First Day

giraffes!  More later

alive and in Africa

I am in Africa and not dead.  On the plane I met a State Dept employee headed to Baghdad, a guy visiting his family in Cairo, a woman headed home to Saudi Arabia, and a French UN staffer who has been living in Africa for 5 years. 

Very surreal.

Weather is nice, hostel is okay, \Nairobi internet cafe is terrible. 

"What the hell are you going to do in Africa for 11 weeks?"

I land in Nairobi, Kenya, on August 25th, 12:30am local time (8/24, 2:30pm PDT).  I won't leave until November 9th.  Posts will start up after that.  The focus is on Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. 

What is there to do in East Africa for 11 weeks?  Safaris, hiking, chimpanzee tracking, rafting, avoiding angry Cape Buffalo.  There are Indian Ocean beaches, Mt. Kilimanjaro and other (cheaper) mountains, Lake Victoria, craters, volcanoes, national parks, and the Nile.  The savannahs have elephants, giraffes, lions, rhinos, antelope, wildebeests, and basically all the other crap you saw in Lion King.  The mountains have chimps and gorillas. 

I'm also going to talk a lot about the cities, towns, the people, and the food.

I'm packing light; everything goes in one internal-frame backpack or it doesn't go at all.  Along with what you'd bring camping, plus malaria pills, a mosquito net, a few books, Lonely Planets for East and Southern Africa, running shoes, my passport, and sunscreen.  A lot of sunscreen.

See you next week.

Coming soon...