My fellow travellers and I have embraced the phrase "This is Africa" from Shakira's popular World Cup song and turned it into an Acronym "TIA". Since Nairobi is a rather big city and we are living relatively comfortable lives, it can be easy to forget that we are actually in Africa. We reserve use of "TIA" for those times that really remind us exactly how far away we are from home. On bad days, the phrase becomes "TIFA". This weekend was 100% "TIA" and 100% awesome. (Insert cheesy, Shooter McGavin double point here) But seriously, it was amazing.
On Friday, a few friends and I headed up to Lake Naivasha about an hour outside of Nairobi. After a windy, mountian drive complete with death-defying truck passing on a two lane road, we were glad to crack open a Tusker and head out for sundowners on the lake. We all piled into a friend of a friend's (thats the way it works here) boat, went hippo watching and then drove out to an island called Hippo point for a bonfire. I did my best to act cool as we came upon a herd of hippos. Everyone here seems to have a hippo attack story and is quick to remind you that they are the most dangerous animal in Africa. We were 30 feet away from them...no big deal or TERRIFYING, you decide. While bonfiring, we very quickly ran out of firewood, forcing us to pile back in the boat to head to the same friend of a friend's bar. It was an amazing night. Each new person we met was more welcoming than the last.
Saturday morning we woke up, enjoyed a wonderful breakfast at the bar and headed out to meet our group for a day of hiking and camping. We hiked the gorge in Hell's Gate National Park where we saw wild zebra everywhere....new favorite animal. The mountains and the park reminded me a lot of Colorado, minus the zebra. It was so nice to be out of Nairobi. I am definitely not a big city girl. Saturday night we made a traditional Kenyan dinner around the campfire. The Americans taught the Kenyans about roasting marshmallows but I don't think anyone was very impressed. We told ghost stories over a few Tuskers and headed to bed.
Sunday we spent walking around the Crescent Island Nature preserve where we were literally 10 feet away from zebra, giraffe, wildabeast, gazelle....it was incredible. We even saw a baby giraffe that was just born in April. I guess this really is Africa.
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