we walked for a while on small trails through farmland and past many more small homes. At one point a couple of girls walked with Danielle, just to be with the mzungu. We visited a man who had gone blind as a result of HIV. He was the breadwinner for his family, and could no longer do his job. Now his oldest son is working instead of going to school.

Finally we “met” somebody who was bed-ridden because of HIV. The drugs had affected her mentally as well, and she was no longer in any shape to do anything. While we were there she alternately stared at us and moaned. Her husband had died several years ago, so it was up to the oldest daughter, all of 17 years old, to run the family. It felt very awkward and intrusive to be there. KEEP primarily helps this family by counseling her and the neighbors. The sad story of HIV in this part of the world is that the people survive for as long as the family is able to afford the drugs. Once they’ve run out of money the patient dies, leaving behind a broke family. People know this, and in some cases they will just lock patients in their room, waiting for them to die. When KEEP organizes free HIV tests in the village, the infection rate is about 40%.

After a very hot walk back to the bandas, we had a meeting in the dining area. We asked a few questions, but mostly the organization wanted to hear what suggestions we had. We felt totally unqualified to give suggestions. The only thing I could come up with is as another tourist attraction to offer tours of local people’s lives and culture, in addition to of the forest. Gabriel had been talking about the lack of web page a bit before, and I volunteered to set up and maintain one for them, if they could give me enough information. Sadly I haven’t done much on that front yet, but when I do you’ll be among the first to know.

We donated some money, which they gratefully accepted. They also said that just the fact that we walked around with them provided a boost to the community. Just seeing foreigners take an interest in their lives brings hope that some day things will be improved. All in all KEEP takes care of 195 families like the ones we saw. The entire organization has about 150 volunteers, but they are not all involved with helping people in this manner. Forest education by providing programs for local children is a big part of their work as well. And of course not everybody is as dedicated as the handful that we met. Nobody in the organization gets paid. All the money goes directly to do good in the community. There is no official easy way of donating to the cause, but if you want to give something, just comment below or send me an e-mail. I am in e-mail contact with Gabriel, and we will figure something out.

So, on that cheery note, we sat around waiting for the boda-bodas to come pick us up. I had told them to pick us up at 3:30pm, thinking that would give us plenty of time to get back to Kakamega before dark. When I did that, I hadn’t reckoned on the rain part of “rain forest” which comes in the afternoon any time after 1pm. Today it came at about 2pm, a few minutes before the boda-bodas came (who luckily arrived very early). They decided it was best to wait out the rain a bit, which we did. When it slowed down to regular speed, they decided it was time to take off.

We walked the muddy access road to the main road, where we got on the bikes. After just a short while it started raining really hard again. We all sought shelter in a small shack next to the road, used by the family that owned it to process corn. It was full in there, with us, some of the bikes, the family, and a few others all huddling to keep out of the rain. This lasted maybe 20 minutes before we got back on the road again. At this point the ditches of the road were full of exciting looking water. The road was wet, and mostly clay, which made it quite slippery. It was quite scary to sit on the back of a bicycle that was swerving wildly to avoid puddles and potholes that I did not see coming. At one point I even put my foot down because I felt sure that we were going to fall over. But we didn’t. We all arrived in Shinyalu without any accident, and with a lot of “How are you?” calls from the children on the route.

There we put our luggage on the rack of a similar Toyota pick-up as we’d taken here. The main difference was that somehow they managed to stuff even more people in this one than before. At one point the back contained 17 adults, a 7-year-old boy, and 2 toddlers. I had a pretty good seat in the middle, but Danielle was closer to the door and was more crunched in by women hunched over trying to somehow fit in. Next to me was a guy called Bernard who seemed quite interested in talking to me and practicing his English, while around us the women were joking about how full the matatu was.

Back in Kakamega I bought a few street samosas, which were very welcome food. Then we continued our walk to Shyewe Guest House where we got a real medium room this time around. This was still nice. In the restaurant that night we watched an episode of fear factor set on Catalina Island. The local Kenyan comment was that these people must be crazy.

The next day we got to get up early (again) to make our bus back to Nairobi. Our original plan had been to take the train, but they stopped passenger service with the election violence earlier this year and had not started it up yet. So we took the bus. Easy Coach again. Because we’d bought our tickets a few days before, we had seats almost at the front of the bus, and this was infinitely better than the ride up. Instead of an awful bumpy experience, it just felt like regular Africa roads. Sure there were some bumps, but by and large it was comfortable. Despite this, once we got to Nakuru after about 5 hours I was done sitting on the bus. Danielle said I was not good company for the remaining 3 hours on the bus. Also on this bus ride I took a picture every 15 minutes, so if you come across a long series of boring pictures, that’s what you’re looking at.

No workouts.

Typed up: on Egypt Air flight to Cairo, Internet Cafe in Cairo, Morad’s home in Cairo
Posted from: Morad’s home in Cairo

Our matatu ride from Naivasha to Nakuru was painless and took about an hour. The only excitement was that they couldn’t get the trunk open once we got there. Eventually our bags were retrieved by going under the rear seat. Not having a map, we went with one of the many locals trying to help us, who walked us to Mt. Sinai Hotel (which is where we asked to go). I proceeded to tip him way too much (Ksh 100; we could’ve gotten a tuk-tuk ride for that much), but that’s why we’re tourists.

The hotel gave us a roof-top room, and from the flat area there we had a great view of the town, and we could see the lake in the distance. Better yet, we could even spot some spots of pink on the lake, which is the main reason people come to Nakuru. I also had my best laundry session of the trip there. There was a nice sized tub which I could put in the sink, so I didn’t have to bend over and could fit a lot of clothes at once. Right next there were clothes lines. And while washing you had this wonderful view. The room was pretty nice as well. Clean, and everything worked.

About 15 minutes after we arrived we were met by Linus/Lunus Njuguna, a sales representative for Pega Tours & Travel Agencies, who sold us a half day safari to Lake Naivasha. Despite the fact that it was Sunday, somebody from the hotel had notified him of the arriving mzungu, and he’d gotten off his couch and over here in record time. As all Kenyans, he was immaculately dressed. The price was good (after a little haggling) and we ended up enjoying the driver and the safari. You can call him at +254-0721-715120.

That night we slept very poorly due to club noise, so it hurt even more to get up at 5:30 am for our safari. It was raining pretty hard, so we worried that our safari might suffer. It was great, though. It was just us in a small vehicle with a big opening in the roof, together with Peter our driver. It did rain a bit early on, and we even closed the roof for around 10 minutes, but I don’t think it affected the animals any. We started out driving through a grassy/foresty area looking for leopards, but we did not see any. We did see some nice herds of water buffalo, zebra and impala. We also spotted a few red buck.

But the main attraction were the birds, and after what felt like forever (but was probably only an hour or so) Peter drove us to the lake. We were on a (hard) mud flat next to the lake, and just saw lots of flamingoes. That was expected. We did not expect to see similarly huge numbers of pelicans, lots of storks, and quite a lot of other birds. It was simply awesome. Take some time to see the pictures, and especially look at the movies. We drove around the lake, stopping at all the places where large amounts of flamingos congregate. We also got to see a hyena “hunt” flamingos. Because there are just a few real predators in the park, they do not get enough food from carcasses. To make up for it they run through a flock of flamingoes, hoping for a sick or hurt one for an easy meal. This makes all the flamingoes take to the air at once, which is quite a sight.

We also saw quite a few white rhinos, and we were able to get quite close to them. We even saw 2 babies and they did not seem to be bothered much by the presence of our car. We also saw some Rothschild giraffes, which you can identify by their long white socks. Finally there were the obligatory vervet monkeys. We really enjoyed this safari, although due to a mostly sleepless night we were ready for it to be over about an hour before we really did finish.

After the safari we asked to be dropped off at the Waterbuck Hotel, which I chose because it was away from the town center and thus away from the noise. Our guidebook listed it as being a bit expensive, and when we got there it turned out to be even more expensive than that. But in no mood to shop around we took it. The room was nice and big, with a TV that got barely any reception, and a nice private bathroom.

In the afternoon I walked around looking for a place to buy some water because the hotel water was very overpriced. I did not find a good place, but I passed a place which had a mural advertising fitness, aerobics, but also weight training. Curious I walked in and through the window I saw a squat rack. I asked the guy how much it was to stop by, and it was cheap. So I returned to the hotel, changed, and walked over to lift some weights. I talked to George, the owner (I think), who used to be a competitive body builder. He told me how his brother lives in Pittsburgh, but the US government won’t give him a visa to go visit him.

The equipment was not as nice as the stuff I had at home, but it worked well for the light weights I use. The bar was just a 1-inch slightly bowed piece of steel, with no markings or knurling, and hose clamps to keep the weight from shifting in too much. The weight was a mixture of 1-inch plates. The squat rack just had many pegs to adjust to different heights, which worked out well. Aside from that they had various isolation machines for leg press, bent rows, etc.

The next day we discover Wool Matt, which is a lot like Wal Mart packed into a smaller buildings. They sold groceries, rugs, motor cycles, machetes, clothes, etc. We bought a few things, but I was really happy about the belt I got. I’ve been annoyed at the belt I picked up in the US almost since I got it because it wouldn’t buckle right. It was a heavy cotton belt, with no holes, and I figured it would be washable and that was good. It probably is, but I didn’t wear it enough that I needed it. Now I have a Spanish leather belt like any other, and it stays on.

In the afternoon we met up with Peter from Germany (not our tour guide). We had met him at the Mt. Sinai hotel and decided to go see the Menengai Crater together. It’s close to town, so we would just hire a taxi to take us there, wait maybe an hour, and return. Easily said, and almost as easily done. Peter is an expert at haggling, but the taxi driver won’t budge. We end up paying a little bit more than we’d like, which is OK. The car is a piece of crap, and that is not OK. Once on the dirt road outside of town, the car cannot make it up a section of the road. The driver tried several times, until the engine started steaming. He told us he’d drive us back to town where we could get another cab but we never made it that far.

He reversed down the hill, then tried to turn around but jammed his tailpipe into some hard dirt. It was totally clogged with dirt, and hanging on the ground now. No problem, he just took off the tail pipe. It’s not really essential to the car driving. But that was enough to convince him to not drive us any further. He called a friend cab driver of his to take us the rest of the way. The friend came after a while and his car was nice and reliable. He took us to the crater without any problems.

We got there just in time to see some beautiful late afternoon light on the surrounding hills. Some clouds prevented the light from getting into the crater, but the view was still worth it. Inside the crater you could see lava rock formations covered with greenery, and lots of plumes of smoke drifting up. The smoke was from people making charcoal, which is a popular but destructive business for Kenya’s poor. Afterwards we ate an excellent dinner at Gilani’s in town. It’s a little bit pricey, but totally worth it. It’s the best restaurant of our trip so far.

To top off the day we took our first boda-boda ride back to the hotel. A boda-boda is a 1-person bike taxi. It has a nice cushion above the rear wheel, some hand holds below the saddle, and sometimes a place to put your feet as well. It’s pretty cheap (if you haggle just a little), and a surprisingly comfortable ride. It’s my favorite form of transportation so far. You get a chance to talk one on one with the “driver,” look around without windows in the way, and you’re not crammed into a small space. Perfect.

Then we spent an additional 2.5 days in Nakuru just relaxing, doing nothing. We both needed it, and Nakuru had plenty of facilities. Danielle spent an afternoon at the Merica Hotel swimming pool, while I spent some extra time at the Internet Cafe. We switched hotels to Tas Hotel, which was still nice but significantly cheaper than Waterbuck. I worked out once more, meeting a few of the same people who were there before. Danielle got a haircut at a salon. She commented on some of the people who had been there for many hours getting the really fine braids put in their hair. The only other entertaining thing in my notes is that we ate at a Chinese restaurant which had on the menu “fried fish that look like squirrel.” Sadly the price prevented us from ordering it.

Finally on Friday we took the bus to Kakamega.

Workouts. 9/8 tried to find 5RM of squat (145), press (55), deadlift (155). 9/10 planned to do a Starting Strength workout, but my quads were totally shot. Work sets: squat (all failed) 5×155F, 5×145F, 5×135F, press 3×5x55, deadlift 5×155.

Typed up: on Egypt Air flight to Cairo
Posted from: Pension Zamalek in Cairo

On September 5, we woke up at Mt. Longonot. We had a nice breakfast. (The difference between a so-so and a nice complementary breakfast is 1 egg in the omelette, it seems.) Dominic, the manager of the place, personally walked us to the main stand a couple of hundred meters away. He even bought our tickets, saving us one haggling experience. The road to Naivasha was great, and it was only half an hour.

From Naivasha we got a matatu to Fisherman’s Camp, which was another 30 minutes or so. On the way I chatted with the conductor, Peter, about what we might see in Hell’s Gate. The real interesting thing was how Peter would occasionally duck into the back of the matatu, not to collect money or something, but to hide from the police. Kenya law only allows 1 person per seat in these buses, and this law is routinely broken.

Fisherman’s Camp (recommended to us by “Big” Sammy) was very nice. We rented a tent and mattresses, and we finally got some real use out of that big, heavy blanket we bought way back in Arusha. The tent was pitched on the large lawn, which had several large acacia trees. At first we didn’t recognize them because they are so much bigger than the ones in the plains. Amazing what a little water will do. There were also hot (wood fire) showers, a nice restaurant, and just nice amenities all around.

The campsite is right on the water, and we walked out on the little dock to view white pelicans, 2 kinds of kingfisher, some egrets and occasional other birds. There were also 2 monkey troops. One of vervet monkeys, which enjoyed getting into any tent that isn’t completely closed. The other was a group of colobus monkeys, which have a very cool, kind of croaking call in the early morning.

Finally every night hippos come out of the water to graze on the nice lawn. To keep them away from the tents an electric fence is installed, but a few nights ago that was not enough. All the guests had to hide out in the restaurant while the Kenyan Wildlife Service came to chase the animal back where it belonged. But it wasn’t that exciting for us. Around 8 pm we wandered over to the flashlights, where the security guard would use his super powerful beam to illuminate the hippos. There were 3 adults and 1 baby, and the guard was still a bit nervous from the recent experience. So we didn’t get to see them very much or very close. You can try to find them in the picture, but I sure can’t.

The main reason to visit this place was to go to Hell’s Gate. This is the only national park in Kenya where you’re not limited to a car because there are very few big cats. So we did the tourist thing and rented mediocre mountain bikes at the campsite. On Saturday we got up real early, had a minimal breakfast of some fruit, and biked the 5 km to the entrance. We got to the park at about 7am, and I think we were the first people there that day.

In the park, we saw some gazelle pretty early on, as well as some topi and other grazers. Then we got to a junction which gave us the choice of doing the Buffalo Circuit (14 km) or just to go straight to the gorge, which is the main attraction. Being fit, ambitious tourists we chose (over Danielle’s objections) the Buffalo Circuit. It started out nice, just slightly up hill. We saw a few animals, and the dirt road we were on was littered with hoof tracks. As the road turned up into some hills, the surroundings went from grassland to brush, and we encountered good sized lumps of obsidian.

It kept going up, and actually it kept going up for quite a while. Then we started to doubt our decision, but stubbornly we figured it must lead to some good view point. We did get some decent views of Lake Naivasha, but nothing that I would call a view point. Then time was really getting on, we were getting off our bikes for some climbs and some sand pits, and of course it always felt like the top was right around the corner. Danielle was getting saddle sore, but we kept at it.

Eventually, I decided to go ahead to the next rise and then decide whether to continue or turn back. I’m fairly certain that the rise I was on was in fact the top, but I saw no viewpoint. The road appeared to turn away from the gorge to the other side of the hills, so we decided to turn around. Going down was much faster than going up, but what it gave us in terms of free speed it made up for with a little terror. About 3 hours after we first left there, we were back at the initial junction.

We were not feeling great, but decided we had to go to the gorge since that is, in fact, the main attraction. Danielle was forced to take several walking breaks, but we made it. We also saw many animals. While we’d seen some (mainly zebras) on the buffalo circuit, the grassland next to the main road are almost teeming with animals. In addition to what we’d already seen we saw baboons, wart hogs, but mainly just more. We missed seeing any giraffes, though.

At the gorge you can take one of 3 guided tours. (You can go self-guided, but we’d spoken to some people who recommended against that.) Because we were already quite tired, and it was getting pretty hot, we opted for the 1 hour one. Our guide, Joe, was a Masai from a local village. He was 1 of 5 chosen by the tribe elders to make money for the village in this way.

The gorge itself was very nice. It reminds me a little bit of Zion, but on a smaller scale. Unlike Zion, the walls are not smooth but have a layering to them. Also, there are many springs along the way, each a different temperature. The coldest one was regular cold water, and the warmest one was boiling. The water seeps from Lake Naivasha and then passes by a shallow lava flow to get up to temperature. In a few places it was like we walked through a warm rain as water splashed off a small waterfall above us. Also interesting were the algae. You could identify the temperature of the water by looking at the color of the alga growing in that water.

After our walk and a rest break, we tackle the ride home. Walking hasn’t helped Danielle’s sore butt, but mostly she suffers through it and we just ride on. Neither of us is really having fun anymore. It’s 1 pm, we’re about 1 degree south of the equator, and there are no clouds. We had a few pieces of fruit for lunch, and barely any water. It was bad enough that we started checking for signs of heat stroke (negative). But we made it to the gate. Then made it to the road, where somebody was selling water. Then the way back to camp seemed shorter than on the way in, which was a major bonus. We got there at 2:40 in the afternoon, about 8 hours after we’d left. I figure we rode about 38 kilometers (10 of which on a paved road), and gained a few thousand feet.

We were totally wiped out, and the afternoon we did nothing but sat in the restaurant, drank water, and ate. Aside from a headache and sunburned hands I came out OK, but Danielle was quite sore for another day or so. Hell’s Gate is a great park, but if you don’t cycle regularly I recommend you get there early, bike straight to the gorge, and do a longer walk there than we had the energy for. You can always do more biking later if it turns out you have buns of steel.

Then on Sunday we decided to move on to Nakuru. The first step was to take a matatu back to Naivasha. As always, one stopped for us pretty much the instant we got to the road. I really love the African matatus, even if they’re not the most comfortable or safest methods of transportation. You just can’t beat the convenience and price. The one that stopped for us actually picked us up when it was going in the wrong direction, because it was only a few minutes from its turn-around point. We probably could’ve been faster by waiting more, but we didn’t feel like arguing. Also, we got the best seats in the van this way (1st or 2nd row of passenger seating) and our packs went in the trunk.

Workouts… 9/5 lifted each lying down log overhead. Deadlifted the standing logs, except for the one with the water bottle on it because it was too heavy. 9/6 death ride. Not much of a CrossFit workout, but definitely stressed some of my body systems. It just wasn’t the muscles or the oxygen delivery ones.

Typed up: at Tas Hotel in Nakuru, at Merica Hotel Restaurant in Nakuru
Posted from: AGX in Nairobi

On Tuesday September 2nd, we started the second safari of our trip, to Masai Mara in Kenya. We were picked up from the hotel after breakfast by “Big” Sammy, our driver/guide. To save money we were on a group safari, but we were relieved to learn that our group only contained 4 people total. There is room for 8 people in the minivan, but it would not be comfortable when standing up and actually viewing the animals. The other 2 group members were Blair from Scotland and his girlfriend Marije from The Netherlands. We enjoyed their company and talking to them for the duration of the safari.

That first day we spent a lot of time driving to the park. We left a bit after 9am, and we got to our campsite just outside Masai Mara at 3:45pm. We quickly ditched our stuff and went on an evening game drive. The next day we spent almost the entire day in the park. On our final day we did an early morning game drive before starting to drive back to Nairobi. I felt a little bit like a lot of our safari was spent driving to/from Nairobi, but I also feel that, given the 3 day time constraint, we spent as much time in the park as we possibly could have. Most of the roads we drove, both in and outside the park, were dirt but not terrible.

At the camp we stayed at we got a private permanent tent, which came complete with beds and bedding. Thanks to a wood fire under a water tank, there were even hot showers. At night, after the generator was turned off, we saw some of the best stars I think I’ve ever seen. Food was provided by our cook Joseph, who we didn’t interact with very much. The camp was run by local Masai, who also patrol the camp at night to keep out wild animals.

Masai Marai is quite different from Serengeti. First off, it is much less flat. The best way to describe it would be rolling hills. There was more grass, and the grass was taller. We also saw more trees, even to the point of tiny forests. The roads were a bit nicer too. We drove mostly on hard dirt tracks, instead of the full on dirt roads in the Serengeti. They seem to get less traffic and thus be in better shape. Some of this may be because tourism in Kenya is way down due to the recent election violence. Everybody we talked has mentioned how tourism is maybe half of what it usually is.

We saw most of the same animals we had already seen in the Serengeti. However, we saw quite a few Topi which we hadn’t seen before at all. We saw many lions again, and quite a few cubs. The most interesting sight was probably a sleeping female lion who was hugging what was left of a wildebeest. We also saw a pair of young males drinking from a creek, and some females that passed right by the minivan. We of course saw quite a few zebras, giraffes, and others.

But the real reason we came to Masai Mara was to see the wildebeest migration. I don’t think we saw it at its best, but what we did see was amazing enough. Our first real look was when we drove into a field with 100s of wildebeest just streaming by. There was a small creek which they crossed, which made things look even more spectacular. I want to convey more about the experience, but I really don’t know what to say. Check out pictures and movies once they’re uploaded.

Later on that same day we saw a similar scene at a bigger creek. Here the wildebeest really got quite wet when crossing, and they just kept streaming by. However, when a second car showed up to watch, that spooked one of the wildebeest enough to stop coming across. Wildebeest can’t see well at all, so if they can’t follow the one in front of them they’re lost. We saw them kind of try to cross in a few places, but none crossed. Usually what happens is a zebra, which can see well, cross somewhere and the wildebeest follow them to get the train going again.

On top of these scenes, we also saw a fair number of “paradise scenes.” Just imagine an animal movie where they have to make it to some valley, and they crest the hill and there it is: water, green grass, and lots of different animals. That’s what parts of Masai Mara look like. Never mind that the ground is also littered with bones, and the zebras in the distance are fighting instead of dancing.

Perhaps the most special was our black rhino sighting. There are only about 3500 left in the world, and maybe 10 to 20 of those are in Masai Mara. As we drove around a hill, we saw another car parked. Of course we all tried to see what they were looking at, and almost simultaneously we all saw the rhinoceros walking across an open space. It was quite close to us, maybe 50 feet away. It continued walking up the hill and then disappeared into one of the tiny forests.

The last day we went to visit a local Masai village. I wasn’t thrilled by the idea, but didn’t want to be a spoil sport, so I went along. It was actually really great. We really were just taken on a tour of a local village. We got to see the inside of a home that people actually lived in, as well as ask all the questions we could. There were just a few staged events for us: First there was the men’s welcome dance, which Blair and I participated in. Part of the dance is some kind of jumping competition, and I did well enough to get some positive comment. Go CrossFit. You indeed never can tell what challenge life throws you.

Then some of the men showed us how they made fire out of 2 bits of wood (cedar and sand paper tree). The first attempt failed, and they cut a new notch in the cedar, but even with that it was less than 5 minutes before they had a bit of kindling lit. The final event was the women’s dance, which Marije and Danielle participated in. After a while Danielle joined in the repetitive chant, and got quite a funny/surprised look from the woman next to her.

Actually that was only the penultimate event. For the final one we were led into a large pen, the sides of which were completely covered in gift shops. The women bought some souvenirs, while I resisted the temptation to buy a small Masai spear (it even came apart for easy shipping), and declined offers to trade my watch for a Masai bracelet.

While our visit was a bit touristy, I do feel we got a real glimpse of life inside the village. If we had just wandered in without being guided, then we would have attracted much more attention and probably been kicked out. Some more random detail is that they have a large space in the center of town where they keep their 200 head of cattle. Inside each home there’s a special room where they keep baby animals at night, because occasionally leopards do get into the village for an easy kill.

The car we did this all in was a Toyota (what else?) minivan, with a roof that could be raised. One day one of the roof supports broke in half, but Sammy had it fixed pretty quickly with a piece of the jack and some rubber tubing. My initial impression was that the car was a bit under-powered, but really it’s just not geared to go up hills quickly. On our way back to Nairobi we came across a car that was stuck in a pool on the road. Some water had gotten into the engine, and it had a flat. On top of that the driver had left with the key, and the steering was locked to one side. Despite all this our van had no problem towing this car out of the water. It was full of women dressed up for the wedding they were going to, too.

After pulling them out, we continued on only to meet the driver, a mechanic, and a group of boys from a local village. The boys had come to help push the car out of the water. But with the key we turned around and pulled the car through the water in the direction it actually wanted to go. After a little fussing the mechanic declared the engine fine but the starter busted. So we towed the car a bit to get the engine running. Declaring we’d done all we could, we continued on.

Late that afternoon we were dropped off at Mt. Longonot Transit Hotel in Limuru, because we didn’t want to go all the way to Nairobi and then back track. Here we had the best showers of our trip so far. The water pressure was good. The temperature was perfect. It was quite clean. It was also comfy and really quiet at night.

We found this safari company through Zipporah, who owns Sakani Camp where we stayed in Arusha. We really enjoyed the group and our guide. “Big” Sammy was passionate about the animals and about getting us the best view of them. He’s also quite the story teller. If you want to do something similar, contact Bush and Beach Safaris (?) at gerenuksafari@yahoo.com. The only thing I’d make sure of is that your group isn’t going to be any bigger than 5 or so.

More working out… 9/3 (one day late) I did 50 partial range pull ups (jump up to tree limb, and then pull shoulder to the limb), 50 push ups, 50 sit ups, and 50 squats. 7:08, 4:29, 2:15, 1:06 for 14:58. One of the Masai guards watched me for most of it, and he asked if I was a football (soccer) player. To my surprise he has a hard time doing squats, which I always think of as something that people in Africa can do easily.

Typed up: at Tas Hotel in Nakuru
Posted from: Petmary Internet Cafe in Nakuru

On 8/31 we traveled back to Mombasa. From Coral Cove Cottages we took a cab to the road, and just a minute or two later we were on board a matatu back to the ferry in Mombasa. We just missed the ferry, but they run about every 5-10 minutes so that’s no big deal. Or so we thought. The next ferry left with just a gasoline truck on it, and then inexplicably no more ferries came. More people lined up behind us, and it got pretty crowded in the waiting area. It was hot, and there was no shade. Finally a giant cargo ship went by, and ferry service resumed. We waited about 45 minutes. So long, in fact that we heard the sidewalk preacher’s entire spiel and he was quiet for a while.

Across the ferry we took another matatu to downtown, and went back to the New Palm Tree Hotel where we’d stayed before. In the afternoon we took it easy. We just bought a bus ticket to Nairobi, used some Internet, and spent some time watching National Geographic on the TV in our room. There was working AC and we used it to keep the mosquitos out at night.

The next day we had to go out for breakfast because the hotel was being renovated and the kitchen was closed. (It was also the start of Ramadan, no coincidence.) It was actually very easy to find a small place that sold us various breakfast items a la carte. Then we’re off to the Crown bus office, where the bus leaves pretty much on time. There’s a break at a place where plenty of fast food lunch items are for sale, and the roads are good until not too far away from Nairobi. There’s lots of road work there, and we are frequently forced onto a parallel dirt road. We arrived at the city’s edge around 6pm, but it took a full hour before we got to the bus station due to bad rush hour traffic.

At the bus station we were met by “Little” Sammy who organized our safari to Masai Mara, and Martin who drove us to the Bush Camp hotel. We ate OK dinner, and went pretty much straight to bed. I did chat a little bit with a Dutchman and an Australian who had taken local buses all the way from South Afrika.

Typed up: at New Palm Tree Hotel in Mombasa, Mt. Sinai Hotel in Nakuru, Tas Hotel in Nakuru
Posted from: Petmary Internet Cafe in Nakuru

On August 27 we made the short trip from Mombasa to Tiwi Beach. We took a matatu from the ferry, then walked over the ferry, and found another matatu (which appears to be the Kenyan word for dalla-dalla) that would take us to Tiwi. Unfortunately we were at the end of the crowd of people, so we sat waiting in a sweltering matatu for the next one to arrive. Luckily somebody sold us some water which made the wait a lot more bearable. It was another laps-on-packs ride, but it was only 20kms. Then we found a taxi that would take us to the grocery store and then to Coral Cove Cottages. You have to take a taxi from the main road to the coast, because otherwise you get mugged. At least that’s what the guidebook says, and locals still agree it’s a good idea. We visited the grocery store because the Cottages come with kitchens, but no food.

At the Cottages we were met by Kerstin, the owner, who showed us to our place. We had a private 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom cottage, with a kitchen, a living room, and a covered outdoor seating area. It was about 1 minute’s walk from the Indian Ocean, which meant we could hear it but not see it. The plumbing was fine, although no hot water was available. The tap and shower water was brackish, which was a little odd but we got used to it quickly. Overall we were very happy with our place.

The beach had perfect almost white sand and coconut trees. The water was shallow (1″ of water at low tide) for about 100m out, and then it (presumably) dropped off pretty sharply. At that 100m line there were always good waves, which we mostly stayed away from. There were quite a lot of people wandering the beach who were looking to sell us stuff, but they were almost all polite, and accepted “no” for an answer. Things sold were wood carvings, jewelry, fruit, fish, camel rides, coconuts, cloths, massages, snorkel tours, and probably other stuff as well.

Despite the fact that the beach was so close, we only really went once a day. That seemed to be enough to tire us out that the rest of the day was reserved for cooking and relaxing. The first day I didn’t see much at all, because my mask turns out to have a small leak. It slowly filled up, and I was clearing in such a way that got sea water in my eyes, which stung a lot. So I didn’t see much besides a few small fish in a clearing in the sea grass. I assume the cold California water makes the mask fit my face better, or something. We also quit pretty soon because of my stinging eyes.

But the next day I did a lot better. For one thing, I wore my sandals, which meant I wasn’t scared to put my feet down, so I could just stand up whenever and clear my mask easily. We again explored the large bed of sea grass, which had occasional clearings where you’d find some small, sometimes territorial, fish. There were many kinds, the one that really stood out was a school of fish that had the same bright green color as the sea grass. We also saw tons of brittle stars, some of which were hiding inside shells of dead clams. There were also cowries, sea cucumbers, and shrimp.

The day after that we paid Zimba to take us to some large tide pools that are nearby. We walk over rocks for a short while to get there. On the way we saw tons of crabs running away. We also saw jumping fish. They’re about 1 to 2 inches long, and quite thin. They jump out of the pools and up onto the rocks. They have quite a bit of control of their jumping. One fish ran away from us and went pretty much in a straight line for a few meters.

The first pool we went in was huge but no more than 2 meters deep, and we stayed in the warmish water until we got cold. It was next to a cliff, and in 2 places there was a cave we could snorkel into. Neither were very deep, but it got dark enough that we did not want to go in any further. There was notably less sea life in the caves, but some fish seemed to prefer it there. Looking up in one of the caves, there were bats hanging from the ceiling and flying around. The ceiling of the other cave had a hole in it, and tree roots coming down through it. Outside of the caves there were a ton of different kinds of fish, the biggest being about 8 inches long. All the fish were very colorful. Most of them seemed to be single, but there were some medium sized schools of fish, which seemed pretty tame. We also saw an eel, some chitons, and a few other things. The other pool was smaller and had less fish. It had more (drab) coral though, and we also saw quite a few of red-and-white shrimp in addition to some neat worms. (You really need to go snorkelling with a marine biologist to appreciate those.) Snorkelling in these pools was exactly what we hoped to find at Tiwi.

Our final day was the best. First we walked out to the breakwater at low tide, and hung out in some small pools just on this side of it. There wasn’t a whole lot to see, but experiencing the water rushing in and out was quite a thrill. I did find some parts of pencil slate urchin spines rolling around with some rocks. Then we walked kind of in a straight line to the pools we visited yesterday. On the way we saw two small eels completely outside of their holes. They were a little over a foot long, yellow, and tried to hide amongst urchins and rocks. We also observed a few hermit crabs fighting. Cheering on the two big ones were several smaller hermit crabs, everybody hoping to move up one shell size. The fight looked to be a stalemate when we left. In the bigger of the two pools we again snorkelled until we got cold. We saw a few really big nudibranchs, some big cowries, and most of the things we saw before. The experience was a lot like being in a giant aquarium. It was awesome.

Coral Cove Cottages acts a little bit as an animal rescue home. There were about 10 dogs, as many cats, and many parrots which were all rescued. Only the parrots were caged. One time we went and visited 7 African gray parrots in their cage. It was very neat to see such birds up close. They weren’t comfortable enough with us to be petted, but they definitely came up to us to check us out. Occasionally a dog would come visit us at our cottage. The most visible animal, however, were the vervet monkeys. A large troop lives in the area, and they are fed by the resort every night. They are occasionally fed by guests as well. We inadvertently fed them when we were buying some produce from a merchant. Danielle had temporarily placed the fruit on a wall to look at some other things, when a vervet monkey ran by, taking off with an avocado bigger than its head. I chased it a little bit, but it easily stayed out of my reach. Then a bigger blue monkey came and took the avocado away from the original thief. Finally several vervet monkeys at the scraps discarded by the blue monkey.

There was also other wildlife that we got to see. Most interesting were the geckos which roamed the walls of our cottage at night. Our lights would attract bugs, and the geckos would try and catch them. Mostly they just caught small bugs, but they also attempted (but failed) to catch a grasshopper. Of course that did mean there were bugs. Most obnoxious were the “big flying things,” which were black, had long legs, and were over an inch long. Then at night we were visited by many mosquitos. The room came with the nicest mosquito net we’ve seen so far, but every night a few mosquitos made it through anyway. Outside we got to see several of the giant African millipedes similar to the ones Danielle used to have in her class room. They’re harmless, so were really just interesting. After a few days the night time bugs did get to me, and we started having dinner inside instead of out.

As for food, we cooked for the first time since Paris. (Really, Danielle did most of the cooking and I did most of the dishes.) Every day local fish, vegetable, and fruit mongers would come by our cottage or meet us on the beach to sell us everything we might want. So we ate seafood and rice for lunch and dinner every day. The first day we had shrimp. They tasted great, but cleaning them was a lot of work. So the next day we had crab. The crabs here are swimming crabs, so they had some interesting paddles on their back legs. The day after that we ate squid and fish, which was tasty but we were getting over seafood every day. On the final day we got a different kind of fish, which arrived uncleaned. We scaled the fish together, and Danielle took up the task of gutting it. One salesman stood out, “Mango man.” He sold us our fruit, and twice we bought his fruit salad (lunch for 2, with a little bit of leftover). He was quite a character.

I am continuing my workouts. On 8/27 I jogged about 2 minutes. Then I ran that same distance (350m?) 4 times, with 2 minutes rest. 1:38, 1:36, 1:36, 1:36. The beach sand was soft, even right near the beach. 8/29 I did a beach workout inspired by the one I did with the folks who run the newly opened CrossFit Ventura. As many rounds as possible in 15 minutes of: drag drift wood 25m. 25m bear crawl. 25m walking lunge. I completed 6 rounds plus drag and crawl. The drift wood was a wet piece of wood in a Y shape, and I made nice plow marks in the sand. 8/31 I just ran some on the beach. 5:45 to the sign, 5:56 back, 5:58 to the sign again, and then 1:53 back to meet Danielle.

Typed up: at Coral Cove Cottages in Tiwi Beach
Posted from: Internet cafe in Mombasa

Mombasa is Kenya’s second largest city, with about 2 million people. It’s on the coast, and the city center is on a peninsula. We spend all our time on this peninsula. When we were coming here we were a bit worried, because all the guide books etc. warn about crime (from scams to mugging). When we were there, we felt perfectly safe. Like anywhere, if you stick to the busy streets things seem to be fine. But not like anywhere in Africa we’ve been, people left us pretty much alone. We were not constantly hassled to buy art, tours, etc. This alone made us enjoy Mombasa. We spent our days wandering around on foot, taking naps, and visiting the Internet cafe.

We stayed at the New Palm Tree Hotel. It was a little pricier than we would have liked, but we got a double room, private facilities, a TV that wasn’t plugged in, a refrigerator we didn’t use, and a fan. We did not have hot water. All the rooms in the hotel are on the second floor, surrounding a large courtyard. The center of the courtyard is taken up by a huge skylight down to the main lobby. The other guests seemed to be about half Africans and half other tourists. We didn’t talk to any of them, except for Shakir, our neighbor. He’s visited Mombasa many times and keeps coming back. With his bug spray we killed all the bugs in our room one night, but I felt it involved a slightly scary amount of chemicals.

The main tourist attraction in Mombasa is Fort Jesus, and we visited it. The fort was build 1593-1596 by the Portuguese, who held onto it for 200 years before Omani Arabs kicked them out after a 33-month siege. Entry into the fort includes a personal tour, and our tour guide cleverly sold us an extra tour of the surrounding old town and a few other sites. The fort is quite cool, with some nice old architecture in pretty good shape. We also got our first real glimpse of the Indian Ocean. We’d seen the water in the bay in Tanga, but it’s not the same without waves which we saw now.

There were quite a few interesting lizards in the fort as well. And there was a collection of old artifacts, several kinds of cannons used by different people, and Dunga, our guide, explained to us the history of the fort and a bit of the history of Kenya. Then we toured old town with him, which consists of narrow streets, and mostly falling apart buildings from a really long time ago. There is still some of the old architecture left, mostly in the elaborate doors. Old town borders a market area, and then we crossed into new town.

There’s not much to say about new town. It’s a bustling area. We stopped at a Hindu (I think) temple, which had some really cool painting/sculpture combinations. We also visited the giant elephant tusks, whose construction somehow relates to saving of the elephants. The part of the tour after the market mostly felt like a lot of walking, though. Then time came to pay he thought we’d agreed on 2500 per person, and we thought it was 2500 total. (I still don’t quite understand why small group guides charge per person.) Anyway, we compromised and that was the end of official sight seeing for us.

We’ve been a lot more adventurous regarding the restaurants we ate at, except for the first night. That night we went to a nearby Chinese restaurant that our guidebook said was good. It was good, but also expensive. Just coming from Tanzania 2000 shillings sounded pretty good, but while 1 USD is 1170 Tanzanian shillings, it’s only 67 Kenyan shillings. Since then, we’ve eaten almost exclusively at places which didn’t have any tourists. The most adventurous was a place down a dirt aisle off a main road. It was actually a lot like a restaurant at home. The main difference were that we didn’t have a private table and there was only a verbal menu. But it was cheap, and the food was good, traditional African food. We ate at the hotel restaurant once, which wasn’t as good. And we ate at several other small “eateries.”

Mombasa, and presumably most of Kenya, has fast Internet so I managed to upload all the pictures taken so far (small size only). But even Kenya-Internet was not good enough to book a flight with Egypt Air. Out of desperation we decided to go to a travel agent, Dial-A-Tour, which were half a block from our hotel. That was a great move. Not only could they book the same Egypt Air flight we wanted, for the same price, they even suggested we try a round trip ticket because it might be cheaper. That trick saved us another $20 per ticket or so. We might have to use travel agents more often. I do like sending money into a small local business instead of faceless online services.

Workouts: I’m going to get back on this horse, once every other day this time. 8/25 I started 15 min AMRAP of: 20 squats, 10 push ups, 15 lunges, 5 pull ups. After 5 rounds and 15 lunges, 1:20 left, I gave up because I’d ripped up my pinky on the rusty stairs I’d been doing pull ups on. Then Danielle put some tea tree oil on my rip to sterilize it. There was at least another round worth of pain in those few drops.

Typed up: at New Palm Tree Hotel in Mombasa, at Coral Cove Cottages in Tiwi Beach
Posted from: Internet cafe in Mombasa

From Lushoto we had bought some bus tickets for a 9am bus to Tanga, which is in the north east of Tanzania on the coast. Relatively speaking, this would be a nice fast bus. Relative to a dalla-dalla, that is. It was a medium sized bus, and it didn’t leave until it was completely full. That means so full that the folding seats cannot be used, because you can cram in more people if they stand. Lucky for us most of the seats are not folding, and we had secured a pair early on. Our packs were on our laps all the way to Tanga.

Every once in a while we would stop, and I would hope that enough people could get off so at least it wouldn’t be so crowded. I silently cheered when the fold down seat next to me was folded down, but then two people sat down on it which squeezed is even more than we already had been. BTW, no chivalry in Tanzania. I don’t think I ever saw anybody give up their seat, and husbands sit before their wives do.

The bus ride was only about 4 hours, and we got off in Tanga with a good idea of which way to walk to our hotel. That didn’t deter somebody from following us all the way there, pointing out the way while we tried to ignore him. We checked into the Ocean Breeze hotel. For 10,000 shillings ($8.34) we got a room with private facilities, TV, and a balcony with a bay view. The tank on the toilet wasn’t hooked up, but there was a tap and a bucket, so that wasn’t too much of a problem.

That afternoon we stopped at a local tourist office, and signed up for a budget busting tour of the caves and the ruins nearby. At night we paid for a 1-day membership to the local yacht club. The sunset was beautiful, and a nice crowd gathered for a pool tournament at night. Being the old fuddy-duddies that we are, we dutifully called for a cab at 9 to get our sleep in. Sadly we did not sleep well. Loud hotel guests, a cat fight, and a few mosquitoes kept us more awake than we cared for. Lesson: use a mosquito net if it’s there, even if you don’t see any mosquitoes during the day. But in the morning we woke up bright and early to meet our tour guide at 9am.

Our tour guide turned out to be the same person who sold us the tour because, he said, no other qualified guides were available. His name is Emilias Sylvester, and like everybody involved in the tourism industry here, has an impressive resume. We started off by riding rented bicycles to the Amboni Caves. The bicycles were nothing fancy, but the terrain was mostly flat so they worked well. The first part of the ride was on a busy paved road. We were passed by cars and buses, but most of all there were a lot of bicycles on the road. Many people shared a bicycle, and lots of people transported goods. The most common thing we saw were piles of firewood on the bike rack so high that you could just barely see a cyclist’s head out from over it. We also saw bales of hay, pots and pans, and just about anything else.

Then we turned off the main road onto a dirt road/trail that took us a through a few villages. Emilias took the time to tell us a little bit about the local crops (cassava is a big one), and explained that all the children said “Bye” because recently some mzungu had built a school and there’d been a nice going-away party for them, and that is what the children remember they had to say. The whole ride was about 8km, and we got to the caves feeling not at all tired from the bike ride.

We entered the cave with 3 school boys, who tagged along our tour. There were just 2 flashlights in the group, but Danielle and I had head lights too. We never were too far away from an entrance, but we did experience the cave total darkness at one point. This cave is not created by a river, but instead had been made by the ocean about 2 million years ago. Then it was lifted up out of the water so that we could now walk in it. This made it a very different kind of cave than what we’d been in before. It was large, but had no really fancy formations. There were some nice ones, but nothing like eg. Carlsbad Caverns has. It did have marine invertebrate fossils clearly visible in the walls, which Danielle really liked.

But most of the tour centered on the various features and their names. It shouldn’t be surprising that many of these features were named after local wildlife, but I thought that was interesting anyway. There were also a few Muslim and Christian features, as well as an explicitly sexual one. We also got to see a lot of bats. Most of them just hung around the ceiling, but occasionally something would happen and maybe 100 or so would all fly overhead to a different part of the cave. Local farmers still come into the cave to collect guano for their fields. Outside the cave, we watched some Colobus monkeys forage.

After the cave tour was over we biked back to Tanga, but not without stopping to sample coconut wine. Making it is so amazingly simple that it might make one religious. You climb up a palm tree, cut off a leave, and hang a bucket over the wound. Then 12 hours later you go to collect the bucket, and you have a legitimate, pretty tasty alcoholic beverage. That’s the entire process. And it keeps on giving, too, just cut the leaf back a little bit further and you can do it again. I would say that anybody in California who has a problem getting their own brew to taste good, should just plant some palm trees and use this method.

Back in Tanga, Emilias took us to a locals restaurant for lunch. I think this is the first place we’d eaten where we didn’t see any other tourists, and it was a good experience. The menu was simple (fish or chicken, ugali or rice, …) and the food was good. It was all cooked right on the other side of the partition next to our table. It was really cheap, too. Tsh. 12,000 ($1.67) per person, including a soft drink. Then we got a little break before the afternoon portion of the tour.

Apparently the first choice vehicle did not come through, so we rode to the Tongoni ruins in a nice 4-door sedan. It was not the ideal car, because most of the road was dirt and in questionable condition. On the way we listened to Bob Marley tapes. I hadn’t heard any reggae in Africa yet. So far it’s been a lot of what I’d call club music. Lots of beat, with a little melody.

The Tongoni ruins are the remains of a harbor town. The centerpiece is an old mosque that was built around 14-something. Not much is left aside from some walls and a few pillars. The most interesting part is how coral was used in the place of rocks for a lot of its construction. We also saw a more recent mosque which, despite its more modern construction, wasn’t in any better shape. Next to that mosque were a bunch of wooden boats belonging to the local villagers. They were dry at the current tide, but at the high tide looked like they’d be used to fish. There were quite a few nets sitting on a wall next to the boats.

Then we got to taste baobab fruit. The ruins are surrounded by baobab trees, and they have a large, green, hairy fruit. It has a hard shell which you open by repeatedly hitting it against a rock. Then you find a dry substance which is a bit like styrofoam, and buried in there are seeds. You eat the white stuff, and it tastes nice and bitter/tangy. It also sticks to your teeth very hard. It’s not something you can eat in quantity, but it does have a very nice flavor.

On the way back to Emilias’ office we stopped to buy bus tickets to Mombasa, and then our tour was over. Emilias wants you to know he’ll be happy to arrange whatever tour (around Tanga, up Kilimanjaro, through Serengeti, etc.) to anybody who comes to Tanzania. You can reach him at emilias03@yahoo.com. We certainly enjoyed our guided tour with him.

That night we spent some time talking to Jeller, yet another Dutch traveler, as we ate dinner at Patwas. The food was nice, but the chicken had a ton of little bones in it, and I’m still not quite used to that. We turned in for another early night, and were only disturbed by loud guests.

In the morning we had plenty of time to make our noon bus, but I was feeling pretty unprepared to venture into Kenya. We didn’t have any guide book info printed out (although we had some on the laptop) and printing in Tanga is prohibitively expensive (Tsh 500 / USD 0.42 per page). We didn’t have any Kenyan shillings either, and because it was Sunday everything was closed. So we killed some time eating a second breakfast. A real omelette is much better than a complimentary 1-egg omelette. At the bus station I also tried a local cookie type thing. It appeared to be made with just flour, sugar, and some spices which tasted a little bit like a ginger bread cookie. 1 was nice, but the 2nd one felt like a little much.

Then the bus came (late), and we piled in. The bus didn’t leave for another 20 minutes or so, so we shouldn’t've hurried. Just a little ways out of Tanga the road became unpaved, and the next 40 kilometers were a very bumpy ride. The bus didn’t really slow down unless there was a major ditch to cross. Eventually the bus stopped, and we all got out to hand over our exit forms to the Tanzanian government. We also changed money at some guy holding a big wad of bills. The exchange rate was highly unfavorable, but we only changed about 18 dollars so at least we had something to use in Kenya. This slowed us down enough to be the last people back on the bus, and in fact the bus was already moving when we got back on it. The bus drove a little further where we got off again to formally get into Kenya.

First we got in a police line where they wrote down our names in a big book. Then we stood in line for immigration. The bus operators had given us a Kenya entry form, which we’d dutifully filled out. However, that wasn’t good enough. When we got to immigration officer (close to the end of our bus line, because we were seated almost at the back of the bus) he gave us another form to fill out. We hastily filled it out, worried that the bus might leave without us, or at least that we were annoying all the passengers who had to wait for us. We queued back up, but one of the bus conductors pulled us right into the immigration officer’s office, and put our passports under his nose. The officer continued processing the queue outside the window for a while before he dealt with us. It was very straightforward. We gave him the form and the USD 50 per person, and we got some pretty stickers in our passports. We hurried back to the bus, which did not in fact leave right when we got back on so perhaps they weren’t waiting for us after all.

Not surprisingly, the Kenyan landscape is much the same as the Tanzanian. The biggest difference is that in Kenya the road is paved, while in Tanzania it is not. Eventually we entered the outskirts of Mombasa, which had many dirt roads going off the main road, stone buildings with 2 stories, and finally a ferry. We drove onto the ferry after the conductor had come by to close all the curtains. I have no idea why. Then after the ferry it was just a short trip to our bus company’s office in downtown Mombasa. Downtown appeared to be all paved, the buildings were taller, there were side walks, and lots of taxis and tuk-tuks on the road. Our bags were unloaded from the belly of the bus and returned to us absolutely covered in dust. I think they sat near a wheel well with some holes or something, but we took it all in stride. We hailed a tuk-tuk to take us to our hotel, and were charged a fair price. There was no negotiating or foreigner price to be upset about. Danielle tipped the guy 50%. We walked into the New Palm Tree Hotel, where a 1-bed double room was available.

Typed up: at Ocean Breeze Hotel in Tanga
Posted from: Internet cafe in Mombasa, Kenya

Right as we got off the bus in Lushoto, we were hounded by 3 guys trying to sell us various services. Luckily we’d seen the Tumaini Hotel from the bus, and we just walked the short distance there. We checked in, and were given a suite with a double bed and a sitting room, as well as bathroom. This was more than I’d wanted, and all in all I was pretty fed up with people trying to overcharge us, sell us stuff, not mention cheaper options, etc. When it took half an hour to get a cup of soup at the restaurant that didn’t make things any better.

But eventually I mellowed out. There are actually very few people in Lushoto who bug you on the street. The next night we changed to a smaller, cheaper room. And the restaurant is only slow because they make everything from scratch. The food is both cheap and good. I guess it’s true what they say: fast, cheap, good, pick 2. The hotel has a nice garden courtyard, an adjoining Internet cafe, it’s close to the market, and we met several people in the restaurant.

Lushoto has been the most relaxing place we’ve been to, and we stayed for 5 nights. It is a major town in the Usambara Mountains. The mountains themselves are like an island in the surrounding plains, which means there are a lot of endemic species here. Like 7 different species of chameleon. It’s the mountains, so it’s a lot cooler than on the plains. The days were usually overcast and around 70. The nights got quite cold, and Danielle actually used the blanket we bought in Arusha.

The main advertised activity for the Usambara Mountains is hiking. I wouldn’t say we hiked much, but we did some kind of walk every day. The first day we were joined by Jennifer from NYC on self-guided walk to Irente viewpoint. We just stuck to the road, and made it up without any difficulty. It was a very relaxing day, not being hounded by touts, and not having any kind of schedule to worry about. Many pictures were taken, and many “jambos” were exchanged with the locals. A few of the kids asked for pens or money, but by and large we were treated like anybody else. (The toddlers yelling jambo repeatedly and at the top of their lungs were very cute, though.) We also got to see some more of local dwellings, which seem to be about half sticks-and-mud, and half home-made brick. I get the impression that everybody builds there own house, regardless of which technique they use.

The viewpoint itself is very impressive. I didn’t crawl right to the edge, but it does go down very steep for maybe 2000 feet. Down below you can see some small farms, and further away you can see Mombo and some more industrial farm fields. To the side there are even taller sheer faces, lots of green. Some day you’ll be able to see the pictures (and even later, you’ll be able to see the movie I took).

The next day we went on a guided tour to a waterfall. It was great to walk on smaller paths but Bacardi, our guide from the Friends of Usambara, did not make it a relaxing experience. Some of the time he really was a great guide, answering all our questions about the local flora and fauna, and pointing out things. But for a lot of the walk, it felt like we were just tagging along on his personally walk. He’d be 20 yards ahead, keeping a faster pace than we’d like. He also sent us ahead a few times; once when he was giving the local kids our left-over lunch, and once when he was waiting for another kid to get him an ear of corn for dinner. And then we stopped at somebody’s house, where he had a 5-minute conversation in Swahili while we stood around waiting. But we did see a few chameleons. The waterfall was in a pretty spot, and we did learn quite a bit about local life. Overall though we decided it was too expensive for what we got, and we did not do another tour with this company.

Instead we walked south on the road one day, joined once again by Jennifer. Then on our last full day we walked up to Irente farm for a great lunch there. We feasted on whole wheat bread, quark, jam, butter, and cheese, all of which were made right there at the farm. On the way back we even tried a slightly different path which (as we’d assumed) also brought us back to Lushoto.

We’ve been getting a bit braver with food. The books say to only eat produce if it’s cooked or you peeled it yourself. We now always eat the little bits of vegetables that are routinely served with a meal. Often they’re thinly sliced bell pepper and tomato. On our guided tour we ate vegetables that were, before our very eyes, washed in the same stream that further up we’d seen people doing laundry in and, probably worse, had livestock grazing in the area. Then we’d also bought kumquats from the market and ate a pair without any washing at all. (The remaining ones we did wash pretty well.) They tasted very nice and tart, and were probably the best food deal we’ve had. In my stay there I also ate quite a few of the little fried things, which reminded me a lot of poffertjes but not nearly as sweet. All this is sold by women at the market in small stalls. Often they’ll only sell one or two different things. Another popular item they sell is charcoal, but I didn’t taste any of that.

You’ll notice I took a lot of pictures of bricks. Partly they’re quite common, but more importantly Danielle and I are reading a “brick book” she bought before we left on our trip. It describes how the curator of a museum of ancient brick travels the world to collect specimens for the museum. But it has me a lot more interested in brick, and everywhere you look in Tanzania, somebody is making them. On some buildings you can even see that each brick is marked with the maker’s initials. On our last day I saw a few smoke stacks where I believe they’re firing their bricks. I haven’t seen a brick tour yet, but if I do I’ll be jumping on it.

Another thing I enjoyed seeing is the local farm animals. Free range chickens are everywhere, and the corresponding roosters make themselves heard every morning (and throughout the day). You’ll even see the occasional chick here and there. It’s definitely neat to see chickens foraging for insects, like they were meant to. Most cows, on the other hand, are kept in very small pens and are fed elephant grass daily. You do see the occasional herd, but it appears to be not the rule. Goats are free range, and quite common. Our best goat moment came when a goat ran across the street, and scrambled under the barbed wire fence (the kind you use to keep goats in/out) to join the other goats. There are some dogs as well, although you never see anybody playing with them or taking them for walks. Apparently the main reason to keep a dog is that it keeps the monkeys (which we only saw a few of in one place) away.

We even saw some interesting wildlife at our hotel. One day, walking to breakfast, one of the gardeners was sweeping up a huge pile of dead bees. We never quite figured out what the story was, but we assume that overnight a whole colony of bees needed to move, and had decided some hole in our hotel was a good place. Unfortunately not all the bees were dead, and for days a few stragglers remained. One morning I even got bit by one on my ankle. It hurt pretty bad, but after about an hour and some home remedies based on our 1st aid book, it had pretty much gone away. We also saw half a dozen sun birds right outside our private patio on the clothes lines. They’re small birds with a big mohawk and an even bigger tail. They’re quite chatty, and at least sometimes feed by hanging off a plant and eating its flowers. At night we got to listen to a chorus of large frogs and crickets.

Overall, we enjoyed our stay in Lushoto. It was nice to see life in a small village. It was great to have a daily routine, which really helped us relax a bit. It definitely gave us some needed energy for the next leg of our trip, which is to Mombasa, Kenya.

So, I’m blogging. What’s going on at home? Andy had a baby, Crossfit Ventura is having a grand opening soon, and I got some news from my parents. Please leave me a comment or an e-mail and let me know what’s happening. How’s cheap/slacklining lunch? What is everybody up to?