Week in Review?

Wow, what a time. We went to Buffalo Springs Reserve... google it, and you'll find stories of a lioness years ago that adopted an oryx baby (so neat!).

We visited TWO wonders of the world on this trip. The Serengeti is the 7th, and Ngorogoro Crater is the 8th wonder of the world. On my last trip I visited Victoria Falls, which is the 3rd. I'd love to see ALL of the wonders of the world.

We drove through the Ngorogoro Crater. It imploded years ago, and made a caldera. The grasses are rich in nitrogen, which is why the Wildebeest, Zebra, and Gazelle make such a trek every year - it's good food for the babies!

We visited an AIDS orphanage, where all the children living there had AIDS or AIDS-related illnesses, and had lost most, if not all of their family to the same ailments. Such a sad but inspiring day, those kids were awesome.

I negotiated for something for Trent at a market in Karatu - an old Maasai leather skirt. He wanted over $200 for it, and I got him down to $50. So far it has stayed in its plastic bag, it reeks! It will eventually end up on a wall in Trent's office.

In parts of the Ngorogoro crater, there were umbrella acacia trees as far as the eye can see.

And on the Serengeti plains? Wildebeest, Zebra, and Gazelle as far as the eye can see! So many that you couldn't determine individual animals in binoculars.

The count for Lion is up to the late-30s for the whole group. For me, it's around 27. AWESOME. 2 Leopard, 9 Cheetah. *drooling* I can't get enough of this place.

Oh - something to note, but I don't know if it's worth comment. In our travels to Kenya, I saw a store named "The Steem Place Hotel and Butchery".

*blink blink*

I got kissed by a giraffe.

I met "my" elephant.

I had to go for a bathroom break on a long roadtrip somewhere... the guide announced "boys on the left, girls on the right". Well, I had to wander a little ways to find a bush to hide behind (those darned plains!) and found myself 10 feet away from a large herd of Zebra. When I got back to the car I was so excited, I said "I just peed with the Zebra!" - I'm such a dork. But it was a lot of fun. They were all looking at me like "what the heck are YOU!?" Now, if it were wildebeest or cape buffalo, I wouldn't have stayed there. But the Zebra seemed not to mind my interruption.

I found out that the Samburu people are similar to the Maasai, but judging only by the 2 villages we visited, the Samburu people we met were in much better health.

There is a higher police presence in Kenya.

I peed on a wasp nest and they all escaped between my legs!! (too much information?!)

Oh, so many great moments (not that peeing on a wasp nest was a great moment, but it was memorable!), we can't wait to share them all.

I took over 1,000 pictures. 4-512MB, 1-2GB, 2-256MB cards. I only took that many because we had the Ipod upload them to, and I am grateful for it!!

We'll see you soon!