Out of Africa: Part 2

As you can see from the previous picture that Kenya is very sunny!! We were almost blinded coming off the plane out into the open. We didn't realize how big the plan was until you are on the ground looking up, to the left and right. Huge plane!!
Kenya kind of reminded us of Mexico as far as the driving rules are merely suggestions instead of enforced laws! Mom did a great job driving but it was a little stressful until we got used to it.
After a day or two of down time we went on safari. Safari technically means a trip/vacation. But we did go on a safari, as we think of it, to a game reserve to see all the animals your used to seeing behind cages in the zoo. Cool thing here is the animals are actually doing something with a purpose instead of pacing back and forth or sleeping in the farthest corner away from you!! Amboseli game reserve was a very bumpy 4 hr drive south of Nairobi close to the Tanzania border. Even though we had to pay to get into the park there are no fenced boundaries. The animals are free to roam the country.
We stayed at a lodge in the park that did have a fence around it that kept all but the monkeys out. As we were driving to the lodge in the reserve we saw many different animals up close. We went on one drive that evening, then three the next day and supposed to do one more on the way out but plans changed, more on that later.

As for the animals that we saw: tons of elephants, zebras, wildebeest, hyenas, giraffes, monkeys, hippos, cape buffalo, gazelle, antelopes, many different birds, cheetahs, lions and warthogs. They don't have rhinos there and there aren't any tigers in Africa, apparently those are all in Asia. We saw lots of babies also.

Below are some of the best pictures from the MANY we took!

Warthog with three little babies, can you see them?

Hippo with elephants and Mt. Kilimanjaro in the background.
Hippos actually only come out of the water at night usually but we were fortunate to see this and another one out grazing.

Fish eagle

African circus parade!

The elephants were not too bashful, they are crossing infront of the truck.

More elephants crossing the road...

These were the smallest baby elephants we saw, so cute!!

More babies, monkeys that is...

I spy something cute and brown.
This was our first of two lion sightings.
You can tell they're used to the attention!

Yes, even safaris can have traffic jams!!

Ahhh, the two love birds.

More pictures to come...

Out Of Africa: compare and contrast

From cold windy North of the Equator Amsterdam
(8 plane hours later)
To warm sunny South of the Equator Nairobi

P.S. The water does swirl the opposite direction south of the equator!

Out Of Africa

Yes ,we are back from Africa, have been for a while but we hit the ground running as soon as we got back.
Our adventure started even before we left the states!! Our itinerary would take us through 3 international airports to finally get out of the states. So it seemed like half our travel time was spent in the states. On top of that the three airports where the twin cities, Chicago and Detroit, not the best picks for winter travel. We got to Chicago fine but Detroit was snowed under, which is where we would meet Lauren and get on our overnight flight to Amsterdam. Fortunately Lauren's plane got re-routed to Chicago so we could all be stuck together. At Detroit, we were going to get our bags and re-check them with another airlines to do the overseas flights. We were able to get a direct flight to Amsterdam from Chicago but our bags were on their way to the next flight to Detroit, so we took the flight thankful we'd packed clothes in the carry-on bags and hoping our luggage would show up sometime in Kenya!
We arrived in Amsterdam in the morning so we would technically have a full day of sight seeing to do in town. Total we probably spent maybe 5 hours out, we took a canal boat tour which is a good way to see Amsterdam, specially when it's freezing and windy outside! The boats where enclosed with glass sides and roof. Mike and I decided we could definitely live in one of the many house boats in the canals. After passing up the Mexican restaurant for an authentic Dutch place we walked around some more then headed back to the airport for showers and sleep. After the entire trip we became well acquainted with Amsterdam's airport.
To Be Continued.....