Kenya. My life is complete now.

Kenya was absolutely amazing! Totally forgot to pack a pen (rookie mistake) so it took be about 10 minutes to find one someone that wasn't using so I could fill out the customs forms and the visa form once I landed... except I already had an Evisa (rookie mistake #2) so the guy at boarder control kind of giggled when I handed him like seven pieces of paper lol The air wasn't nearly as hot as I thought it would be! It was about 72 degrees when I got here at night. Everyone was wearing jackets and scarves though because this is their winter. My driver was waiting with my little name on a piece of paper. It feels like I hit the lottery every time I find my name cuz you have to search through so many people holding little signs! The main highways are paved but once you get off it's mostly dirt roads with gigantic pot holes. They form during the massive amounts of rain that fall here. The hotel fence was covered in barbed wire and they have huge gates that security opens anytime someone wants to go into or out of the hotel. There were always security men walking around with what looked like machine guns up and down the road so that was comforting. I grabbed some food from the little restaurant on the hotel property for dinner. I just asked for something warm and vegetarian... turned out yummy! It was some type of noodles with red and white sauce. Met up with the safari coordinator in the lobby to go over the itinerary for the next day then went to bed for about four hours.




Some quick Kenya factoids:

The main language spoken is Swahili.
70% Christian, 20% Muslim, 10% other.
Most people here eat meat except the Hindu people who are vegetarian.
The Masai people are the most traditional people in Kenya and Tanzania.
Everyone is super sweet and says 'welcome' instead of you're welcome :)


Nairobi national park:

Had to be up and ready downstairs by 6am. I'm definitely not a morning person BUT I was so super excited that I jumped right up when my alarm went off! My driver met me outside the hotel property and had a tour guide trainee with him (the girl my age in a lot of the pictures). The national park was only about 10 minutes from my hotel. We pulled up around 6:30am and the tour guide opened all the windows and pushed the roof up so I could stand up and look all around! So magical!

Park facts: 1/4 fenced, 1/4 blocked by buildings and other open for migration from Tanzania and other countries. National park since 1947. 240 square km.

Inside the park there were lots of bushes with black circles on them. Apparently bugs will crack the shell, eat the fruit then live inside the shell! Genius! 

Wilder beasts that migrate from Tanzania to Kenya 

"Heart beasts" (brown things with horns in shape of heart) 

Huge male lion

Female lions do the hunting and the males protect the pride. This makes the female lions more aggressive than the males because they are always alert and hunting. The lioness marks a weak zebra and follows it all day and attacks in the evening. Survival of the fittest! Lions sleep for about 20 hours a day and are active for about 4 hour a day.

Giraffe-in it!

The black rhino are endangered. People kill them for the horns. They have oval mouths and are very aggressive and scared.

Crocodile!

Zebra butt!

"I wanna hippopotamus for Christmas, only a hippopotamus will do!" aka Water Horses!

Elephant ivory burning site. A lot of ivory was confiscated from poachers and burned at this site in a effort to eliminate ivory trade. Please don't buy ivory! It's heartbreaking to see these huge beautiful gentle animals killed for their small tusks and leaving little babies orphaned :(

Fish, hippos, birds, pythons and crocodiles live in these dams. The crocodile I'm pointing to just caught a fish!

My amazing tour guide Isa! I highly recommend taking his tours if you are ever in Nairobi! He's hysterical and knows everything about Kenya wildlife! Here's the website for the safaris.

African Adventures

Coming up to a buffalo heard!

Driving right through the buffalo heard!

Giraffe-in it once again!

Baboons! Super smart sneaky little guys! They come into town and take food from people!

Elephant Orphanage:
This is was highlight of my life! I only cried a little twice from the excitement The elephant orphanage was started by a doctor. Baby elephants that are left orphaned from poachers killing their parents are brought here to be taken care of until they are big enough to go back into the wild and survive on their own. Turns out the saying 'an elephant never forgets' is true! If the baby elephant sees one of their parents killed it takes them a while to trust humans again. And if you're mean to an elephant it will always remember! The baby elephants drink the same baby formula that human babies do! So neat! AND baby elephants have to have an adult sleep with them every night until they're two years old (don't quote me on the length) because they die if they're alone... I now know what my dream job is! They were just so gigantic, adorable and playful!

Waiting to get into the elephant orphage! The top right little guys are "Pumas" from The Lion King!!!
 

Elephant orphanage! Best day of my life!

Here come the babies!

Baby elephant! If you only watch one video, watch this one!

My foster elephant Tamiyoi in the back right!

Case of the terrible two's!

Getting some elephant lovin'! Hightlight of my life!

Spraying us with mud!

Just playing in the mud!

More playing in the mud

My foster elephant Tamiyoi!

YOU can adopt a baby elephant too! Here's the website!

Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

Leaving the orphanage... A lot of homes use the thick shrub stuff (can't remember the name) to keep out people and animals. Not even a small dog can fit through the bushes because they're so close together and covered in so many thorns!

Giraffe Rehabilitation Center:

When giraffes are hurt in the wild they're brought to the giraffe rehabilitation center. While the giraffes are getting better they let people come in and feed them and pet them :) You can also get a kiss from a giraffe! You just put one of the treats between your lips and the giraffe will grab it! So cool!

Giraffe Kiss!

Lunch and animals on the road

Where the movie "Out of Africa" was filmed. It's a true story!

Heading back to Nairobi!

Nairobi Traffic

Apparently there's a large Indian population in Nairobi which I loved! The bottom right picture is one of the Hindu temples. This really made me miss everything about India!


Me and Peter at dinner at an Indian restaurant! Thanks for introducing us Lauren!

Amboseli:


On the way to Amboseli. We only saw about 15 cars during the 3 hour drive there! The first view of Mount Kilimanjaro! So stunning! Stopped for coffee and a pee break right before we got to Amboseli. Best coffee I've had in my life! Super fancy hole in the ground I got to pee in on the way! Bring your own toilet paper! The only place that had toilet paper was my hotel.

Almost to Amboseli! The kids going to school were so adorable!

First site of water on the ground in Kenya!

You don't want to mess with these guys!

My life is now complete!!!!!!!!! :) :) :)

The guides drive around talking on walkies and telling where the animals are and then everyone drives really fast to that spot if they're close. My driver knew my abnormal obsession with elephants so anytime he heard 'elephant' he would drive really fast to try and find them :)

Totally cried four times during this magical experience!!!

Such beautiful gentle animals!

Look how slow and adorable they are!

Ostriches and more elephants!

The chain of eating a dead animal in Africa: Lion kills wilderbeast, hyena will see the lion eating and start making that funny laughing sound which signals other hyenas to come, they all take on the lion and run him off, then the vulchers show up and will literally just sit and wait all day to get any leftovers that the hyenas missed.

Holes in the ground are the hyena dens where babies live. Adults are watching close by for other animals.

Parent hyenas eat a ton of meat then go back and throw it up for the babies! Yummy!

Vulchers fighting over a piece of wilderbeast meat

Hyenas! They were literally feet away! So cute and super stinky little guys!

WATER!

Highest point in Amboseli. A little walk up a small mountain and you can see so far!

More elephants! I was probably supposed to be an elephant lol

And I'm tearing up again!

Lunch at one of the few lodges in Amboseli. Absolutely beautiful place! The monkeys outside climb all over the cars hoping someone left their window open and some food in the car!


These rocks are actually hardened lava! From thousand of years ago (don't quote me on the time here) when Mount Kilimanjaro volcano erupted!


VERY VERY RARE to get a picture like this according to my guide and some of the locals! I was so lucky! There were about 15 lionesses sleeping under this tree with their cubs! Absolutely amazing experience! My guide saw them and slammed on the breaks. It took me a while to see them because they're so camouflaged!

An abandoned lodge in Amboseli where monkeys live now!

Masai people:

Masai women make the houses out of a mixture of cow dung and dirt. You read that right.

When I said I'm from America the Masai people kept saying 'yes yes California.' It's really cool to hear what people in other countries associate the states with.


BAR FIGHT! Last night in Nairobi...

I went to a local bar for a drink the last night I was there and got to see a fantastic bar fight! There were two older guys that were claiming the bar tender was overcharging them. Several other employees came over when they kept arguing. I was sitting right beside them when they started yelling really loud at the bartender and this gigantic Kenyan hero ran over and pushed the guy, yelled some pleasant words and literally pushed him out of the bar! It was so awesome! Something not so awesome... a local I was talking to during all of this said that the guy that was yelling at the bartender will be dead by the morning! And he was serious! He said things like bar fights never happen here because all the locals know each other and they just kill off people that are being mean! Lesson: don't f*** with Kenyans! Lol The guy to the right has traveled all his life to over 40 countries and his favorite is Kenya so he lives here now! I want to live in Kenya and take care of baby elephants!!!




Favorite pictures from the trip!