Michelle's Favorite Day

Uneventful flights landed us in Kenya, we hired a taxi for the day, and toured the major attractions of Nairobi, which were AMAZING. Here are the highlights:
   First, Kenya is NOT warm right now. In fact, it was about 60 F when we came in and only got to around 70 in the day time. I never thought that Boston heat could beat somewhere so near to the equator.  While driving to the Hotel, nothing strange was apparent in night time. Not even language, everything was in English without the presence of a second language! Beyond the advertising campaign with billboards showing a lady with glass saying "Smart People Read the Star Newspaper," nothing was particularly striking. That is, until we were awakened by the squack of a bird that could be likened to a cross between a squeak toy and kazoo at 6:30 am. We were then welcomed to Kenya with a deluge of Christian music in the restaurant and on every radio playing in cars (it was all quite pleasant, although very unexpected).
  On to our first sight, a giraffe feeding center. Yes, we fed giraffes, but we did not feed them from our mouths like many of the other visitors.

Then, we went to meet a group of baby elephants at an orphanage. These elephants were collected from wells into which they had fallen, from the hands of poachers, and from angry townfolk seeking revenge for the baby elephants' parents destroying their crops. The center nurses and socializes the elephants for 2-5 years before letting them into the wild (well, actually, they let the elephants go into a larger pack if they so choose). In fact, the elephants will often come back after a short period and go between the orphanage and the family to get more accustomed to their new environment, sort of like elephant college. What amazing animals, Michelle even got stepped on by one while it played to the audience by charging the crowd to everyone's delight (apparently baby elephants do not weigh that much). However, the mood was somber for the gathering, for two of the 16 elephants had died of sickness just hours before and many of the elephants were grieving. A truly extraordinary experience of understanding animal
behavior in such a majestic animal.



We then went to see a small zoo of rescued animals. One huge highlight...being let into the cheetah cage and pet/hug/be licked in the face by the cheetah named Wendy. Yeah, cheetahs are cool. Cheetahs licking your face, really cool. Michelle could not have been happier.




 We finished the day of animals off by a visiting an animal nursery and seeing some rescued baby lions, and assorted animals. We got some lunch at a really strange attraction for local Kenyans that had live African music, was an operating crocodile farm (which we did not pay $10 a person to view), a small amusement park, and was hosting a wedding because it had a very fancy restaurant. In fact, most of the attractions we visited were populated by Kenyans, and not international tourists.


We will be camping for a few days in the Serengeti, so until I can post again, have a great week.