No, we didn’t disappear in Spain a couple of weeks ago. The rest of our trip was as fascinating and wonderful as the part before, although with some major “incidents”. I’ll write about those soon.

It didn’t seem we’d been gone for over two months, but walking in the door, looking at two months of piled-up mail and two months of weeds in the backyard, it’s obvious some time has passed.

I’ll be catching up on the rest of the trip over the next week or so. Meanwhile, thanks for reading about our exploits!

   Tom and Dale

But first, 2 things. Barcelona has a bike-share system called Bicing that looks fantastic. You pay a yearly fee of about $60 and for that you can use these bikes which are everywhere. There are time limits to prevent hogging, and it seems there’s always a bike available. The other thing is nostalgic: almost across the street from the hotel is a Spar Market, a convenience store that used to be the world’s largest grocery chain. I used to be groceries at one of these in Austria for many years during the summer.

So today is our chance to see a some buildings done by Barcelona’s defining architect, Antoni Gaudi. Working in a style called Modernisme, much like the familiar Art Nouveau, this school of aesthetics softened the industrial revolution, bring nature into the work, and, enjoyably, avoided straight lines and sharp corners.

Gaudi’s first public works, oddly enough, are two lampposts in the Placa Reial, right near our hotel, so that’s where we went first. They’re fine, but not quite revolutionary. The dragon and Valkyrie helmet are nice touches though.

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Heading out of the old city, we went to the Block of Discord, where the Casa Batllo is located. Now get this…Casa Batllo is a remodelling job. Before and after:

Can you imagine the client presentations? “I’m going to redo the facade with balconies that look like skulls with iron eyelashes, bones propping the windows open, a dragon’s back on the roof with a bulb of garlic. All that will be decorated with pretty flowers done in mosaics. Oh, also some fantastic chimneys on top that no one will ever see.”

The inside is even better with not a single straight line in sight, a jellyfish chandelier that swirls outward to meet the walls and windows, another ceiling with just the idea of a light fixture emerging, a fireplace that looks like a mushroom with seating for two. It’s a hodgepodge of things that shouldn’t be in a single place but somehow it all hangs together beautifully.

Although everything we saw today was spectacular, at the end we agreed this was our favorite of them all.

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La Pedrera (The Quarry), or Casa Mila, is a large apartment complex with waves of balconies and windows on the outside as well as rollercoasters of chimneys up top. It’s not as riotous and outrageous as the last place, which is probably why it wasn’t our favorite.

The deep courtyard is beautiful, but once inside the building itself, I was surprised to see things got a little boring. They’ve decorated some apartments with period furnishings, but that only made it less interesting.

The roof was pretty spiffy and even had a view of, off in the distance, the Sagrada Familia church.

It was time for lunch so we had our first paella in Spain. It turns out in Barcelona they don’t use saffron for any of their many paellas so this was unexpectedly brown. It tasted pretty good, if heavy on the salt. I’m sure we’ll find better.

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Barcelona’s iconic image is Sagrada Familia, a church that Gaudi started, but never finished. Nor did he expect to. As originally intended, it’s completely financed by donations so it’s taking a while to complete. From the looks of things, it might not be for quite a while.  I’m not sure why, the building is going on following the general shape Gaudi envisioned, but with designs by other architects. Our first view was of the Passion façade, angular and severe.

Now this is really strange, but there’s a resemblance between the church spires we see here and the temples we saw in Khajuarho, India. Surely it’s just a coincidence.

Much better is the facade Gaudi actually completed, the one depicting the nativity, complete with angelic orchestra (but really, is there any other kind?).

There’s probably some religious significance to this turtle, but it’s more fun just to giggle at its predicament.

We took one of the elevators up, well-warned. It’s easy to see why some people might have problems. Once up there we could cross the bridge between spires very high in the air. At least taking the stairs down was easier.

looking up

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Unsurprisingly, the interior is far from done, but in place are Gaudi’s columns that branch out like trees reaching toward the sky.

It was interesting to see a little of Gaudi’s work process. He would drape chains upside down to shape and arrange his characteristic arches. If you look at the dangling stuff upside down, the building takes shape. Sort of.

Having had quite enough visual activity for the day, we decided to go eat. Dinner was another tapas bar, a little calmer, so I’m able to show you some of our eats. The light red Spanish wine was simple and delicious. We had, among other things, salt cod (bacalhau) fritters, fantastic goat cheese, chorizo and, unfortunately (Tom tried to warn me, but too late), a fresh blood sausage (ick ick ick). Another glass of wine took most of that away though.

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Montjuïc, Barcelona’s hill with a very strange name (Mountain of the Jews), is where we headed this morning. Now well into the second half of our trip, we’re glad not to have to trudge uphill and took advantage of the funicular ride. Once the short trip through the tunnel was over, we had a fine view of the city looking inland.

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Pleasant small parks abound on Montjuic and we had nice stroll in one that’s next to the Miró Museum. They’re very clean and tidy perhaps due in part to the attractive reminders scattered around. I like how they seem to invite you to look at them and comprehend the message.

One way that Barcelona is very different from other places we’ve visited is the generous selection of museums, particularly the ones devoted to a single artist. The most important one on the hill today and the main reason for our visit is the Fundación Joan Miró, whose collection of his paintings, drawing, sculpture, textiles and ceramics numbers over 20 000 pieces.  The building itself is a big collection of geometric forms full of variations on a single color, white, sort of like the cryptic monochromatic backgrounds Miró used in his paintings. Right by entrance is one of those whimsical E.T.-like sculptures.

As soon as you enter there’s a room with some textiles that Miró created for the museum, including this very 3D one, which is about 25 feet in length.

We enjoyed our education in the painter’s work over his lifetime, particularly the dream paintings which we’d never seen before. There were some surprising, somewhat unpleasant paintings reacting to the Spanish Civil War, also some canvases that anticipate graffiti art. Miró believed that sculptures belonged outside, so there’s a rooftop gallery for enjoying them in the open air (where pictures are allowed). Of course I appreciated the recurring motif of eggs in the art, as in the sculpture “Man & Woman”.

Miró’s images are in Barcelona’s eye every day from the public statues to the anchor mosaic in the Rambla even to the logo he designed for La Caixa, a bank. (The logo might represent a man dropping a coin into a piggy bank.)

The museum was totally worth the hours we spent there. Very enjoyable.

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Practically right next door is the 1992 Olympic Stadium with a museum about those Olympics and the Olympic movement in general.

But first, if you’ve never seen or heard it, you have to check out the song that Tom was whistling the tune more and more the closer we got to Barcelona. This duet was intended to be the Olympic theme song (Freddie Mercury died before the Olympics, but it was performed with his taped voice). Besides Freddie Mercury, it has Montserrat Caballé! It’s a mystery why the song isn’t featured prominently (or at all) in the museum.

We thought it was going to be just goofy when the first thing we saw was a big room of foosball tables.

It did get better though with interesting displays old barbells, ancient sports shoes, and actual Olympics torches.

There are a lot of nifty multimedia displays, such as the ones where you can try to match Carl Lewis’ pace displayed in racing lights on the floor, or attempt a record high jump or ponder whether trying to beat the doping machine is really worth it.

Everything was accompanied by the silly, emotionally manipulative and sappy music tv loves to use for “big” sporting events.

We did learn two very interesting tidbits: the five colors of the Olympic flag’s rings – at least one of those colors appears in every flag of all the nations of the world. Also: Richard Strauss composed an Olympic anthem for the Hitler Olympics.

Outside we enjoyed the old stadium. Who’d have thought we’d visit 2 Olympics sites on this trip? (The other was Beijing.)

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There was yet more to see on this Mount of the Jews. Once again we were happy to avoid an uphill walk by using a handy gondola to get the medieval castle (sadly the site of some of Franco’s more dastardly crimes). Up on top there was a collection of old artillery which someone liked a lot.

The castle is attractive now and the way they turned the stereotypical moat into a nice garden is very pretty.

Views of the city include loading docks, a weird building that looks like Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors and a tele-radio tower that looks like a spaceship on its launchpad.

Nearby is the Miramar outlook, another scenic viewpoint, but at that point we were just as happy to look at the very lovely pavement, artwork using recycled bits and pieces.

So that’s what we saw today

Being so close to the Rambla, there’s no choice but to promenade. Unlike most thoroughfares, the Rambla doesn’t seem to be used to go from one place to another place. A place to hang out is more like it. There are a lot of odd street “performers” who put on strange costumes, stand on boxes and wait until they get some change to do something.

There are a lot of beautiful buildings along the way, little places to shop and places to sit and watch the world go by.

At the bottom of the Rambla is a the monument to Columbus, who returned here from his fateful voyage. He’s pointing in a direction that is not towards the New World, but I guess you’re supposed to glean the general idea.

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Actually, it seemed he was pointing at those open-top tour buses waiting nearby. Still a little hung over from yesterday’s long trip, we decide to go for an easy sightseeing option today.

You might remember that a similar trip in Istanbul was rather pointless…here in Barcelona, the hop on-hop off was a fun way to see a lot of things in just a few hours, although by the end we were pretty cold. A lot of very famous-looking places flew in and out of view, particularly the Modernisme creations of Gaudi, Montaner and Cadafalch.

In the Eixample, one of the city’s districts, there’s a street park dedicated to a famous son, Pablo Casals.

Another of Barcelona’s multitudes of famous offspring, Juan Miro a constant presence. Check out how huge this sculpture is in comparison to the people at its base.

Even the street lamps are lovely. The audio guide on the bus pointed out that the benches at their base use the same broken tile technique that Gaudi was fond of.

And as if they were speaking directly to us and our trip, some buddhist prayer flags flapped from a balcony.

Near the end of our ride, we saw what must surely be the big ticket in town, Gaudi’s as-yet unfinished cathedral, Sagrada Familia.

Speaking of Gaudi, peeking over our balcony this morning, I was surprised  at the long line waiting to get into the the Palau Güell, right across from our room. After the bus ride, we headed in to see what was going on. An early product of the very fruitful patron/artist relationship between Güell and Gaudí, the townhouse has been mostly closed for years. The only part accessible today is the gloomy brickwork of the stables in the basement.

The best part of the public visit is what’s out on the street.

The very best part, of course, is what we can see from our room, I guess we’re pretty lucky to have an architectural masterpiece just outside the window.

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Tonight we had delicious, genuine tapas in a crowded bar, much too crowded to go snapping off a bunch of photos. I had some really great sidre, or hard cider whose bubbly-ness is enhanced by the pour, which takes place with showmanship from a great height. The plates were tantalizingly strung out along the entire bar for the taking. Warm ones appeared regularly being paraded through the hungry crowd. Just for review, tapas started as a ‘cover’ for your drink to keep it clean, usually with a piece of bread. Places got fancy and put good stuff on top, and held it in place with toothpicks. Like stacks of empty plates at dim sum, your bill is tallied up by counting the toothpicks left on your plate.

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And finally, for no particular a reason, the stairway of our hotel, with my shoes.

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After an eleven-hour trip from Kenya, we finally arrived in Barcelona. The connection from the airport by train and subway is extremely easy but we encountered an alarming hiccup: some guys tried to pickpocket Tom. It was a ruse that’s happened to us before years ago in France. As you board a crowded train burdened with luggage, someone stops in front of you blocking the way. From behind you’re jostled by someone else who slips their hand into your pocket or bag. This time we had a much happier ending than our French adventure as Tom, who managed to stay alert, foiled the dastardly thieves and sent them scurrying.

Maybe his victory over the evildoers kept him so handsome and fresh-looking after the long journey.

Just off the Rambla, a grand boulevard that leads from the heart of Barcelona down to the Mediterranean, our hotel is across a narrow street from the Palau Güell, the only building the great architect Gaudi actually completed. Our room, number 423, has a privileged view of some of his signature fairy chimneys. A unique view as it turns out since only a handful of rooms have this view and the Palau is mostly closed (including the roof) to the public during a long renovation. Lucky us!

We tottered out to the Rambla for our first meal of adequate tapas consisting of patates bravas (fried potatoes with a spicy garlic sauce) and calamari. I have a feeling we’ll have better, but Tom really liked his sangria.

Leaving the national park, we saw one more big game animal, the wildebeest. These are two of the group that live year-round here, but during the Great Migration, the grasslands disappear from view as multitudes of these animals pass through.

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Arriving back in Nairobi, we were very sad to say goodbye to our safari guide, Nicholas, a truly great guy we’re glad to have known.

With only hours to go before catching our next flight at 4 in the morning, we were glad the company had put us in a luxurious suite.

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They had also come up with a way to hide fluorescent tubes. (Beijing was similarly clever.)

Going out for a Sunday stroll, we found an aircraft hangar right in the middle of a city block. The city has grown up around it and it’s now used for the central market.

The Masai market in front of city hall (in case you go) is much more fun.

Nairobi’s downtown has a groovy collection of 60s and 70s vintage buildings.

Gaggles of people in their Sunday finery promenaded this afternoon. We stopped beneath a third-floor church and listened to their fantastic choir. Around another corner was an enthusiastic outdoor service. We gradually realized that Kenyans haven’t known the terrible prejudice African-Americans have faced. The difference was very noticeable. Also that we were very much in the minority.

Kenyan’s government, like many in Africa, is notoriously and profoundly corrupt. It would be nice if these weren’t just window dressing and indicate change might come soon.

So we say asante (thank you) to a beautiful country…we definitely hope to return someday.

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This morning’s game drive met the dawn on the Masai Mara. We were hoping to catch some of the nocturnal animals before they disappeared for the day.

After staring at a large herd of buffalo who stared back at us, we saw a couple of those night creatures, a bat-eared fox and a jackal

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Out for a morning stroll were a pair of Masai ostriches and a mother elephant with her calf.

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It was a good day for catching sight of colorful birds. (The secretary bird is called that because when it raises the quill feathers at the back of its head, they look like pens stuck in it’s hair.)

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Guinea fowl [maplink]		lilac-breasted roller [maplink]

crowned crane [maplink]		ground hornbill [maplink]

The sausage tree is named for for its huge seed pods. They’re collected when they fall to the ground by the Masai and used for a version of local beer. (Truly foul.)

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Another beautiful and unusual tree, the giant euphorbia:

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Before breaking for lunch we visited a traditional village of the Masai. A group of Masai warriors met us, insisting that we we join in the dancing and singing. We felt a little foolish, but have to admit it was fun.

They were much better than us at the jumping dance, a little competition the winner of which will get a woman.

The sharp-eyed will see guys with long-hair and those without.  Those with the long hair are the actual working warriors and each is a bachelor. They act not against human enemies but instead the nightly visits by lions and hyenas trying to get at the cattle and sheep. Using their bright red outfits, clubs, knives and very loud voices, they keep the predators outside the boma, or fenced compound. (The predators aren’t as frequent during the great migration which is the lions’ all-you-can-eat wildebeest buffet.)

Some other things we learned about the Masai this morningi:

• One husband (now 97 years old) is the head of the family. He has 7 wives and 37 children (19 girls, 18 boys). (Polygamy is legal throughout Kenya.)
• everyone in the compound is of the same family – men with more than a couple of wives have to move out and start their own boma
• young men in school and married men shave their heads
• circumcision happens for boys at age 11, during which they must remain silent. there’s a  2-day celebration. unfortunately, they also practice female circumcision
• newborn calves live in the houses with the people
• they eat cow meat, drink cow milk. babies have cow fat – the entire animal is used. they also drink cow blood, tapping a vein (from which the cow recovers). they eat no vegetables. in spite of this unbalanced diet, they have excellent teeth.
• chickens and sheep are raised for sale only
• the Masai can move anywhere they want. there is no concept of property ownership
• Masai beer although bad-tasting, is very strong – we were a little alarmed by a drunk man waving around a stout club.

The houses are built by the women-folk. Except for guarding the boma, it seems like they do absolutely everything else around here as well.

The houses, which last about 4 years, are built of cow poo! They don’t smell in the least. Amazing. The Masai were generous in letting us stomp around their homes and very friendly as well.

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There were two more game highlights for us today during the drives through the beautiful Mara. Lucky once again, we were extremely close to two young lions from the same pride taking a nap.

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We were also privileged with a much better view of the extremely rare black rhino.

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It turns out the game lodge has its own boma where they had an outdoor feast for the guests tonight. After being greeted with cups of that awful beer, the rest of the meal was pretty good, including roasted goat, banana stew, sweet potatoes completely unlike any I’ve see at home, and ugali dumplings. For dessert they had, of all things, a yule log.

Another very good day in Kenya.

The Masai Mara in Kenya. Most famous for the great migration of wildebeests that happens in July & August, it is a vast area of grasslands full of life. Different than anything we expected, its beauty was awesome. Surely the past few days of our visit to Kenya have been building up to this.

After arriving in time for lunch, we set out an afternoon game drive. One that was much more eventful that could be imagined.

Right off the bat, we had a distant glimpse of one of the rarest endangered animals: the black rhino. This is the most detail I could get in the photo taken from quite far away. There are fewer than 500 of them left in Africa. All rhinos are endangered, but this is the rarest of them all. To discourage poaching, some are being parted from their horns, which are a form of hair and eventually grow back.

Coming into the national park, Nicholas, our safari guide, showed us this unusual plant, the whistling acacia.

The thorny seed pods have small holes which whistle when the wind blows. To make things even odder, whistler ants live inside the pods and swarm out when something is brave enough to try to eat the acacia.

Some more of today’s animal parade:

BAGELFECHT WEAVER

These pretty little yellow birds are the males, who weave these ball-shaped nests to entice a female. If the girl bird thin,s the nest is good enough, she’ll set up house and lay some eggs. There are trees full of these nests, which really are just large bachelor communities.

CROWNED CRANE

MARIBOU STORKS

Up close, these things look a lot like vultures and like vultures, they are scavenger birds. It’s a mystery how they ever became associated with delivering babies.

STEPPE EAGLE

We saw more than just this one eagle, but I never could get a good photo of one. They are magnificent.

WILDEBEESTS

The plains are covered with these animals during the great migration, galloping from one place to another. These wildebeests make the Masai Mara their home, perhaps unwisely as we were to see later today. They are profoundly stupid creatures: while they can run very fast when pursued by a predator, they will easily be distracted by some delicious-looking grass, at which point they become some other animal’s evening supper.

UMBRELLA ACACIA

Another stunning tree is the umbrella acacia, which has a striking silhouette strung along a ridge.

MASAI OSTRICHES

Tom’s favorite animals on safari, along with yellow baboons, plains zebras, and African elephants.

TOPI ANTELOPE

In comparison with  the wildebeests, the Topi antelope are Einsteins. They post a sentry while grazing who can sound the alarm at any sign of trouble.

CHEETAH

An extremely fast animal, capable of running 70 kph, this beautiful animal was still and kind enough to sit still for a photo. It looks just like a leopard except for the mascara job on its tear ducts.

WHITE-BACKED VULTURES

The sight of these scavengers were a sure sign something was up in the neighborhood.

LIONS AT DINNER

In an extremely lucky moment, we were able to see some lionesses and their cubs feeding on an unfortunate and probably idiotic wildebeest. The sound of their feeding was stomach-churning and if you really focus in, you can see the carcass of the wildebeest and the blood-stained whiskers of the lion.

They simply couldn’t be bothered by their audience.

Our game drive over, we settled into our somewhat posh tent, which was still a tent.

The day drawing to a close, it was comforting to know the game camp was surrounded by a sturdy electric fence.

Sort of like the 3-continents-in-a-day trick in Turkey, today we stood in separate hemispheres – Tom’s in the North and I’m in the South. While we were there we saw a fun (if bogus) demonstration of the Coriolus Effect.

In the Northern Hemisphere we see water circling a drain to move counter-clockwise, which is just what it did 15 meters from Tom’s side. Moving to my side, 15 meters the other way, the water drained clockwise. This was shown taking a bowl with a small hole (#4 knitting needle) at the bottom, letting the water drain, using a matchstick to amplify the motion of the water. It was straight out of Ripley’s Believe It or Not. Guess what happened right under the sign? The water drained straight down and the match didn’t move! Even though we learned it in science class, the internet says it’s not true. Oh well, at least the GPS confirmed we had crossed the equator.

Our trip from Mt. Kenya took us to the Rift Valley, Kenya’s breadbasket.

Descending into it we saw, along with all the other farms, plantations of tea and coffee. (The coffee here is de-li-cious.)

On our drive, I fell in love again…with a tree.

The umbrella acacia is one of the 50 species that grow in Kenya, most with harvestable wood. Its silhouette is gorgeous however it’s seen.

We entered Lake Nakuru National Park and almost as soon as we did, we spotted the very shy White Rhino.

After checking into the Lion Hill Lodge, where we have a cozy cabin with a view of the stars, we loaded up for our first game drive this afternoon. Here’s our guide, Nicholas, with Tom and the Land Rover. The top pops up for 360-degree viewing that’s perfect for getting all these photos. It was also huge entertainment to stand up in a moving vehicle.

Birding has never appealed to us because they’re so hard to see. Well, it wasn’t difficult to spot them today.

This very odd-looking one is called a yellow-bill oxpecker. I think. I was scribbling down names between shutters. Nicholas knows the names of everything. All of the mistakes are my own, of course.

Anyway, oxpeckers ride the backs of African Buffalo and other animals picking ticks. You’ll catch glimpses of them in other photos of mine, but they’re very clear here on the back of an impala. And if you’re wondering, impalas can be identified by the two black stripes on their rumps.

Here’s the male:

Also seen was the bush buck, distinguished by its furry neck.

And the other thing that vaguely looks like a deer is the Thompson’s Gazelle, an interesting creature. Birth has to come with the rains, which isn’t always convenient for the doe’s gestational period. She can actually hold onto the unborn gazelle for two months more.

Our first sight of Masai Ostriches. The male is the black-feathered one. Hope to see many more.

Plains Zebras:

Lake Nakuru is famous for the pink flamingo migration. We just missed the biggest part of their visit here, but there are still plenty of them to look at and admire. Watching them take flight gave a better view of their plumage.

The yellow-bark acacia, is the dominant tree in Lake Nakuru with airy forests as well as gorgeous single specimens.

I have no idea what you call a bunch of baboons, but we drove through a whole lot of Yellow Baboons. (You can see a little yellow in some of the fur.) We were lucky to see some newborn and young baboons.  It’s very hard not to read human characteristics into them. Just try.

We ran into our friends from last night, the African Buffalo. Nicholas says they’re among the most dangerous animals to a man on the ground because they can charge completely unprovoked. Lucky for us we’re in a jeep, which they’ don’t seem to have much interest in.

The luckiest moment of the afternoon by far was getting to watch lions. I don’t know how Nicholas saw this head in the grass, but we stopped pretty quickly so he could point the lioness out to us.

Looking up this very old acacia, we were in for a bigger surprise…this big cat taking a nap! She slowly woke up, regarded us for a moment and then went back to more important matters like staring into space.

The whole time we were watching, we thought there were only the two lionesses. Going through the pictures this evening, I realized the male was there the whole time.

And so went our first game drive of the safari.

Bleary from a 3.30am arrival, we were nevertheless happy to arrive in Nairobi and to meet our wonderful safari guide, Nicholas, who loaded us into the Land Cruiser and made the trip up the slopes of Mt. Kenya.

You might notice geographic coordinates on the sign above…Starting now, all the photos are going to be available in a larger size when you click on them. And in a geeky development, most of the pictures may have titles with the geographic location and altitude when you mouse over. This GPS information is also embedded in the photos’ metadata. This means if you have software that can read this information, you’ll be able to see the location on Google Earth, Google Maps, Yahoo Maps and MS Bing. Pretty nifty if I do say so myself.

The Mountain Lodge is the largest wooden lodge in East Africa. The rooms are wonderfully mountain-y and he clean, breathable air is such a relief. Our room has just the right amount of rustic-ness and comes with a balcony for wildlife viewing. The dining room was pretty good considering how many different nationalities they accommodate. Some of the more interesting things we ate were: juice from a plant I’ve never had any luck with, tree tomato…a wonderful Kenyan dish of greens much like collards and kale cooked in cream…leg of lamb…a kind of mango that’s new to us – it looks totally unripened but isn’t…and, of all things, Paris Brest, the bicycle-wheel of choux pastry filled with pastry cream.

But the hotel’s not the reason we’re here on safari, is it? The main attraction here is a genuine natural watering-hole, where all types of game congregate at different times of the day. Besides our balcony, you can view it from further above or right at ground level in a little tunnel.

Within minutes of dropping off our bags, we saw two beautiful animals, the bush buck and water buck. The water buck is unique in that way that it avoids predators: they’re not interested because the buck’s meat is much too stinky!

Soon enough two Egyptian geese started waddling and quarrelling. And as dusk started to fall, a herd of African Buffalo slowly passed through.

Night fell and the lights on the watering hole came up.

The lodge staff came in to turn down the beds and supply hot water bottles. They also offered an animal wake-up call service, where they would knock on the door throughout the night as different animals showed up at the watering hole. We didn’t see mountain elephants or lions this evening, but we did see during our stay:

as well as a bunch of others unidentified by us.

Evocative, misty morning came and with it, a bunch of Sykes’ monkeys.

Oops, wrong picture.

If this is a sign of the week to come, we are in for a fantastic time.

Oh, and JAMBO is Swahili for hello!