Thurs Feb 17 Nairobi

We were up early for some buffet breakfast then BABY ELEPHANTS! We hired a taxi for the day to take us a few places we wanted to see. First stop was the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage.
The place opens at 10:30 for feedings from 11-12 and it was packed! I think every European tourist decided to go this morning. They are such fun people watching! The elephants at the orphanage are all under 3 years old which is when they stop being dependent on moms milk. Some of them their moms were killed by ivory poachers, some were abandoned or got separated from their families. The orphanage takes care of them 24 hours until they are 3, then they go to a reintroduction center where they eventually leave on their own and join other herds. It was great! You could pet them(they are rougher then they look and covered in very coarse hair), watch them play in the mud and wrestle with each other. They were huge and clumsy! I could watch them all day! It's good to see an organization so dedicated to the little guys.
Afterward we headed over to the Karen Blickson museum. She's the lady who wrote Out of Africa. She had a large estate in Nairobi and a massive coffee plantation. She seemed like a pretty neat lady. We got a tour of her old home then set off back to the hotel.
We got some dinner and packed our things. We had a 2am taxi for our 4am flight to Tunisia the next day. We enjoyed Nairobi but it was difficult to get around(you had to hire a taxi then arrange whether they were going to wait for you or you were going to call them back, it got complicated quickly. The taxis aren't just yellow cars everywhere, they are someone who's phone number you happened to have) and didn't have a lot of points of interest. Now off to Tunisia!!

Thurs 16 Feb Nairobi

We slept in. Traveling is exhausting(I'm not complaining :). We barely made it to the hotel cafe in time for breakfast buffet, not so much for the marginal, but better then last, buffet but for coffee. We walked to the ATM then grabbed a cab to the Nairobi National Museum.
The museum was great. It houses the most extensive human evolution exhibit on earth with bones dating 1.5 million years found in the northern areas of Kenya. It has a phenomenal avian exhibit with hundreds of stuffed and labeled birds from the area. A somewhat sugar coated Kenyan history exhibit and some great tribal artifacts from throughout Kenya. Afterward, we caught a taxi downtown and wandered around. Nairobi feels like all big cities, lots of hustle and bustle, loads of traffic, shops everywhere and districts with specialties. I especially enjoyed the textile district but restrained myself from buying bolts of pretty fabrics without a project in mind.
We made it back to the hotel to change then off to Habesha, a renowned Ethiopian restaurant in the city. Our taxi on the way there stalled a few times but the driver was able to restart and eventually we got to the restaurant. The food was great, oh how I love Ethiopian food!! The taxi had some more troubles on the way back. Eventually it just stalled and wouldn't start again. The taxi driver had to call his friend to get us to the hotel. Oh, the adventure! Goodnight.

Wed Feb 15 Masai Mara to Nairobi

We woke up early for another game drive, quickly drank some coffee and headed out at about 6:30. Titus was determined to find lions this morning. The morning was beautiful with a magnificent sunrise over the Masai village then long shadows cast over the prairies. We ran into 3 male lions resting in the morning sun. They were beautiful. All of the animals we saw took our breath away. We could easily just watch them for hours, even the grazing cape buffalo that seemed to do nothing but eat and laze about were fascinating. We did a sort of park victory lap and headed back to camp.
We ate a modest breakfast, gathered our things and said goodbye to our new friends. We loaded up a Masai boy of about 14 going to Lake Nakuru. We had agreed to take him half way to where the road cut off. I don't think he has ever left his village and was obviously nervous. Though he didn't speak English he managed to point out his village, family and different things we passed along the way as we drove further from his home. The drive was very, very long. The bumpy road of eternity followed by long stretch of desert. We dropped the Masai boy in a strange town, you could tell he didn't want to leave or know where to go but all we could do was watch. We drove off, up out of the Rift Valley into Nairobi traffic and slums. I think I liked it better staring at baby elephants.
It was apparent Titus just wanted to be home. Overall we didn't think much of Titus. He knew the Mara well and could really find some animals but he was not very personable, burnt out and he clearly did not want to be stuck at some camp. Luckily we still had a good time, though we were relieved when we pulled up to our hotel and watched him pull away. Ah free of Titus!
The security around the hotel was excessive. It is located across the street from the Israeli embassy. The reception area and grounds of the hotel were beautiful. Our room...kinda crappy. It did the trick, hot shower, big bed but was pretty dumpy compared to the image to hotel puts out. We shared a pizza by the pool, walked to a local store for some laundry soap then bummed around our room for the night. We were pretty pooped from all the driving!

Tues 14 Feb Masai Mara

Happy Valentines Day!!
We had a good night sleeping in our tent. I woke up a few times hearing wild animal calls that I mentally wrote off as baboons as they sounded like they were on our tents porch. It was pitch black in our tent which felt eerie. I couldn't remember a time when it had ever been so dark. The lovely staff made us a huge breakfast of eggs, crepes, fruit etc. It seemed gluttonous to eat so lavishly when you know the people around you make very little money and likely don't eat nearly this well. I felt like they were fattening us up to feed to the lions!
We took off back to the park. We got to see some animals we haven't seen yet like hippos and ostrich(my favorite, they are so strange and large and they have really lofty feathers and flounce about). We made it back to camp for a massive pork lunch. I was curious as to what we were going to have for dinner as we had eaten every type of meat already. The other couple and guide had left so it was just us and Titus. We were starting to get the feeling that Titus is burnt out on the whole safari thing. He is really great at finding animals and knows all the roads. He said he had been guiding for about 10 years. Though he lacked any sort of enthusiasm and seemed to snap at the camp staff. Luckily, we still had a good time!
We took off on an afternoon safari then back for dinner. A lot of animal chasing and eating on this trip! The camp staff were so great. They found valentine balloons and put them on our table, they kept coming out and telling us happy valentines day. One kid asked if we saw all the animals in couples making the love...I think he didn't know what that meant in english but we laughed and tried not to embarrass him. There were a lot of things that got lost in translation with the camp staff, it was pretty funny. We had a choice for dinner of fish or ox liver(I knew we were out of meats!). I opted for the fish, Tommy decided to try the liver. They wouldn't tell us what was for desert and you could tell they had something up their sleeves, it was really cute. After we finished dinner they all dissappeared then a few minutes later came out in a conga line singing with a homemade heart shaped cake. They sang us songs in Swahili about love and we all shared the cake. It was truly amazing. They had clearly spent all day making the cake, I think they accidentally used salt instead of sugar for some of the frosting and the cake was the same as the homemade bread we had been having for breakfast. It was decorated with candied cherries and drawings. They were all so happy and proud. I didn't take any pictures because the moment was so special we just enjoyed every second.
After the festivies we showered and fell asleep.