Nairobi: Day 3

Most days here feel more like two, and today was definitely one of those days. Peter let me sleep in this morning, which was good. I was pretty happy for a hot shower too. We had a quick breakfast and headed out the door. "Twindai" I hollared as we rushed out to get to the elephant orphanage in time to see the little ones.

There were so many interesting things to take pictures of on the way, but Peter wouldn't let me take pictures while we were driving. It's too dangerous to draw attention to ourselves. For instance, we had to stop at the Shell gas station to get fuel for the car, but a small herd of cattle had the right away so we couldn't turn in right away. It would have made a great photograph of contrasting imagery.

We reached the orphanage at 11:15. It's run by the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. From 11am to 12pm, they provide an elephant viewing and discuss the work of the organization. These baby elephants were so cute, it was really hard to pay attention to the keeper there to explain the plight of these intelligent animals. I took a lot of pictures. Here are some of the cutest ones.



Sadly, these little elephants lost their mothers and would not survive in the wild without protection. This organization rescues these orphans and assigns each animal a keeper who acts as a surrogate mother. Eventually the elephants are released into the wild, and the keeper continues to stay in the wild with the newly released elephant until it is comfortable and able to join the herd.

After we left the orphanage, we went to the Kenya National Park to go explore the Nairobi Safari Walk.


It just so happened that a cake festival was scheduled for today inside the park. There were lots of vendors, and even a stage with singers.


Small tents along the path housed bakeries serving samples of their best cakes. It was sugar heaven. Unfortunately, the excess crowds and noise scared most of the animals away.


My friend Kate back home would love this artistic cake decoration, so I snapped this photo just for her:



Peter's niece and nephew live very close to the park, so he went to pick them up so they could try all of these cakes. There truly is such a thing as "too much of a good thing" and you know it when two children throw away their plates because they don't want any more frosting, sugar, and chocolate concoctions.

I got a chance to meet Peter's aunt, uncle, and older niece when we dropped the kids off after the cake festival. We headed to the city afterwards to pick up his friend Jim who works at Safaricom and go to the Nairobi Arboretum. The arboretum is right next to the state house.


Lots of trails...


... and some interesting trees I've never seen before.


To end the day, we went to eat at Kula Korner. I had the "Juicy Mbuzi Strips" which was awesome grilled goat, rice, and greens. Speaking of food, it's awesome here, and I'll be fat when I return to the states. No kidding.