Serengeti and beyond

Well in true africa fashion and the pace of my trip, I have had not had real good internet access until now. Just entered Malawi today, my fifth country in Africa, and no, I will not be adopting any children like Madonna. Need to backtrack a little to talk about the Serengeti since I did not have time last post. Well in a word . . . it's amazing!!!!! It lives up to all the hype. We entered the park in our range rovers, because our big ol' truck is not allowed in the park. We were almost instantly met with 20 or so giraffe in the distance and then as we headed down onto the plains there were hundreds and thousands of zebra, wildebeast, gazelles, birds, water buffalos, impalas, etc. Later on we were able to check out a leopard in a tree which is a real find, because it is quite rare. That was impressive. Saw even more hippos strewn out in the waters and one even got so close to one of my cohorts that it crapped in the water and sprayed it around with it's tail. Luckily most of it missed her, but it was hilarious. At night, we were kept up by some hyenas that had come into our camp looking for some free food. They did end up chewing on some of the water containers, but supposedly they are quite chicken and wouldn't hurt a thing because they are frightened by their own shadows. The next day we headed into he Nguroguro crater which is this immensely old crater that's now filled with grass and jungles and hosts a bunch of wildlife. We witnessed about 5 lions hanging out on the side of the road including two cubs. Two of the lions actually crawled underneath the range rover in front of us for a little shade. It was incredible to see them up close. Earlier we had a herd of elephants walk in front of us. You just can't believe what it's like to see them up close. There are not words for it. Later on in the day we also witnesed in the distance a cheetah which was carrying some kind of a kill, and then 4 black rhinos which are incredibly endangered. Oh, I almost forgot, I also did a sunrise balloon ride across the serengeti in a 16 passenger hot air balloon. Another amazing experience. There's nothing like floating over the serengeti plains. We then pressed on across Tanzania stopping along the way to do a few cultural walks through tanzanian communities learning about farming and the many artistic endeavours such as woodcarving and oil painting. Our next big stops were Dar es Salaam and then onto Zanzibar. Let me say, up to now, I wasn't quite sure about the "so called" African heat. That all changed when we got to these places. Heat and humidity like nobody's business. Let's just say that I sweated for a full 4 days when we were there. That includes at night time when I attempted to sleep. Only really got a few hours of sleep at night. Luckily, at least in Zanzibar this was counteracted by beautiful scenery and blue water. Zanzibar is the former slave holding area for most of the European/mideast slave trade. It was ruled by omans up til the 20th century and did not really get rid of the slaves until then. It has a huge muslim population, about 97% or so, which is evident by the many of the woman wearing gowns from head to toe, and with a lot of those wearing veils. It was an impressive sight to see and strange, being from America, but also feel so comfortable and safe. Zanzibar was also the center of the spice trade and was at one time calle the Spice Island. We took a spice tour and learned a lot of interesting tidbits, for instance, I did not know pepper came from a vine. Beyond sweating and swimming in the beautiful blue ocean (lots of body surfing also), I did actually go scuba diving for the first time. As I have mentionned before, water is not my strength, so this was another boundary that i was pushing passed. I actually was quite happy with the results. After the initial "oh shit", I am breathing under the water and if this things breaks I will drown, I was able to relax and take it all in. Saw a ton of different sea creatures and really felt like I was inside an aquarium, constantly looking around to make sure I didn't run into the glass. Oh, to add to the excitement/hardship of Zanzibar and a big reason I haven't posted for over a week, Zanzibar has been without power for over a month. Some kind of dispute with the mainland of Tanzania. They have an interesting relationship. We only had power from about 8pm til 7am, which meant the fan, abruptly shut off at that time. Not that it was a big deal, because the fan was so slow, that it was like when you are changing the speed of a normal ceiling fan and you are wondering whether it is actually slowing down to a stop or just going incredibly slowly. Well I was wondering a lot of the time. Throw in the fact that you are under a mosquito net, and the breeze was equivalent to a strong fart, excuse my french. Well, now after a couple of really long driving days, we have entered our 5 country, Malawi. And to immediately dispel any rumors, I will not, unlike Madonna, be adopting a child. From a distance we could see the incredibly large lake, and tomorrow we will drive further down the lake's edge to settle down for a couple of days. My hope is that I will be able to do some much needed laundry and some new adventure. And hopefully, not be eaten by a crocodile, which actually happened to one of the boss of one of the fellows at UCSF, while he was working at John Hopkins. More to come. Hope I am not boring you guys. My days are full of stimuli and eager to continue.

Rafting and the Serengeti

Well folks, have a few minutes to jot a few things down. Internet is spotty at best and typically slow as molasses. Rafting down the nile was amazing. I had to clean my pants out several times because I thought i would die on numerous occasions. Our guide from New Zealand would instruct us on all the necessary things to do before each rapid and what to do if things went wrong, such as rolling yourself up in a ball to prevent being sucked down into a whirlpool and then hopefully be shot out farther down river. There were several class 5 rapids and one that entailed dropping down a 10 ft waterfall. There was about 3 times that we "flipped" over. I put that in quotations because it was always our guide who wrenched the raft over at a particularly hairy spot to make us tip. The company was very organized and focused on safety, having several kayakers that would paddle over to people that had been dislodged from the main raft and allow you to hitch a ride on the back to the raft. I decided to go on the extreme version which involved a much smaller raft and thus more jostling and falling out. Figured if I was going to die, might as well do the challenging one. The ride was beautiful and we covered over 30km or 18 miles and ended with a nice bbq and some beer. Had plenty of bruises from paddle whacks and rubbing against the raft. It was insane and I am wondering why I still put myself through the whitewater experience because I am just not that comfortable in the water especially going that fast. At the bar at our campsite, we also had the opportunity to climb into a kayak that was hanging upside down on the ceiling of the bar and then take a shot while hanging upside down. Words of wisdom, do not let tequila rush up your nose, it is not comfortable. A few days after the nile, my group had a small end of trip party at Carnivore in Nairobi which entail loads of meet being carved off large spits, crocodile was the most exotic, though it tasted quite funky, even for my tastes. It was sad to see the group split up, and I plan to keep in touch with several of my new folks, but the adventure must continue, and it did the next day, as my new group, now 24 people headed off to Tanzania and the Serengeti. I will elaborate much more on the next, because the bus is about to take off and need to leave. Miss you all.

Gorillas, are you kidding me?

WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not quite in a row, but got to tell you about what i just did a couple of days ago. We were in Rwanda, and went trekking in the jungle up a small mountain to find a family of gorillas. There were about 12 gorillas, a few babies and about 3 that were just huge. We had to bushwack our way up there for a couple of hours attempting to dodge numerous stinging nettles which are a mother. They go right through your clothing an cause a burning stinging sensation for about 15 minutes. I was constantly getting elbows and knees hit and once fell on my back and had a nice sensation. I can't say enough about seeing the gorillas, though. You just can't imagine the sensation of looking into the eyes of these amazing animals as they stare back at you and into you. We watched for over an hour, changing positions to see other gorillas. The babies were quite playful swinging about and pulling branches down. Most of the time the gorillas were sitting or laying down and changing their positions. They are so human like, or maybe we are just so gorilla like. I will remember it forever and is indeed one of the most incredible things I have done, and i have racked up quite a few amazing things. While in Rwanda, we also had a very sobering visit to the genocide museum in kigali which documents the atrocities of 1994 when roughly 1 million people were killed in just a few months. It basically involved 1 tribe trying to eradicate the other usually with machetes, many of which were children. The trouble as usual, began back in the early part of the century when europeans decided to study the africans, and determined that one of the tribes was "superior" and gave this minority tribe all the power, which resulted in anger and jealousy which over time caused a uprising of the majority inferior tribe and a series of propaganda campaigns against the minority tribe. It was quite reminiscient of the holocaust in how they used the media to create anger and suspicions throughout the people. It's just crazy, how this continues to happen. we are now back in uganda and will be heading to another safari park today for a walking safari. Then it's off to Jinja, uganda where I will contemplate rafting down the Nile. Scares the crap out of me, but you only live once, right? Heading out for now. more later.