SAFARI || GREAT RIFT VALLEY || KENYA || OCTOBER 2019

Monday, October 14, 2019

Hey family,

I wanted to bring some lightness to the current situation as a way to give myself a break from all the BS going on with systematic racism, white supremacy, and police brutality black people are experiencing all in the midst of a global pandemic. Also, #alignment, I met two ladies, both named Mary today at the mailbox. They were trying to figure out the new Amazon Hub pickup station my apartment complex just installed. It was like a 30-minute exchange because they forgot their password to their Amazon account and also had to sign up to get the code to their packages. We talked briefly about this trip I’m about to tell y’all about today. I wanted to talk about a great time I had on my 30th birthday trip to Kenya last year. This was the first full day we spent in Kenya as we landed the night before, ate, and went straight to bed.

In the morning, we woke up early. I took a shower with the citronella honey black soap I got during my trip to Cape Coast, Ghana in 2018. Check out that story HERE! As a matter of fact, you can just binge read all the Travel Blog Thursday stories as an escape. 😊 The citronella soap helps keep the bugs away which I felt was necessary since we were going on safari! Yay!!! We were doing a one day game drive with Mufasa Tours and Travels. They picked us up from our hotel in Nairobi, drove us about 4 hours to Amboseli National Park, and then back to our hotel the same day. I loved this option because we were able to pack more activities into the other days we were in Kenya. Y’all know I’m the tourist activity queen! #WeDontTakeNapsOnTrips!

We met Joseph, one of our guides, downstairs. While we were waiting for the driver, we had an interesting convo about the United States, Swahili, local foods to try, where we were all from, local slang called sango, and his tribe which was the Kikuyu tribe from the central region of Kenya. He taught us that the majority tribe in the area is Kikuyu. The president of Kenya is also Kikuyu, “The business tribe” he said. We are always interested in learning about the people we meet’s backgrounds on trips.

We met our driver, Paul and began our journey. He ended up being our tour guide for the rest of the day as Joseph had another tour to coordinate. Paul was from the Kikuyu tribe as well. Taste bae read about the tribe and learned about Ngai, who they call the supreme creator (God).

He also told us about some “thahu”; taboos and things you aren’t supposed to in their culture. Mount Kenya is their distinguishing landmark in the area and Paul talked about how important the fig tree or “mugumo tree” is in Kikuyu culture. Paul is a Christian so he doesn’t believe many things from the traditional tribe, but it was fun to learn about. We also talked about what the equivalent of “tribes” in the US looks like.

Here is where the shenanigan-ry began! Ha! So, we stopped to get a different tire because we had a flat. The tire was the reason why Paul was running a bit late in the first place. While the tire was being changed, we took this time to spray on bugspray outside the van. I had to pee sooooo bad!! This ignorant older man wouldn’t let me use the bathroom even though the women’s one was locked and “they couldn’t find the key”. There are still backwards attitudes about gender in rural Kenya but that’s no different than anywhere else, I guess. I would’ve peed once we got further down the road but there was no place that wasn’t Wide. Open. Spaces. #HeyArnold, so I held it until lunch time. Bathrooms were much cleaner at the lodge so blessings!

Before we left town, there was a guy making roasted corn, but it wasn’t ready by the time we left. *Sad face* We continued and then stopped to change the tire again; another flat. The roads are rough once you get past a certain point and the tires Paul was getting for the van were used. This time Taste bae got out to help Paul change the tire because we were not in town anymore or near a shop.

Our Amboseli National Park safari compilation.

We finally made it to Amboseli National Park! It was so beautiful! At the entrance we ran into some Masaai women selling handmade crafts. They were super sweet but also some hustlers. Ha! It was fun playing the haggle game with them while Paul was getting everything ready for us to enter the park. As we drove down through the park, we saw almost all the animals from the Lion King. This was my goal! Another thing I’d hoped for was to see the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro but when we started the drive it was so cloudy, and we couldn’t really see up the mountain. I was praying that we could see the top of the mountain at some point during the day. I wanted it to be like the opening scene of the Lion King where you saw Mt. Kilimanjaro with the animals in front of it. That’s why I picked Amboseli to do the safari instead of Maasai Mara or the Serengeti where the wildebeest migration was happening (you know the part where the stampede happened in the Lion King? That part.) I also got to listen to “Africa” x Toto while on the safari which was a very bucket list item for me. I brought my bluetooth speaker for the sole purpose of playing that song while we watched the animals.

Flamingos can live in the lake because the soil is salty, allowing for algae growth which the flamingos eat.

We paused in the middle of our game drive for lunch which we paid for ahead of time. It was a wonderful buffet lunch at the lodge located in the center of the park. We sat outside and got to eat with the sun on our face and a refreshing breeze; my favorite way to dine. We tried Tusker Beer for the first time and I ate more than my money’s worth! Plus, I finally got to pee!!

After lunch we walked around a bit and made our way to the gift shop. We met some African Americans women from Chicago and Seattle. Literally small world!! They were on a girl’s trip.

We continued our game drive from there.

Fun fact about this body of water. Lake Amboseli; it was dried up for a while and then just came back last year. The ice melt from Mt. Kilimanjaro is what feeds the lake.

By this time in the afternoon, the clouds began clearing from Mt. Kilimanjaro. We were heading to the entrance of the park and guess what? We got a punctured tire!!! The road was all gravel and Paul drives like a bat outta hell especially considering the tires fragility. All we could do was laugh at this point. Haha!

We were stranded and this SUPER RUDE entitled tourist lady wouldn’t let another driver from another tour company passing by help us. She was screaming at him which was mad unnecessary. I guess her getting to wherever she needed to be in the freakin’ wilderness was more important than helping a stranded group. The game drives were done anyway. They were coming up behind us. The entitlement that people like her have the audacity to have is what makes me the most sad for her. People think they can talk to hardworking people any kind of way but get this though, Paul told us that driver dropped her off somewhere, probably at the lodge, while she protested “why are you leaving me?!” and then drove back to spot our vehicle while we drove to the gate with the busted tire from an earlier change. This was everything!! I love Africa so much y’all!!! Y’all don’t even know! Paul called for another tire and we had to wait a few hours before it would arrive. It was coming all the way from Nairobi on the back of a motorcycle.

We hung out with the Maasai women and men at the gate while waiting for the tire. We exchanged numbers, Facebook info, took pictures, and just spent time chatting. They invited us to spend the night at their village but we had to get back that night and Paul had another tour the next day so we couldn’t really stay; bummer! That would’ve been a great experience!

Taste bae stepped away to try some Kenyan cannabis (indica probably) with a middle aged Maasai friend he made; Sayo. Sayo didn’t know what day he was born; just the year. We all, including Sayo, gathered that he was between 50 and 58 years old, lol.

Side note:Taste bae and Sayo still talk regularly to this day. Covid19 has impacted their stream of income greatly since there aren’t really tourists coming to visit and buy goods from them.

Another great thing about us having to wait for the tire to show up was that the clouds cleared!! I got to see the mountain, but I felt bad because the tire busted, and I can’t help but think it was because I prayed the clouds would clear to see the mountain peak. The tire busting delayed us enough for the clouds to clear. Thoughts? Oh, and we also saw giraffes while hanging out! So cool! It was liked they walked to the front of the park to hang out with us for a little bit. Mercy, one of the friends we made, pointed them out and we saw them through the binoculars.

It was getting to be dark so our Maasai friends started their journey home. The tire showed up shortly after and Paul drove us back to our hotel. There were a few stops and militia roadblocks along the way, but Paul was able to get us through without even stopping. They were literally clearing the roadblocks as he was speeding towards them.*wipes forehead* We finally made it back to our hotel and said bye to Paul... he was an awesome tour guide! We showered, ordered room service for dinner, and went to bed. I called my mommy first of course. This was such a fun, chill, and simultaneously spontaneous, exciting day! I’ll certainly never forget it!

Thanks for reading all these words!

Love ya!

Black Lives Matter!

Taste Tutor

TRAVEL BLOG THURSDAY - SAFARI || GREAT RIFT VALLEY || KENYA