CHIHUAHUA, MEXICO

A Short but Fun Visit

Reboarding the train in Copper Canyon's  Barrancas the conductor spoke very little English. The train was crowded, but not quite full. There was some problem with the train manifest, but we boarded the train anyway as I had the paid tickets in my pocket and figured we’d straighten it out once on board. As it turned out all went well.

The train descended through a pine forest. The steepest grade of track is from Bocoyna to Sanchez. It is a 2.5% grade. Bocoyna at 7585’ was founded in 1702 by missionaries. It means pine forest in Tarahumara. The twin tower church in town is well known. East of the train the mesas rise to 8250-8910’. We also learned San Juancito at 8000’ was established in 1906 with the coming of the railroad. We could see a large sawmill. It is a main lumber center and is one of the coldest parts of the state of Chihuahua.

We rolled by Terrero, a village of white plaster adobe buildings, that is a ranching and horse breeding area.  Slowly the pine trees gave way to cottonwoods, then juniper and oaks. The final loud speaker message informed us that Franciscan missionaries established Santa Isabela in 1668. The village of Palomas has rock quarries. The tuff-like rock is called cantera and many of the buildings in Chihuahua are made of this stone. The rest of the way to Chihuahua we rolled through a fertile agricultural valley. Mennonites from Canada cultivated the area over 60 years ago. We saw many apple and peach orchards.

When we finally reached Chihuahua at 9:30 PM we both were ready to disembark! At the hotel we heard a little more about our well-known travel agent. We were tired and hungry so we headed to the restaurant off the lobby for a late dinner. The fellow at reception was most pleasant and arranged for us to have a private tour of the city the next day.

The city was very clean and had a lot of parks and statues. We visited a gorgeous museum, Pancho Villa’s home and mausoleum, a couple of churches and rode through several lovely residential areas  returning to the hotel early evening.

We boarded a bus early the next morning for a four and half hour ride to El Paso. My travel buddy had an afternoon flight back to New Jersey and I was spending the weekend with an old friend in El Paso.

It was the end to a fun couple of weeks with all sorts of adventures, some even unexpected ones!

IMPRESSIONS OF CUBA

                                 Havana and Beyond

There are many modes of transportation in Havana. Besides traditional yellow cabs, there are bike-taxis, horse drawn taxis, bicycles, and the adorable coco-cabs. People hitchhike all the time, especially out of the city. Obviously it is safe to do so and most vehicles stop to pick up someone if they have the room. The old cars are easy to maintain. Even though parts may not be available they are easy to reproduce. The Russian cars are often cut up to make trucks or vans.

Traffic never slows. Pedestrians obviously do not have the right of way. However, we never saw an accident. Of course speed limits are low, probably averaging about 40 miles an hour. There are very few traffic lights in Havana.

Walking can be hazardous because of the conditions of the sidewalks. Havana has little pollution, which was a total surprise.

Panhandlers are nearly non-existent. 

The city is full of parks of all sizes and there are many many statues. Plazas abound. The island is lush and green, and extremely clean. Litter does not exist

Outside of hotels, for some reason the toilet seat seemed to be missing much of the time. It was smart to carry tissues or T P when away from the hotel.

Riding through decaying parts of town I noticed wires strung like spider webs, out of windows, exposed to the outside, running loop after loop to somewhere else. It made me wonder who paid the electric bill, if in fact such a bill exists.

In the countryside I noted horses, goats, and cows grazing with no restrains and many times no fences. If there was a fence it was a flimsy line or two of wire.

 My trip to Cuba was made just days before the US shut travel down. Now that Cuba has opened up, it will be interesting to see what, if any, travel changes occur. Cuba has had many visitors, just not US citizens, for years.

SPINNER DOLPHINS

Dolphin Research Project

The first day on Midway Island the researcher explained the goals of the spinner dolphin research project was to determine habitat use, the abundance and distribution of dolphins,  group size and composition, social structure of the dolphin schools, social affiliation patterns between individual dolphins, to develop a photo-identification file for the dolphin population and develop year-round baseline activity patterns.

Such information will impact the development of boat usage in the atoll. The aim is to disturb the dolphins as little as possible in order to keep them in the area and not to disturb them enough to leave. Is the population  transient or residential? Do sub-groups exist and if so how stable they are.

No research/documentation had been done yet on dolphins in an atoll habitat. Midway is a perfect place for such a study as the shallow clear waters of the lagoon allow for detailed observation below the water as well as above it.

Spinner dolphins, Stenella longirostris, receive their name from the frequent activity of leaping from the water and spinning in the air. Apparently spinning is done solely for fun but, it may also serve as a signal that feeding is about to begin. It is significant that spinning activity peaks in mid-afternoon before the group spreads out at dusk to forage for dinner. Aerial activity is used in socialization and is believed also to be used in communication. Some scientists speculate that aerial activity also serves to remove ectoparasites from the dolphin bodies.   Spinners can reach a height of about 3 meters when they spin and can make a maximum of four revolutions. Spinner dolphins swim mostly in deep waters, but occur in regions where there are shallow platforms or islands.

The schools of dolphins on Midway are larger than those around the other Hawaiian Islands, very likely because there are fewer sheltered land and resting areas. There is a large shark population in the area so the lagoon provides a safe and quiet place to rest. They typically live in tropical waters, but may range into temperate water with a worldwide distribution.

The average spinner is 5 ½ -6 ½ feet long. Calves at birth are generally 30 inches long weighing 33 pounds. Gestation is 10 ½ months and females will lactate for a period of 1-2 years. Typically, males are bigger than females. Female spinners sexually mature between 4-7 years and tend to have one ovulation  period each year. Males mature later, usually between 7-10 years. Mating is promiscuous with peak activity during summer and fall. Lifespan for spinners is about 20 years. Only 1% of females have been documented to reach post-productive status. Although spinner dolphin society is highly promiscuous, family units are apparent.

Contact is an essential ingredient in spinner dolphin society where touching, nuzzling, and stroking occur frequently among the animals in the group even though the composition of the group changes. Many dolphins are day feeders, but spinners feed at night in deep waters on fish, squid, and shrimp. They have been documented to dive to depths of 200-300 meters while feeding.

For most dolphin species the dorsal fin is used for identification because it can be photographed from the surface of the water. Nicks and marks in the trailing edge of the fin are most often used for identification because they are relatively permanent and change little over time. 

We used a 23 foot pontoon boat for water surveys which were conducted at random in five transects of the lagoon. It was great fun to watch the dolphins bow surfing with us. The schools sometimes contained some small animals.

This was a fun 10 days to say nothing of being educational and interesting.

SAMBURU, AFRICA

Safari

On the way to the Samburu Game Reserve we stopped for lunch at the Mt. Kenya Safari Club where we had ample time before lunch to wander the lovely landscaped grounds. There was a small zoo on the grounds but we chose to bird watch the many birds flying around. Some of them were very big.

Lunch at the club was suburb. We ate in the main dining room where a buffet was being served. Again very English and elegant with tux-clad waiters with white arm napkins.

            After lunch we stopped at the equator to watch a demonstration of water going down a drain, clockwise on one side and counter clockwise on the other side. Fascinating!

            Samburu is noted not only for elephant, leopard, and lion, but also for species of  wildlife seldom seen elsewhere---Grevy zebra, reticulated giraffe, Beisa oryx, and gerenuk, (giraffe- necked antelope).

            The Samburu tribe, related to the Masai, speaks the same language, and  have the same customs. Their area is located in the arid desert of the Rift Valley. The general area is called Somali-land by the locals because of the Somali bandits that roam there. Going through a security check point was a little unsettling. At this point we noticed a subtle change in our driver. After all, what could be more attractive than a van full of tourists with cameras and money. However, we trusted our driver’s instincts and abilities and had been assured that safety was the top priority.

Late afternoon one day my son and I walked to the edge of the grounds to check out the river and saw a huge crocodile sunning himself at the river's edge. We actually spotted several other crocodiles in the water. The Lodge fed them each day. My son got a little too close to the wire fence and suddenly jumped back. “Damn, that fence is electric.”

            “I guess that is about as close as you’re going to get to the water. A telephoto lens should do well though,” I replied.

This is Born Free country and we were hoping to see Elsa, but instead on our first safari run we spotted a beautiful male lion.

One afternoon returning from our game viewing  our driver suddenly became extra alert and suddenly swung off the road onto a dirt road. He had spotted a stalled truck ahead of us. This is a typical Somali Bandit ploy.  Fortunately he knew the back roads back to the lodge and all went well without incident. That was really our only apprehensive moment on the entire trip.

            We saw many animals---many I had never seen---on game runs in Samburu.

Lake Nakuru is home to over a million flamingos. They were everywhere and there were always some flying overhead. The large lake is  quite shallow. Wild life along the shore was abundant. Here we saw the Rothschild giraffe in its natural habitat.

At Lake Naivasha we took a boat ride to see hippos. The papyrus-lined lake is one of Kenya’s most beautiful fresh water lakes. There were also many species of birds around and on the lake, including the beautiful and rare fish eagle. 

Each area offered us different animals and experiences. A camera safari is perhaps the ultimate vacation especially for a nature and animal lover.

NEW ZEALAND TRIVIA

                                              Some Fun Facts

All automobiles are imported as New Zealand does not make cars.

Unwisely many kiwi plants were exported and now the country faces much competition for this crop. The largest competition comes from Brazil. Kiwi needs a wind break to grow successfully. The fruit grows on a vine similar to grapes. The vines are trellised so the fruit can be picked from beneath. The fruit is picked by hand in May. Originally known as the Chinese gooseberry, New Zealand knew that the  name would be a hindrance to sale, so it became kiwi.

Kiwi means three things—the people of New Zealand, the fruit and the nocturnal bird.

Cumera, a sweet potato, but much lighter in color and less flavorful than our yam, is a staple of the New Zealand diet.

There are no barns as we know them in New Zealand. At first it was strange to see grazing horses wearing blankets, but it became a familiar sight. The blankets help keep the horses warm on cool nights, keeps the dust off their coats and protects their skin from the sun.

Another odd thing we saw was the tails of all the cows had been cut off. There is no fly problem and it is said that the urine of a cow in a farmer’s eye can cause a serious hepatitis-like illness which is the primary reason for bobbing the cow’s tail.

Authentic Maori wood carvings have only three fingers on the hands, as the Maori believe only in birth, fertility, and death.

Pavlova, named for the singer, is a baked meringue pie shell filled with whipped cream (the real stuff) and topped with thin slices of kiwi. Australia and New Zealand argue who created the dessert and who can make the best one.

Hangi is the Maori method of cooking either in a steam pot or in an underground pit. A hangi feast is similar to a luau with native entertainment.

THE BEOTHUKS

                                               Native Peoples

At the time of European expansion and settlement in Newfoundland, the Beothuks were the native inhabitants of the island. The traditional lifestyle of these aboriginal peoples disintegrated with the influx of Europeans and the Micmacs from Nova Scotia. Initial contacts with these people are recorded as friendly, but misunderstanding and suspicion increased to the point where actual killings occurred on both sides for real or imaginary injustices. Finally starvation was added when the Europeans unknowingly blocked the Beothuks access to the coast and of their traditional livelihood. By the early 1800s the Boathooks had disappeared as a distinct cultural group. Research during the past decade has enabled a partial reconstruction of their culture, language and traditional pattern of life that this tragic historic period closed so quickly and forever.

            As hunters they took full advantage of the abundant food resources on the island seasonally either on the seacoast or the interior forests and barrens. Two major migrations were made each year to hunt and gather resources. Summer and spring meant hunting seals, whales and other sea mammals that were numerous during those times. Thousands of shore and sea birds with their eggs were no doubt another food source. In the fall the family groups moved inland to hunt caribou as the animals herded together to migrate.

            It is likely that family groups coalesced for the caribou hunt and to maintain the ‘deer fences’ that are reported to have stretched for miles. These fences funneled the migrating herds into one area so they could be easily speared. These animals provided skins for clothing and shelter and meat for the winter. Small game such as beaver, fox and ptarmigan supplemented the winter food supply. Winter shelter was provided by mamateeks. Soil was banked against the outside of the teepee to shut out the elements. The external bankings have outlined old mamateeks at several archaeological sites, including the Red Indian Lake and Exploits River sites.

            Because of poor preservability of wood and bone tools in the soil for centuries most artifacts found have been of stone, predominately spear and arrowheads reflecting their hunting activities. Beothuk burial sites have produced leather clothing with frills; birch bark vessels, sometimes with decorative stitching and notched edges, elaborately carved pendants and incised bone and ivory pieces as well as an occasional woodcarving. Metal knives, nails, sword and clay pipes indicate that the Beothuks were in contact with early French and English sailors. Beothuk burials have been found in caves and rock shelters along the numerous bays around the island. Red ochre, symbolic to many cultures as a life-giving force, was used lavishly on the body and articles buried with them. John Cabot described the Beothuks as average height with light brown skin and dark eyes and hair. Lt. Buchan of the Royal Navy added that they painted their bodies with red ochre and grease and this may be the origin of Red Indian. The last known Beothuk died in 1829.

KEUKENHOF FLOWER PARK

                                         Fantastic Gardens

            We were in Holland during Holland in Springtime. Keukenhof Flower Park is located between Amsterdam and The Hague in the heart of western Netherlands' tulip-growing region. The place to see spring blossoms  was definitely Keukenhof Gardens 

            In the 15th century Countess Jacqueline of Bavaria owned  the estate where she hunted on  the grounds. In the court next to her fortress, Teylingen, she grew herbs and vegetables for the kitchen. Thus the name Keukenhof means Kitchen Garden.

            In 1850 the original design for the park was made by father and son landscape architects from Haarlem.

The park is unique, world famous, and has been one of the most popular destinations in The Netherlands for sixty years. The garden was established in 1949 by the then mayor of Lisse. The idea was to present a flower exhibit where growers from all over the Netherlands and Europe could show off their hybrids – while helping the Dutch export industry. The abundance of colors and fragrances rival any found elsewhere else in the world.

Keukenhof (roughly pronounced Koo-ken-hoff) boasts more than 7 million flower bulbs planted by hand and is the largest flower garden in the world with nearly 80 acres of magnificent blooms, in 1600 different varieties.  The bulbs are replanted every year. The mild climate and wet spring are ideal for bulb cultivation. The gardens are cared for by thirty gardeners!

Talk about photo ops!

We strolled through the 80 acre park over some of the 15 kilometers of footpaths. Its lovely, tree-shaded grounds have ponds, winding paths, streams, and fountains. Once the kitchen garden of a medieval castle, today it is known as the greatest flower show on earth.

The historic park, truly a feast for the eye and senses, is filled with blooming tulips, as well as hyacinths, daffodils, lilies and crocuses. Works of art and sculptures are amidst the magnificent flowers. It is easy to gain inspiration and to relax in the beautiful surroundings. 

 The theme for 2012 is “Poland, the Heart of Europe”.

            The Keukenhof has won prizes as Europe’s most valued attraction. Every year most of the grass, especially under the trees, is removed and about 7000 kilos of annual grass is sown that is not to be walked on!

            The 1892 windmill arrived at Keukenhof in 1957 and is on the Dutch Monument list.

            There is no question in my mind that this is the most fantastic garden I’ve ever seen and believe me I’ve seen a lot of them.

            Every year about 25 Polish fellows arrive to plant the gardens. They stay 6-8 weeks and then return to Poland and they generally do this for five years

            I couldn’t help but wonder what the grounds look like when all is bare before planting. The combinations, colors, designs and displays vary year to year. What a fun job it would be to design all the gardens!

            We made it to the huge exhibit after several hours of wandering, admiring and photographing display after display. Here we saw tulips that didn’t look anything like a tradition tulip. The double ones looked like peonies. I was fascinated with the ones with fringed edges. Some even looked almost translucent like a fine piece of china bowls. Some were as large as a salad plate!

            We did take one respite to sit and just enjoy the scenery and the wonderful aroma of the hyacinths. The sun shone and the wind moderated making for a delightful afternoon.

AALSMEER, the NETHERLANDS

                                         Aalsmeer Flower Auction

 Having just returned from Holland I want to share an awesome experience. We were up early for a 6:30 AM departure for Aalsmeer. It was more than worthwhile as I’m not sure I can describe the world’s largest market place and the auction that starts each week day at 7AM.

Aalsmeer flower auction takes place in the auction hall covering about 160 acres!  Talk about big! In 1968 two auctions merged into Flora Holland, now  a co-op of 6000 growers. The auction of flowers has gone up and down over the years starting in 1911 until after WW II when it stabalized and grew. The auction moved to its present location, near the airport in 1972. More than 23,000 acres are devoted to growing and greenhouse production.

There are five auction halls with 13 clocks. Buyers sit in moderate sized amphitheaters, each with desk and computer. Flowers enter on the floor below on huge multi-tiered carts via automated railway. The content and number of flowers and the starting bid is posted on a large screen in the front along with a large clock.

In a Dutch auction the cost and numbers go backwards starting with the highest bid. It is lightning fast. Bidders bid by pressing a button linked to the main computer when the price of the flowers reaches what they are willing to pay. The first person who punches the electronic button sets the going price of the day and is obligated to buy the lot of flowers. The trick is to bid before the next fellow. There is only one bid: the highest. Every weekday 19 million flowers are auctioned. There are over 1000 buyers plus today remote electronic buyers.

Once purchased, the flowers are loaded onto airplanes and transported to florist shops across Europe and the U.S., usually to be sold the same day.

The visitors' gallery offers a great view of all that is going on. That gallery walkway is a mile long! On the floor below 1200 people are on foot, riding Sedway-type scooters, golf carts, bicycles as well as many walking pulling or pushing carts. There are also laden carts moving electronically on a single rail imbedded in the floor. The organization is phenomenal as everyone seemed to know what they were doing and where they were going. It was a mind boggling process.

It reminded me of a bee hive or an ant colony down there on the floor.

Activity starts to slow down by 9AM and when we left at 9:40 we wondered what all the people queued up to enter were going to see. We were happy to have arrived so early!

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KURANDA, AUSTRAILA

    A Different Visit

Kuranda is 1000’ above sea level, and can be reached by road, cable car, or train. We arrived by road and returned by train.

            The road was well paved, narrow, and contained 116 curves. It cuts through a beautiful rain forest. that receives 3-4 feet of rain a year! The soil is poor and the terrain steep. However it is so dense that it produces an umbrella which makes the area ecologically self-sufficient. It is one of the world’s oldest rain forests, and is on Australia’s heritage list. Pythons in the forest can grow to be 20-30 feet long!

            The sky cable ride from Cairns to Kurunda is 7 ½ kilometers long, making it the longest in the world. The cables are above the rain forest providing a spectacular view.

            Kuranda is a small town full of shops and eateries. An aboriginal influence was evident. We had plenty of time to wander around, get something to eat and to rest on one of the many benches. It is a pretty quaint little town.                      

Our meeting spot for return to Cairns was the train station. The track goes through 15 tunnels, the longest being 1/3 mile long. We also passed over 30 bridges. Construction of this railroad was an engineering feat of tremendous magnitude and many lives were lost during construction.

            The first soil was turned in 1886. Built in three sections, the first and third sections were relatively easy. The second section involved steep grades, dense jungle, and the Aborigines defending their territory. Section two contains the tunnels and 93 curves going from 5 ½ meters at Redlynch to 327 meters at Myola. Remember in 1887 bulldozers, and modern equipment were not available.  This railroad was built with strategy, fortitude, dynamite, hand tools, buckets, and bare hands and opened to the public in 1891.

            This train ride was every bit as awesome as the one through the Copper Canyon, it’s just shorter. The waterfalls we saw were marvelous. The scenery was certainly gorgeous!                 

The ride was an hour and a half, the last half-hour being in Cairns getting to the railroad station.

It was a fun day in a strange place with different customs and lifestyle. 

THE MASAI

                                               Interesting Culture

 

One morning after breakfast  we visited a Masai village in Amboseli, Kenya.  The huts are built in a circle enclosing a community central area. Brambles, similar to tumbleweed but with thorns, surrounded the outside of the village to keep intruders and animals out. Only nighttime is spent in the hut. We entered one of the small, round, thatched roof huts. They are simple inside with little more than a bed and dirt floor. They live pretty simply and primitively. Men build the pole foundation of the home and the women are responsible for filling the spaces with a mixture of clay and cattle dung.  When this mixture dries it becomes hard like cement. The structure is no taller than the woman can reach. Masai live in arid desert areas, much of it in the rift valley.

The first house on the right of each village belongs to the chief. Being a nomadic peoples when they move all usable materials are taken with them and then the remainder of the village is burned to prevent anyone else from using it.

Several children were happy to perform some dances for us. The Masai chief, in full native dress, was most accommodating posing for pictures.

   Masai girls are still spoken for as very young girls with the parents making the match. This means that often the wife is many years younger than her husband. The Masai culture  practices circumcision of both sexes. Women are circumcised just before marriage. Every ten years there is a male circumcision  ceremony for all males over 14, so the age gap could be 14-24 as all males are circumcised at the same time. At this point the boys become morans. Each right of passage is marked by ceremony , dress, etc. One can read much about a female from the beaded necklaces she wears and about the males by the color of their hair. The culture is not monogamous; most Masai men have several wives.

A Masai woman is not supposed to have a child until the youngest child is able to tend the goats which they deem to be age 5. So the spacing of children with the same wife is generally five years. A man can offer his wife to a good friend, and she in turn can have an affair with a lover as the first wife, being an arranged match, is seldom a love match. Divorce is extremely rare. The wife raises the children. Masai men are not ‘family men’ as we know the term.  

Masai men tend to be tall and slender. Masai men wear typical tribal garb of red blankets. The tribe moves about with their cattle and goats for more fertile feeding grounds on the plains. None of the local tribes eat wild game. Goats are a staple of the Masai diet and they eat it like we eat chicken. Their diet is really very simple consisting of goat, beef, milk, and cheese. Many Masai have very bad teeth, most often with several missing. They seem to have a mutual understanding with wild animals, each leaving the other alone. The men do a jumping dance/ competition and many of them can jump really high.

With the changes in the culture some villages are becoming more permanent with concrete block buildings. Twenty percent of park fees now go to the local people living in the area. This allows the Masai people to be a little less dependent on their goats and cattle. All employees in the lodges are local people and as a result the Masai culture is slowly changing. There are not enough Masai women for wives so some Masai men are marrying Kikuyu women

            It is an interesting culture and it was most interesting to visit with them.

AN UNUSUAL CHURCH

                                                A Village Church

When biking in Germany and Austria between Melk to Krems we stopped in the small village of St. Michael to visit a rather unusual church. Our guide  told us. “This hilly area is wine country. You can see the vineyards are terraced as space is at a premium. The cemetery is very small, but 11,000 people have been buried here. In order to accommodate that many people, eventually skeletons had to be dug up to make room for more recent burials.”

            What did they do with all the old bones? In a room in the back of the church they created an altar with the old dug up skulls. It was pretty eerie. A large wire bin was full of long bones—those from the arms and legs. The whole room was really spooky.

            A docent informed us, “Many years ago churches were built as fortresses to protect the village from invaders. This church originally had five towers, but only one remains today, and the gun turret is clearly visible. Also in those days people didn’t have money to pay for services so they paid in produce, eggs, chickens, or whatever  they had. As a result this church had a nice wine cellar and two rooms to keep smoked meats cool.

            “This church in St. Michael was closed from 1784-1950. In 1950 it took the residents three years to clean up the inside of the church as birds had been nesting within for literally centuries. You can’t  imagine what a  mess that was!  In 1965 the church was renovated. The altar came from another church and is really too big for this small church. Only a few church services are held each year, but many weddings and concerts are held here.”

            An interesting if spooky visit. Not too long ago I picked up the end of a TV program that featured a similar skull room, but I missed where or exactly where it was, other than the fact that it was not the church I had visited.

KENYA TID BITS

Kenya Trivia

 

On a picnic one day by the Mara River I watched our guide take his cold soda and place it in the sun on the hood of the van to warm up. I know Europeans know chilled but  are Americans the only people who like their cola cold?

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 While in the Mara we were awakened each morning by the black faced monkeys squabbling outside our tent. It was as if they were saying ‘okay, it’s daylight now, it is time to get up’.

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It is impossible to trap a lion as they are too cunning and if you move one, the whole pride needs to be moved which is almost impossible to do.

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The morning  we drove out from the Ark a beautiful spotted leopard crossed right in front of our van. He was going home to rest after a nights hunt.  He was beautiful. Lucky us!

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On safari,  game runs are done early in the morning (6:30) before breakfast and late afternoon/early evening. These are the times of day the animals are most active as they rest in the heat of the day.

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My son returned to our cabin after photographing Mt Kilimanjaro at dawn asking, “Did you hear the zebras barking?”

            “Is that what that noise is? I thought maybe it was dogs.”

            “Nope. There are a bunch of zebras down in that marsh just beyond the path outside our cabin.”

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The Carnivore Restaurant is located just outside the city in Nairobi’s outskirts. The Carnivore is a popular and famous tourist restaurant. A large cooking pit is in the center of the restaurant where all kinds of wild game is cooked. Waiters come to the table to serve you. They will tell you what the meat is and you may try anything you want.

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The Somali ostrich differs from other ostriches in that it has a blue head and legs. They are not numerous in Kenya, but we did see several of them.