Rewind... My trip to the other side of Kenya

I dont have the energy to write all about this trip, but I will do a little photo expo :)

I went to Kakamega for a training and beforehand we camped in the Kakamega Rainforest. After the training I spent a weekend in Kisumu with friends which was amazing. We swam, ate delicious food, danced, and just relaxed. I almost never get to see my friends from that side of Kenya so the whole experience was wonderful (even though I was completely sick of traveling since it came at the tail-end of a month I spent out of site).

This first group of pictures is from a sunrise hike in the forest. We woke up around 5:30 and walked to a raised platform just on the edge of a clearing in the forest. Watching the sun come up and hearing the forest awaken was a wonderful experience. It was really quiet in the early morning as we walked in the dark with our phone flashlights and a lantern, but as we stood on the platform the monkeys started calling and the birds were chirping. I made have a video that you can hear it all in, but I think uploading that might be asking a bit too much of my internet connection.

While in the forest we stayed in cabins that were raised up to the level of the branches so we had a good view to watch the monkeys. They would come up to the hut and watch us or hang out in the trees playing around. One even got into a woman from our groups room and she had to chase it out.

These next pictures are from a hike in the forest. Our guide was called Wycliffe and he knew so much about the birds, monkeys, trees, plants, ants... you name it. He has worked for the National Forest Service for 17 years and we really enjoyed having him as a guide.

This was the day when I found out that in addition to mosquitoes, safari ants will also bite me preferentially over anyone else. We stopped for a couple minutes to look at a cool tree, but then I realized I had two huge safari ants on the outside of my pants. They had their huge pincers gripped into the fabric and had to be forcefully ripped off (better my pants than my skin). Then I felt a pinch on my calf and raised my pants to find a little one holding on tight. I pulled that off and had to brush a few more off my ankles. Wycliffe told us to start walking fast. Every couple minutes he would yell back "walk faster, faster please". By the end of that section of forest we were in a dead sprint. We reached a road and started walking at a normal pace again, but after a short while I felt another pinch on my thigh. Not too long after that I became aware of a little bugger inside my underwear! Ugh! No one else had more than one bite. On the way back through that same segment of trail we just ran, but it was to no avail for me. Two ants in my pants anyway.

The hike was really beautiful and I only wish that the pictures I posted here could convey half of the beauty. Also, I cannot express how wonderful it was to see green everywhere and real trees for once! I really miss the woods.

These are of a sunset we saw one night during training. I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time and got to see a double sunset :) It was one of the highlights of the whole trip.

This is the only picture I managed to take while in Kisumu. It's from the roof of the hotel we stayed in, and was my only glimpse of Lake Victoria I got. Hanging out with everyone on the roof there was one of the better parts of the weekend.