nairobi national park.

last sunday my host sister took me to nairobi national park. kenyans can enter the park for a little over $4 USD, whereas foreigners pay significantly more. I paid $40 USD for a day pass - a considerable sum given how much kenyans pay (but why shouldn't they have access to their own parks), although I certainly don't mind helping preserve national parks. unfortunately even though $4 USD seems like a small sum, the equivalent 300 kenyan shillings is very expensive for many kenyans. thus while the national park is seemingly affordable it is inaccessible for many kenyans. not to mention you need your own car to drive about the park.

but...

gggaaaahhhhhh! nairobi national park is maybe one of the best places ever. zebras, giraffes, wildebeests, ostrich, oh man, it was my own little david attenborough special. I tried to explain to my host sister how much I love nature documentaries... she didn't really get it. I wasn't sure how to explain that I've seen caves from planet earth around twenty-five times without sounding like a weirdo. I definitely freaked out after the first zebra. and then there were five zebra, and I freaked out five times as much. we drove around dinky dirt roads and over every dip in the road was some awesome animal I'd only ever seen on NATURE. we turned a corner and there were five giraffe standing in the grass surrounded by zebra. the zebra like to chill in the road, and only move when you get SUPER close. after awhile the novelty of zebra wore off and I wanted to see something else - then I had to remind myself that they were ZEBRA, REAL LIVE ZEBRA and that is SO AWESOME! there were water buffalo, birds of all sorts, and many animals in the deer family I can't name. we missed out on seeing lions, hippos, and rhinos - fortunately for them/unfortunately for me the park is huge so seeing everything in one trip is too much to hope for. the baboons are crazy! at all the picnic spots there are signs posted "please don't feed the baboons" and for good reason. they have NO fear. they sprint up and grab food, shriek and run off and chow down.

the animal orphanage is on the edge of the park - there they have lions, cheetahs, leopards, and loads of monkeys. all the animals were either abandoned, rescued from illegal pet operations or injured. they have monkeys in cages and wild monkeys climbing on the outside of the cages. bizarre.