I could live here, truly. Perhaps it's related to the fact that you can take moto-taxis anywhere for really reasonable prices - definitely something that North America needs to introduce!! :)
We're in Kigali, Rwanda, and loving every bit of it - the people, the culture, the language, the breathtaking landscapes of rolling green hills and quaint communities dispersed throughout - so much beauty. And yet there is an undertone of unspoken griefs and losses too huge to mention in words. We visited the main genocide memorial earlier this week, which was very well done but a brutal reminder of the evils that we humans inflict on each other. Tragic. I don't really have words to describe all that goes through ones mind when faced with such vivid, horrific events, and to stand by the graves of thousands who lost their lives needlessly. I haven't cried that hard in a very long time.
We've spent a few days in the city and hope to venture out to smaller communities within the next day or so, depending on transportation, etc. By this time next week we'll both have begun our volunteer work in our respective communities in southern Uganda. We're sad that this part of the journey will soon be coming to a close...it has been both trying and wonderful to be guests in these countries, and the stories we've gained along the way will certainly never be forgotten by either of us!
I think that's about it for now. I'll try to update again when I get to Jinja (Uganda). Later!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Animals, animals, animals...
Well, as much as the formatting is pretty brutal, I'm pretty happy to be able to post a few photos o
f the animals we've spotted during our visit to various national parks in the past few weeks. It's amazing how plentiful these animals are, roaming free without a care in the world (well, except the lack of water, which is a concern for every living thing in this part of the world, I'm afraid). As brutal as the formatting is, these give a small suggestion of how beautiful it is out here, I think. They're pretty self-explanatory, so I won't bore you all with descriptions, etc.
In other news, we're off to Rwanda tomorrow at the crack of dawn (by bus), which will likely take us a couple of days. We'll be spending some time in Kigali to start, and maybe venture out from there, depending on how safe things are, etc. I'll try to update sometime within the next week or so. That's it for now!
f the animals we've spotted during our visit to various national parks in the past few weeks. It's amazing how plentiful these animals are, roaming free without a care in the world (well, except the lack of water, which is a concern for every living thing in this part of the world, I'm afraid). As brutal as the formatting is, these give a small suggestion of how beautiful it is out here, I think. They're pretty self-explanatory, so I won't bore you all with descriptions, etc.In other news, we're off to Rwanda tomorrow at the crack of dawn (by bus), which will likely take us a couple of days. We'll be spending some time in Kigali to start, and maybe venture out from there, depending on how safe things are, etc. I'll try to update sometime within the next week or so. That's it for now!
Saturday, September 19, 2009
No climb, ah well
Jambo!
I have exactly 3 minutes before I'm booted off this computer, so I thought I'd update with a sentence or two. Jenny and I are spending one more night in Moshi. We didn't end up summiting Kili (deciding the money could be put to better use, especially in this part of the world). We've been on some amazing day hikes, though (hopefully photos to follow soon-ish, but don't hold your breath on that one!!) and met some amazing people along the way. We'll be in Tanzania for another 3 or 4 days, and then hope to take the treacherous journey to Kigali, Rwanda (something like 27 hours? Bus, ferry, foot...camel...donkey...dung beatle? Bahaha.) What an adventure! Nightmare, says Jenny.)
Sorry, that's it for now!
I have exactly 3 minutes before I'm booted off this computer, so I thought I'd update with a sentence or two. Jenny and I are spending one more night in Moshi. We didn't end up summiting Kili (deciding the money could be put to better use, especially in this part of the world). We've been on some amazing day hikes, though (hopefully photos to follow soon-ish, but don't hold your breath on that one!!) and met some amazing people along the way. We'll be in Tanzania for another 3 or 4 days, and then hope to take the treacherous journey to Kigali, Rwanda (something like 27 hours? Bus, ferry, foot...camel...donkey...dung beatle? Bahaha.) What an adventure! Nightmare, says Jenny.)
Sorry, that's it for now!
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
One more photo
As you can see, I haven't completely mastered the art of blogging, and posting photos (the layout seems a bit off, but I can't seem to do much about it. Ah well). The teeny-tiny photo, above, was taken from the balcony of the museum in Stone Town. Because it's so little, it doesn't really capture how beautiful the harbour was from there, which is too bad. For obvious reasons, it's much quicker to upload little photos, but they don't really do the scenery any justice.Sadly, that's all I can muster at the moment. This uploading thing is a bit of a headache. Better luck at our next destination, perhaps?
Monday, September 14, 2009
Jambo!
Here we now are in Moshi, Tanzania, at the foot of beautiful Mt. Kilimanjaro. In the next couple of days we hope (or at least I do...Jenny is undecided as of yet) to be on the mountain, making the long and undoubtedly beautiful trek up the summit. It's pricey but I'm hopeful that it will be worthwhile. Of course, anything could change in the next few days, but here's hoping we'll have scaled Kili by next week sometime (it'll probably take us a full week to climb)!
We spent a wonderful few days in Stone Town, on Zanibar which was amazing - such an incredible place, so multicultural and full of life! We're traveling during Ramadan, so we've had to be a bit creative at times with regards to mid-day meals, but it's all good :) Zanzibar is probably the safest place we've been thus far (we were even able to stroll around after dark - a rare treat!! :D), and it was nice to spend a few days at a more relaxed pace, seeing some sights, taking a few photos (not enough, I'm afraid) and getting to know some great people. One of the most enjoyable things was the wide variety of street food that was available (after sundown, of course) - probably the most delicious food I've ever eaten. Good food, good conversation, good prices...brilliant! The ferry trip to and from the mainland was a little rough (Jenny would say A LOT rough, poor girl), and the bus ride here from Dar es Salaam long (quoted at 8 hrs, it ended up being more than 9), though we were entertained by the cutest little 3-yr old girl who was quite content to bounce up and down on our laps and chat away in Swahili for a good part of the ride.
Although I have a few more pictures of Zanzibar that I wanted to post, it would seem that this computer has maxed out after this one, so maybe I'll have to try again another day. Everything takes time, such is life. Hakuna matata, as they say :-)
Until next time (when hopefully I'll have more photos and some good Kili stories)!
Monday, September 7, 2009
In Tanzania...
So we've arrived in Dar es Salaam, on the coast of Tanzania. We spent a few days on the Kenyan coast, which was really nice (sorry, no pictures; the place was notorious for muggings, so we decided not to take more risks than necessary. One poor guy who was just arriving the one day and got his pack and everything stolen, by three guys in the forest with machetes. Scary stuff. Another reminder that we can never been too safe here). We arrived here yesterday evening, after a fairly brutal bus ride. Let me paint the picture: it took us nearly 11 hours to travel the 400km from Mombasa to Dar. Eleven hours!!! In addition, there were some shady business transactions going on, which made the two of us feel pretty nervous. By the end of it Jenny and I felt as though all our teeth had shattered, the rattling was so bad. Also, because we had to stow our stuff in the luggage compartments below, all our stuff has a distinct fish odor to it. Slightly unpleasant, especially because we had just washed a number of items by hand prior to making the trip. Also, I seem to have acquired some GI bug along the way, but ah well. Such are the joys of traveling :) All in all, despite the mind fatigue, we're doing well.
The plan is to visit Zanzibar for a few days (likely 3), hopefully seeing some of the history of the island and also see some wildlife. That's the tentative plan, anyway - we've learned by now that it's sometimes best just to fly by the seat of your pants :D
Anywho, it's another cooker today, so before I melt into a puddle I should sign off. I'll try to upload photos again soon - probably in another few days, when we're back from Zanzibar. The computer I'm on now won't allow me to upload for some reason. Ah well.
The plan is to visit Zanzibar for a few days (likely 3), hopefully seeing some of the history of the island and also see some wildlife. That's the tentative plan, anyway - we've learned by now that it's sometimes best just to fly by the seat of your pants :D
Anywho, it's another cooker today, so before I melt into a puddle I should sign off. I'll try to upload photos again soon - probably in another few days, when we're back from Zanzibar. The computer I'm on now won't allow me to upload for some reason. Ah well.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Pictures paint a thousand words...
i
Hi!
I've FINALLY been successful in finding a computer that will upload a few pictures, which is reason for celebration (it has only taken 2 weeks!!). Jenny and I are back in Nairobi until tomorrow, after having been running around these past 5 days, camping, hiking and visiting various national parks/reserves. We started with a night of camping in Naivasha (a lot of fun!) at a place called Fisherman's Camp, just off (sadly very polluted) Lake Naivasha. We then spent a couple of nights in Nakuru, where we visited Nakuru National Park (to the left is a picture taken from one of the look-out areas. Doesn't really capture the grandeur of it all, but what can ya do). We saw tonnes of wildlife there, including White Rhinos, gazelles, kudu, flamingos, monkeys, baboons, antelope, waterbuck...and loads of different species of birds. Sadly, the zoom on my camera has decided to call it quits, so I don't have a lot of close-ups, but I got a couple of fairly decent ones, I think. Entry fees for the National Parks and Reserves are pretty steep if you're a non-resident, so we have to be a bit choosy when it comes to visiting these places (generally we've been gravitating towards the parks where we can view the area on foot/by bicycle). The discrepency between what residents pay and what foreigner pay is pretty outrageous, really. But, try as we might, they don't believe us when we try to tell them we're Kenyan. Weird.... :)
After Nakuru, we headed slightly North to Lake Bogoria, where we found some honest folks in a small community that put us up in their humble little guesthouse (complete with cockroaches). It was really nice to get away from the noise of the bigger city and spend some time in a rural area. I think we were maybe the first white people some of the kids has seen; when walking down the road they'd run from their huts to the roadside yelling in their high-pitched little voices 'mzungu! mzungu!' (white man! white man!). Too cute. We visited the park there, on these sketch bicycles we'd rented from a couple of people in the village. Mine was far too big for me (I wiped out going through the main gates of the park, much to the amusement of all the onlookers) and Jenny's had this temperm
ental chain that would fall off whenever on an uphill/rough road, which was probably 90% of the time. Frustrating, yes, and very hot (our timing was poor, being out in the middle of the park during the hottest part of the day, with little water and no shade to be found. But we made it back, if exhausted and beyond sweaty. Good times.
After Bogoria, we took a very scenic (but LONG) drive up to Nyahururu, which is the town highest north of Kenya (also a significant elevation, at 2303 meters. There we briefly visited Thompson Falls (to the right) , which ended up being a bit of a let-down - certainly no comparison to Niagara Falls or anything, but because there hasn't been any significant rainfall in over a year in most of these parts, it's no surprise that the falls are significantly less impressive than in years past. It is dry, so dry here. Many people have been unable to grow much of anything in the last few months, and there if fear that the food crisis will eventually result in thousands of deaths, not unlike the food shortage that Ethiopia had experienced a couple of decades ago. People are worried, and with reason. Whenever it does rain, it isn't significant enough to wake things up in order for growth to really occur. Concerning, to say the least.
Anywho, after being in Nyahururu we traveled to Nyanyuki, where we stayed at a Camel Camp, in a traditional Somali hut, as the nomadic pasturalists did in times past. There, just a few kilometers away from the foot of Mt Kenya, we were able to bask under the stars in the tranquility of nature, away from the chaos of the city. SO nice!!
Well, tomorrow we're off to the coast. We'll be taking a 15-hr long train ride there, which allegedly passes through/near Tsavo National Park and is supposed to be a very beautiful trip. It'll be nice to park our carcasses for a few days, after having been running around so much these last few days. I'll try to post more pictures soon-ish. It's a challenge, but at least now I know it can be done. That's it for now!
Hi!I've FINALLY been successful in finding a computer that will upload a few pictures, which is reason for celebration (it has only taken 2 weeks!!). Jenny and I are back in Nairobi until tomorrow, after having been running around these past 5 days, camping, hiking and visiting various national parks/reserves. We started with a night of camping in Naivasha (a lot of fun!) at a place called Fisherman's Camp, just off (sadly very polluted) Lake Naivasha. We then spent a couple of nights in Nakuru, where we visited Nakuru National Park (to the left is a picture taken from one of the look-out areas. Doesn't really capture the grandeur of it all, but what can ya do). We saw tonnes of wildlife there, including White Rhinos, gazelles, kudu, flamingos, monkeys, baboons, antelope, waterbuck...and loads of different species of birds. Sadly, the zoom on my camera has decided to call it quits, so I don't have a lot of close-ups, but I got a couple of fairly decent ones, I think. Entry fees for the National Parks and Reserves are pretty steep if you're a non-resident, so we have to be a bit choosy when it comes to visiting these places (generally we've been gravitating towards the parks where we can view the area on foot/by bicycle). The discrepency between what residents pay and what foreigner pay is pretty outrageous, really. But, try as we might, they don't believe us when we try to tell them we're Kenyan. Weird.... :)
After Nakuru, we headed slightly North to Lake Bogoria, where we found some honest folks in a small community that put us up in their humble little guesthouse (complete with cockroaches). It was really nice to get away from the noise of the bigger city and spend some time in a rural area. I think we were maybe the first white people some of the kids has seen; when walking down the road they'd run from their huts to the roadside yelling in their high-pitched little voices 'mzungu! mzungu!' (white man! white man!). Too cute. We visited the park there, on these sketch bicycles we'd rented from a couple of people in the village. Mine was far too big for me (I wiped out going through the main gates of the park, much to the amusement of all the onlookers) and Jenny's had this temperm
ental chain that would fall off whenever on an uphill/rough road, which was probably 90% of the time. Frustrating, yes, and very hot (our timing was poor, being out in the middle of the park during the hottest part of the day, with little water and no shade to be found. But we made it back, if exhausted and beyond sweaty. Good times.
After Bogoria, we took a very scenic (but LONG) drive up to Nyahururu, which is the town highest north of Kenya (also a significant elevation, at 2303 meters. There we briefly visited Thompson Falls (to the right) , which ended up being a bit of a let-down - certainly no comparison to Niagara Falls or anything, but because there hasn't been any significant rainfall in over a year in most of these parts, it's no surprise that the falls are significantly less impressive than in years past. It is dry, so dry here. Many people have been unable to grow much of anything in the last few months, and there if fear that the food crisis will eventually result in thousands of deaths, not unlike the food shortage that Ethiopia had experienced a couple of decades ago. People are worried, and with reason. Whenever it does rain, it isn't significant enough to wake things up in order for growth to really occur. Concerning, to say the least.
Anywho, after being in Nyahururu we traveled to Nyanyuki, where we stayed at a Camel Camp, in a traditional Somali hut, as the nomadic pasturalists did in times past. There, just a few kilometers away from the foot of Mt Kenya, we were able to bask under the stars in the tranquility of nature, away from the chaos of the city. SO nice!!
Well, tomorrow we're off to the coast. We'll be taking a 15-hr long train ride there, which allegedly passes through/near Tsavo National Park and is supposed to be a very beautiful trip. It'll be nice to park our carcasses for a few days, after having been running around so much these last few days. I'll try to post more pictures soon-ish. It's a challenge, but at least now I know it can be done. That's it for now!
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