Kili Bound: Warthogs and Ox Balls

Well, the Istanbul Airport treated us well, but more than 11 hours of waiting for our flight to Nairobi was plenty. We tasted Turkish Delight at the Duty Free Shop a few different times and sampled the free Baileys in a variety of flavors. The hundreds of deep blue Turkish evil-eye charms on display at the souvenir shop were undoubtedly giving us the hairy eyeball. We were treated to the sight of hundreds of men clad only in loosely wrapped terry-cloth robes and rubber sandals strolling about the airport (headed en masse to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia). I managed to eat some kind of minced meat and three large chunks of pistachio baklava to fulfill the Turkish food requirement this time through.

The Smurfs make it to Nairobi

After a two hour delay, our Nairobi flight went off without a hitch, and TaxiJim Cab met us at the airport at 3:30 a.m. with a cheery "Jambo" and an empty car. A hassle-free start to Kenya. Despite the fact that we had left the Holy Land Miracle Tour behind in Istanbul, we still felt that we were in good hands with TaxiJim. Each time his cell phone rang, his Biblical verse ringtone echoed throughout the car. Jim (whose name was actually something like Chaz) delivered us safely to my friend Lisa's house in Nairobi, where we promptly began snoring on her floor.

After an easy day of strolling through a Nairobi "forest" on Saturday (with only one small encounter with safari ants), we were ready for some hard-core Africa today. Fred picked us up in the pampered Land Rover safari vehicle at 6:30 a.m. sharp for our game drive through the Nairobi National Park. It really was quite amazing to drive through the game park with the Nairobi skyline as a backdrop - to watch a lioness suck the meat from a bloody warthog with skyscrapers in the distance. We were appropriately mesmerized and entertained by the wildlife and sunburned by the equatorial sun. It feels fantastic to be back in Africa.

Wild game on the loose in Nairobi

The tour of East African beer begins with
Kenyan Tusker.

The Hippo Walk: Our guide packs the big gun (at front).
No hippos were spotted, but we were well protected from
the love bird nervously perched in a tree along the way.

We followed up the safari with Ox Balls. Yes indeed. In celebration of Chris' 40th birthday, we enjoyed a meal at the Carnivore - a Nairobi restaurant famous for its meat, including Ox balls, crocodile, ostrich, and the usuals as well as its featured drink, "Dawa," a concoction of vodka, lime, honey and sugar. Stuffed to the gills, we are ready for our bus ride to Tanzania tomorrow with the start of our trek up Kilimanjaro looming on Tuesday.