June 17, 2008

Today we drove from Nairobi to Mugie Ranch- only about 500km (or less) but which took about 8 hours. The roads here are terrible, but at least there are roads! Kenya is so chaotic - the drivers drive everywhere, and there are people and livestock everywhere. It's difficult to process; I'm used to North American boundaries between road and sidewalk, but here, they don't really exist.

Nairobi is a strange city. Everything is dusty, I mean, even dustier than Alberta, which is saying something. No one is bothered to do things quickly (like service in the hotel restaurant) and we experienced roving blackouts. The hotel had broken window latches, broken lights, a complete lack of hot water (despite hot water taps) and uncomfortable beds. And it was cold. And, of course, they jacked up the room prices for us. I'm not sure why we stayed there, since on my last night in Nairobi at the end of the field school, I stayed in a place that was $10 more and had everything this place didn't.

And Nairobi was cold! I expected it to be hot, but it was cool and overcast the whole time. It was winter there, of course, but I wasn't expecting an equatorial winter to be so chilly. About 10 C at night.

The drive was tiring - it's very bumpy in the back of the Landrover and you constantly have to brace yourself. No seatbelts in these vehicles except for the two front seats. But seeing the Rift Valley was amazing. It reminded me very much of the Rocky Mountain Trench that separates the Rockies and the Columbias. We saw a lot of wildlife, like zebras, baboons (on the side of the road), giraffes, antelops, ostriches, dik-diks and buffalo.

It's dark at 6:30, which is crazy. We crossed the equator earlier today, so the days and night are about 12 hours each. It's hard to deal with for a Canadian. I still expect it to stay light until 10 pm. It's too early for night - we haven't even had supper!

We have showers here and I'd love to take advantage of them, but it's too dark. All I could get at the hotel this morning was freezing cold water. This annoys me - it's a hotel and we pay to stay there (and pay too much according to the prices that were listed in Susanna's Lonely Planet Kenya guide). The night before I head to Europe, I think I'll stay at an airport hotel. (I ended up staying at a better hotel, but not an airport one, because apparently the hotels near the airport aren't safe. But the Boulevard hotel did have hot water, which was great at the end of a 7 week field season!)