IF WE COULD TALK TO THE ANIMALS

(This post was originally written to be posted on Christmas Day, so apologies for the lateness.)

I know what you’re thinking; how do you top kissing giraffes?  It’s not easy but we had to press on with our trip.  After wiping the giraffe slobber off our faces we headed out for the Karen Blixen Museum.  For those of you who don’t remember, she is the author of the book “Out Of Africa” which was made into a movie in 1985 starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford.  For Clara this was one of the highlights of the trip; for me I have to admit I did not even know who Karen Blixen was because she wrote the book under another name.  But either way it was a little bit of education for both of us.

After checking into the Serena Nairobi (another magnificent property), we had a beautiful 7 course meal out on a patio area for Christmas Eve.  There was a group of carolers in the lobby who added to the magic.  The next morning (Merry Christmas!) we hit the road again at 8am.  We had a little stop at a local coffee plantation, and then we arrived at our next hotel destination, The Fairmont Mt Kenya Safari Club.  Magnificent doesn’t even begin to describe the room.  It is like the whole place is still how it looked back in the ‘50s and ‘60s when William Holden and all his Hollywood buds used to hang out here.  The floors are parquet hardwood (for you hoops fans imagine the floor of the old Boston Garden only with a darker wood) and there is a fireplace in the room with a mahogany mantle piece.  We just got back from dinner and the room steward had lit the fire!!!  I think it is way beyond cool.  Now we can just leave the door to our balcony open all night while the fire keeps us toasty.  We are up at around 7,000 feet in elevation so the nights are a little bit cool.  And there are peacocks roaming the grounds that will just stroll into the bar or the dining room and no one will even blink an eye.  Like last year when Clara & I celebrated Christmas in Fajardo, PR with the Ohana Crew, this year we celebrated in another exotic location with new friends and had a truly wonderful day.  We both are blessed in many ways to be able to experience these types of holidays away from home.  We did miss all of our family and friends, but Christmas in Kenya, Africa was a pretty good substitute for us. 

But enough about the accommodations and the Christmas spirit---we need to talk again about the animals.  After we checked in and had a bit of lunch we headed out for the Mt Kenya Animal Orphanage, a non-profit group that rescues the wild beasts, rehabilitates them, and then releases them back into the wild.  There were all types of monkeys, antelope, buffalo, birds, dwarf hippos, llamas, cheetah, and even the zebroid (which is a cross between a horse and a zebra).  They even had an ostrich named Patricia wandering around that ate corn out of your hand.  They had a couple different types of monkeys running around the grounds that would sit on your shoulder and eat fruit out of your hand.  Of course that gave Clara her Christmas wish of petting, holding and kissing the animals.  They even had a 100+ year old tortoise you could ride.  Even though a lot of the animals were in cages it never had the feeling of a zoo, especially with all the animals that were roaming free on the grounds---and knowing that all of the caged animals would be eventually sent back into the wild.  Enjoy the pictures!

Until next time.