surrounded by monkeys!

not long after pitching our tent at lake nkuruba...

...we looked up to find a tree full of colobus monkeys!

they resemble jumping tree skunks and have very long tails!

i thought they had a rather villainous appearance and was amused
at the furious pace with which they devoured leaves.

i think there were just as many vervet monkeys as well,
who occasionally wrestled with their colobus friends.

my favorite colobus monkey skill is jumping between trees.
as they grew tired of the leaves on one tree, they leaped one by one
to the branches of another. awesome!

bwindi impenetrable forest

almost every day in bwindi impenetrable forest, a group of white people who have parted with silly amounts of money are led through dense jungle forest by seriously skilled guides and trackers to locate the incredibly rare and amazing mountain gorillas!

we were tracking habinyanja group, the largest of the habituated gorilla families at bwindi.

this was our first poop sighting - exciting and very well-formed!
we were on the right track...

after three hours of hiking, we finally came upon the habinyanja family lazing about in a small clearing. space was limited, but we were able to see some funny and just plain excellent things in our brief hour together.
intersting note: gorillas, much like humans, release gas.
i think our fellow tourist randy said it best:
"oh, they're a bunch of fartypants!"

here is an elder female intently eating tasty leaves.

kicked back with a foot in the air, this gorilla is stripping a branch of its outer layer so that he/she can enjoy the spongy, white marrow inside.

this one's for you, lisa! a baby gorilla, 8 months old!
(there's also hilarious video of a baby climbing/swinging...)

we were apparently very lucky to find a silverback out in the open. normally, they stay rather hidden to supervise and keep watch for the family. in our case, he sat up right in front of us for a good 5-10 minutes. sweet!

walking in and out of the forest on an exposed ridge, you can easily see where the protected forest begins and cultivated land ends. agricultural/logging encroachment has been a problem and the goverment has only recently put a stop to it. some programs are now in place to keep the national park and the public happily co-existing; hopefully they are adequate and sustainable.

hell's gate national park

there is a national park near naivasha, kenya, called hell's gate. it is pretty unique in that visitors are allowed to rent bicycles and guide themselves around the entire park (which even contains a few predators!). the day after climbing mt. longenot, we decided to check it out. pictured above is hell's rather gorgeous entrance!

i actually meant to capture some zebras with this photo and missed entirely.

we saw ostriches and lamented eating their meatballs a few days earlier.

animals were everywhere in and around the road...

...so it was pretty easy to get up close and personal with things
i'd previously seen only in cartoons or on crackers!

i think my favorite were the giraffes...

...who were pretty scared of us...

...but were kind enough to pose for a few nice photos.

climbing mt. longenot

near naivasha, kenya lies an old volcano called "longenot" which is covered in zebras.

inside longenot is a massive crater, around which you can walk to reach the summit.

we walked around all 360 degrees, which was windy, sandy, long, and beautiful.

behold the crater in approximately half its majesty, as seen from longenot's peak!

sorry, lisa :(

there is a restaurant in nairobi called carnivore which became famous for cooking almost any animal (even the ones you see on safari!) and serving the meat to guests...crazy! you only live once, so we decided to check it out for lunch. nowadays carnivore has stopped serving the very "exotic" meats, but we did get to try ostrich meatballs and crocodile meat (along with excellent grilled beef, lamb, pork, chicken, and turkey). not surprisingly, i had no room for dinner that night. it was, by far, the most expensive single meal i have paid for in africa - about $30.

every table has a revolving sauce and salad bar, on top of which is a white flag.
the meaning of the flag is quite simple - as long as it is still up...

...carvers will keep on bringing the meat!

until your plate becomes too crowded...

... and you have no choice but to surrender!
(note: i was fairly pleased with my meat-management skills throughout the meal -
my plate was almost clean at the end!)

lamu!

these are the rooftops of lamu town on the kenyan coast. there are no cars here, only donkeys.

here is our isolated patch of sand, where we hid from the blazing sun before enjoying a fresh fish barbecue on the beach!