Lewa Wilderness

Flying in and out of small airstrips in cozy bush planes, means facing luggage weight limits of 33# per person and being allowed only soft-sided luggage. Before leaving Rwanda, we packed two duffles and stuffed them with our other luggage into our hard-sided bags. The hard-sided bags would remain in Nairobi while we visited the wildlife parks. 

We arrived at the hotel in Nairobi Kenya around 9pm and went to the bar for a snack. We adjusted our luggage according to the restrictions and got a good night's sleep. We met up with Dave & Shelly the next morning for breakfast at 8am. This became pretty much the pattern for the rest of the trip. 8am brekkie, 9am meet with the guide. Except on safari when we were met the guide at 6:30am or so. These days breakfast waited til after the game drive.

It takes a lot of gear for a 6 week trip to game camps (where you are out in the chill of pre dawn and post dusk) and to the desert heat of Egypt and Jordan. Not to mention bags of photography equipment and binoculars. All of which needed to be shrunk to 1 duffle and carry-on (soft sided only). It was scary to see the luggage for the 4 of us but we managed to comply with the restrictions.

We were off to Lewa Wilderness Lodge in the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. Safari Camp airstrips are serviced out of the small regional Wilson Airport in Nairobi. It is small and very informal. We had a large regional flight. The plane accommodated 12 passengers. This was big and spacious. Our next flight, 3 days later,  accommodated only 4 passengers.

We flew into the Lewa Airstrip where we were picked up by our guide who took us to the lodge. We shared a suIte with 2 ensuite bedrooms and a large common area. The drive to the lodge was our first taste of safari drives for the trip.

 At Lewa Conservancy rhinos, elephants and lions were common sightings. Dining area had a view of hillside with frequent animal sightings. Between the ride to the lodge and the evening drive we collected (viewed) numerous varieties of birds and animals.

Birds from day 1. Clockwise from top left: Pallas Fish Eagle, Yellow-Necked Spurfowl, Mocking Cliff Chat, Ring-Necked Dove, Black-Shouldered Kite, Lilac-Breasted Roller, Kori Bustard, Superb Starling, and Northern Red-Billed Hornbill (center).

Animals from day 1. Down the left side: Mom and baby (African elephant, Southern white rhino, Grévy's zebra) down the right side elephants, Southern white rhinos, lion .

Day 2 we added significantly to our collection of birds and animals. Even a colorful lizard made an appearance. When we returned to the lodge from the morning game drive, we found the property had become the playground for a troop of vervet monkeys. Strangely they were not around on Day 1 or Day 3.

Birds and a lizard from day 2. Clockwise from top left: Rock Agama, Southern white-crowned shrike, Somali Ostrich, Black-winged Kite, Eurasian Collared Dove, Egyptian Goose, White browed coucal, and a Grey Heron.

Animals from day 2. Clockwise from top left: Grévys zebra, Impala and young, Vervet Monkey, Spotted Hyena, and Cape Buffalo.

More animals from day 2. Clockwise Adult Male Lion, White Rhinos (mistakenly called White from the Afrikaans word describing its mouth: “wyd”, meaning “wide”), Reticulated giraffe, Grants Gazelle, and Red Hartebeest.

Birds from Day 3 .Includes one new bird (golden eagle). Clockwise from top left: Speckled pigeon, Golden Eagle, African Spoonbill, Hadada Ibis, and a White-bellied go-away-bird.

Another day of game drives and we saw: clockwise from top left: baby white rhino, Eland, Impala, waterbuck, Grant's Zebra, Elephant and young, cape buffalo, a dik-dik, and a warthog.

We ate family style with other guests. 1/2 of the guests live or have lived in NJ (including Dave & Shelly).  The grounds and buildings are beautiful. The facility is nearly self-sufficient. Most food grown on site.  All the carpentry is done onsite. Blankets and rugs are  woven on site.  We visited the gardens, the weaving area and the woodworking shop. They use the downed acacia for their primary building material.

While elephants are a big attraction to the sanctuary, they do major damage to the trees, eating all the succulent young branches. In order to allow trees to get established, areas are electrically fenced off. Safari vehicles cross between areas via "Elephant gates"...wires sporting 1000 volts safely over the vehicles and generally keep the elephants away. 

Returning from our day 3 morning game drive, we were waylaid to a breakfast in the "bush" followed by a camel ride. It's quick tricky getting on the camel with (in. my experience) 3 back & forth motion when you really want to be hanging on. Our reactions to riding the camels varied. Shelly very much did not like it. Dave liked it the most. For the two of us, it was fine and might be especially appreciated if we were tired and had a long way to go.

We visited the Conservancy HQ Headquarters where they demonstrated their system for tracking animals and dealing with poachers. Some of the animals equipped with gps tracking devices (huge awkward but affordable ones). The HQ is equioed with computers hooked dup to multiple screens that can locate tracked animals over time. They also have specially trained dogs for tracking down poachers.

Our flight to Sarara Treehouses Lodge & Namunak Conservancy in northern Kenya was via a 4 passenger aircraft. Claustrophobic Pat was not at all pleased to be assigned the tiniest space in the back seat of the plane.

Outtakes of animals

Gourmet Rwanda: Meza Malonga

We had a dining experience at Meza Malonga gifted to us. It began with a boat tour on a traditional fishing vessel and a tour of the facility. When you add the food we seriously enjoyed out  four hour dining experience. 

Meza Malonga, formerly a popular restaurant in Kagali, now offers a dining experience at their recently opened farm-to-table restaurant / culinary school. Access is a combined short drive and boat ride from the Volcanos NP. There are a range of experiences on offer. We had the "8 course" dining experience, with small plates and paired drinks arriving for each course. By our count, it was10 courses! Toward the end we resorted to tiny tastings of the official tastings. We simply couldn't eat it all.

Our tour not only showed off the kitchen and classroom it introduced a small portion of the 400 spices they have available. … and that the students must familiarize themselves with!

Our first course was offered as part of the tour. Pineapple juice with mint accompanied 2 small crispy cups, one with veggies including fresh peas, the other one with meat tartar and carrot purée. All were good but the juice combo was the star.

We moved on to our table for course two::

• A new potato and moringa salad (the pod of the moringa tree is consider to have many healthy effects) with a cucumber masquerading as  fettuccine.  
• Lemon "waffles", but I'd say they were fried lemon rosettes.
• Gazpacho cucumber, a little sweet
• Sorghum bread with sun dried tomato
• Cassava chips with sesame seeds
• Wine: Vergelegen Chardonnay 2023 (S Africa)

Course 3:

• Shrimp with carrot noodle (noodle marinated in a citrus juice, I think) plus the shrimp are stuffed or rolled in a dark meal giving the very cooked shrimp a meaty appearance.
• Bread topped with lake cod fish with harissa sauce
• Fermented mango with moringa
• Wine: Mooiplass Sauvignon Blanc  2023 (S Africa)

Course 4:

• Minced beet in beet foam which was slightly picante
• Beet butter with a beet bun. It had slightly citrus notes.
• Wine: Soul of the Mountain Red Blend from Olifantsberg

Course 5:

• Aubergine soup with Pepe, a flavoring from Uganda (one of several garlic like spices)
• Caramelized slivers of aubergine & champignons in a small amount of thick tomato soup
• Bread with aubergine
• Wine: Moorplaas Sauvignon Blanc 2023 (S Africa)

Course 6: 

• Cauliflower purée, roasted cauliflower and shredded dried egg yolk
• With: Apple Ginger Kombucha

Course 7:

• Tree tomato Sorbet with Egyptian black (dried) Lemon with ground pepper and more subtle spices
• With: Fermented mixed berry drink

Course 8:

• Meat filet with Nigerian spices and tree tomato sauce
• Veggies (chayote, butternut, onion, carrot…)
• Brioche
• Wine: Mooiplaas Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 (S Africa)

Course 9:

• Mango purée,pineapple
• Banana ginger drink
• Butter cake (tiny bundts)

Course 10:

• Caramel ice cream
• Coffee cream
• Honey comb cake
• Chocolate trio
• With: coffee & tea

And then we said good-bye to Chef Malonga.

Rwanda: Kigali, Monkeys, & Gorillas

Monday morning we left Mexico City on our flight to Kigali, Rwanda. The flight included a scheduled 2 hour stop in Cancun and an 8 hour layover in Istanbul. We arrived on schedule (just after midnight on Wednesday morning). Traveling in Business Class on Turkish Air was again a real pleasure. The comforts of the Istanbul Turkish Air lounge in Istanbul made the layover easily manageable.

Making fresh Pide at the airport lounge

We were met and transferred to our hotel. After a 5 hour nap in our room and breakfast we took an hour walk to work off breakfast and get a little more acclimated to the 8 hour time shift. We walked from the hotel toward the center where the streets were lined with shops and vendors selling the vast array of products necessary for life. The 25ºC/77ºF morning temperature was quite pleasant and even the 29ºC/84ºF later in the afternoon was quite bearable.

Next morning we had a tour of the Genocide Memorial (commemorating the horrific  spring 1994 event) and the old and new parts of Kigali. Kinyarwanda or "Peace Stadium", officially known as Amahoro National Stadium, hosts football matches, concerts, and public events. BK Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena used mostly for basketball and volleyball matches.

The Rwandan genocide, aka the genocide against the Tutsi, occurred from April 7 to July 19, 1994 over the course of some 100 days. The genocide was conceived by extremist elements of Rwanda’s majority Hutu population who planned to kill the minority Tutsi population and anyone who opposed those genocidal intentions. It is estimated that some 200,000 Hutu, spurred on by propaganda from various media outlets, participated in the genocide. More than 800,000 civilians—primarily Tutsi, but also moderate Hutu—were killed during the campaign. As many as 2,000,000 Rwandans fled the country during or immediately after the genocide. It is hard to believe this happened so recently.

Background: Hutu and Tutsi share a common language and culture but have historically been distinguished by their traditional roles as farmers (Hutu, 85% of population) and cattle herders/aristocrats (Tutsi, 14% of the population). While these distinctions were once more fluid, Belgian colonial powers exacerbated tensions by using these differences to create social and political divisions that eventually led to genocide. 

Post genocide, the relationship between the groups is a bit complicated. The government mandate is Rwandans are one ethnic group. Younger people seem to buy into that. Older people? I don't know. But whatever the case, it is a comfortable country to visit. 

Restaurants at the hotel complex were quite good, one featuring international cuisine and one focused more on local dishes. Plus there is one lunch of local food during our tour.

Our hotel was part of a complex including Hemingway's Retreat Kigali, Fusion Restaurant, Heaven Restaurant and Heaven Boutique Hotel.We stayed at the Retreat and checked out both restaurants finding both to be quite fine.

Dinner at Fusion - Goat Kofta, Porkbelly, Pinotage and a Bordeaux blend

Lunch at La Creola with guide gave us a taste of 8-10 typical local dishes.... Chardonnay & a Merlot

Dinner at Heaven - crispy avocado salad, Nile perch, Viognier, "Grandma's Chocolate Babka"

On the drive to the National Park to see the Gorillas we passed many locals walking or on motor scooter taxis.  Most were transporting a variety of goods from water to wood to food by bike or on their heads. Keep in mind, Rwanda is known as "The land of one thousand hills" and as much uphill as downhill. Sometimes there were several folks pushing just one bike loaded high with wood or bags of indeterminate goods. 

We arrived at Bishops House in Musanze, a resort style hotel, and had lunch poolside. Then we had to wait until our room iwas vacated. We discovered that we had arrived for the annual gorilla naming event attended by the Prime Minister whose entertaining was based in our room!  The room freed up around 7pm. To help us deal with the boredom, the hotel rewarded us free massages. 

Next morning at 6:30 we were off to see Golden Monkeys. We found the monkeys foraging in a potato field next to the forest. We got an hour or more watching them. The troop included a mom with her 2 week-old clinging to her chest.

When we returned to the Lodge, we were greeted with steaming towels to freshen up with. Then before entering the lodge, they asked us to sit down while they removed our shoes and socks and massaged our feet. The shoes and socks were returned later all clean and fresh. 

Wildlife touring to see monkeys and gorillas in the area is coordinated through the Volcanoes National Park HQ in Musanze. Visitors arrive around 7:30 and are assigned to groups. Monkey tours average 15 visitors, gorilla tours average 8 visitors. 

On our way to see the Golden Monkeys, we walked thru fields of Pyrethum, Yep , the stuff they put on clothing as an insecticide except most Pyrethrum today is man made.. It looks like daisies. Pyrethrum has been a cash crop since the 1930s.

Afterwards we visited the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and Kinigi Women Craft Village.

The Gorilla Fund Center had a range of displays about Gorillas including details on ones Dian Fossey had named and observed over the years. Gorillas live together in groups. Each troop typically has 20 to 30 gorillas. This usually includes a dominant male, known as a silverback (due to an area of white hair on their back), several females and their young offspring. Females only have 3 to 4 babies in their entire lifetime. Life expectancy in the wild is between 35-40 years..

We were very lucky with our gorilla trek  We were assigned to visit the Agashya family (the name means Special.) The family of 24 took it easy on us. They chose to stay in the lowlands for our visit. We walked maybe 30 minutes before finding them and only had any rough terrain once we were visiting with them. We talked with someone whose group visited with the Agashya earlier in the week. On their visit they spent 2-3 hours finding the gorillas who had decided on an active climbing day. The Agashya are a two male family. The silver-back (about 40 years old) is in semi - retirement and his baby boy (about 12 years, too young to be a silver-back) is carrying the leadership responsibility for the family. Note: Humans share about 98% of their DNA with gorillas, making them readily susceptible to human diseases. Consequently visitors to the gorillas are told to wear face masks. 

The silver-back crossed two feet in front of Bill. 

Check our posting "Gourmet Rwanda: Meza Malonga" for details of our break between visiting with the Golden Monkeys and the Gorillas.

The next day we returned to Kigali to catch our flight to Nairobi Kenya where we met up with Dave & Shelly who joined us for the rest of our adventure in Africa and the Middle-East .

New England

We escaped the heat and crowds of July in Europe by visiting friends, family, and favorite places in New England. 

We began in the suburbs of Boston staying with one of Pat's business school classmates Marci & husband Gary. Along with the conversation we enjoyed dining (Fiorellas, Newtonville), shopping, mini-golf & a nice quiet walk around a small lake.

Looking ahead to our next adventure in Africa we made arrangements to get the necessary inoculations on our way to Cape Cod. In addition to the necessary yellow fever vaccinations, we got boosters for 4 others.

We honeymooned in Cape Cod back in 1968, part of "our" first venture outside of Maine. and it holds a soft spot in our hearts. The Ship's Knees B&B in Orleans, at the elbow of the cape, was our home for this part of our trip.

We spent time exploring, shopping and dining in Chatham, Provincetown, Hyannis, Orleans. P-town is always on our list because it's a happening place, festivals, shopping, and dining. They were celebrating their Portuguese roots while also having the Blessing of the Fleet.

We enjjoyed dining at the Impudent Oyster in Chatham, at Pepe's restaurant in P-Town and the BlackCat Tavern in Barnstable. 

Add a little mini-golf and a very nice meal at the Black Cat Tavern (stuffed mushroom caps, lobster, scallops and a bottle of Roero Arneis) and we were happy travelers. 

We returned to the Boston suburbs to visit Ken & Pat. We brought Champagne to help celebrate their 48th anniversary eve at home and dined with them at Wemmy's in Marlborough on the big day.  

We moved on to Portsmouth New Hampshire for a few days. Our activities included shopping around old town, crossing the border into Maine with lots of visits to the Kittery Trading Post (shopping for safari gear), dining along the Portsmouth waterfront and taking a stroll on Pierce Island, a favorite with dog walkers.

We stayed in Veazie (near Bangor) with one of our nieces this trip. We dined with brothers, cousins, nieces, nephews, grand nieces & nephews, and in-laws. We just missed the memorial service for niece Alyce's husband.The patriotic lady & son were relaximg in Garland (Pat's home town) Square.

Taylar, teenage grandsaughter of Pat's brother Frank gave us a tour of her animal farm where we focused on the horses. Tay is a very accomplished horsewoman! Later we had a cross-family visit at the Farmer's Table in Corinna with Bill's cousin Charlie and wife Barbara (owners of a farm stand and corn maze) plus Pat's brother Frank and wife Nita alond with their son Paul and wife Jen. Frank & Paul are partners in a vegetable farm (supplying Hannaford Brothers Supermarket chain with fresh vegetables from Thomas Farms.)

We enjoyed a lunch with Bill's cousin Mary & Steve at Anglers in Newport;  We had some fine pizza with Alyce our host (in Veazie) at Mason's Brewing Company. We had dinner at Timber Kitchen & Bar in Bangor with Elaine, another sister-in-law and her daughter Karen, husband Taylor and their twin daughter's Callista and Fiona and our host Alyce.

We also went to the University of Maine Campus and with the help of Karen Kemble from the Alumni office got a tour of what's new on campus including the new Ferland Engineering Education and Design Center (EEDC) a place where multi-discipline teams can experience prototyping and manufacturing of products. We also learned about the Green Engineering and Materials (GEM) building which will house the Factory of the Future research center focused on advancing bio-based manufacturing, robotics, and artificial intelligence. We arepretty prod of our Alma Mater!

The wedding of a grand niece was an unexpected addition to our usual Bar Harbor experience of shopping, dining, and wandering Acadia National Park. We also added mini-golf to the activities on this trip...and won a free round!

Thunder Hole, one of the stars of Acadia National Park was fairly quiet won Saturday yet it had quite a crowd visiting. When we went back during the week it was more active but had few visitors.  We missed its real performance in late May. Check out https://www.facebook.com/reel/1258095229224048

One day we shopped around Bar Harbor (They have 2 ! outfitter stores), had lunch at Blaze and picked up a few wines at House Wine

Another day we played Mini-golf at Pirates Cove (easy course), had lunch in Hulls Cove at The Chart Room, and a hike at Beech Mountain. We were super impressed with the wine list at the Chart Room. 

We spent another day around Southwest Harbor (Bass Harbor Light, Ship Harbor Trail) and had lunch at the Upper Deck, On the way home we made  a quick stop at Charlotte Rhoades Butterfly Garden. Gorgeous.

We enjoyed a French dinner at Brasserie Le Brun recommended by our waitress at the Upper Deck and related to the Chart Room in Hulls Cove.

On our way to Northeast Harbor we again took the Park Loop Road. It was a memorable warm, sunny day (and Thunder Hole was thundering).

After a visit to Thuya Garden (also gorgeous), we hit Northeast Harbor for some shopping and lunch at The Colonel's ..yummy lobster quesadilla. Before we left, we bought chocolate donuts at the bakery. We love chocolate donuts and these are particularly great.

To finish the day we returned for our free round of mini-golf at Pirate's Cove (on the challenging course).

Summer flowers in New England are magnificent. We will never tire of visiting them.

Moving on to Rockland we made a short stop in Camden and had lunch at Ports of Italy between the two towns. Our room at 250 Main Street is on the 5th floor looking over the harbor. We enjoyed seeing the sloops moored in the harbor visiting for the annual Friendship sloop days. We visited our U of Maine classmate, Brian first at his home and then dined with him at Primo.

 Next stop, Boothbay Harbor, one of our favorite stops with it's picturesque harbor, shops, and dining. Enroute we stopped in Damariscotta to check out the shops.

In Boothbay Harbor we dined at the Boathouse Bistro and Ports of Italy, (a companion to the one in Camden) and visit the Coastal Maine Botanic Garden. Our room at the Tugboat Inn was at the end of the pier with a great view of the harbor.

As usual we spent half a day at the Coastal Maine Botanic Garden. Lovely. 

On our way to Portland we stopped for a quick visit over coffee with another U of Maine classmate, Denny, in Bowdoinham .

In Portland we had an apartment in Old Port near the shops and restaurants, We were on the 5th floor with a view over the Fore River to South Portland. 

Susan, a friend from San Miguel visited us for lunch from her lakeside "camp" near Portland. She only recognized the building where we staying at the last minute but it was home to her officeof her former business for years.

We enjoyed our conversation and sandwiches (lobster and chicken salad) with Sandy (yet another U of Maine classmate) & husband Ed at their home in Kennebunk, This was our first chance to visit since their wedding 56 years ago. 

On the way back we meet with Sadie, our niece, in Biddeford.

The next day we were on our way home to San Miguel

Arunjuez, Toledo Wedding, and Back to Madrid

On our way to the wedding we (Pat, Bill, and Stacy) visited the Royal Palace and Gardens in Arunjuez. The structure is impressive, the decor on the interior elaborate, (including a number of clocks), ...

but the highlight was the Chinese Porcelain room, a lot over the top.

We arrived in Toledo, a lovely hilltop city, enhanced at the time by the extensive decorations for Corpus Christi, a major religious festival here.The buildings were draped with banners We connected with Kim (mother of the bride) and explored town in our spare time,

Pat caught Bill and the girls (Michelle-the bride, Kristin & Hanna = Michelle's twin sisters) at the wedding welcome dinner the night before. The wedding itself was stunning with all the fancy dress and a outstanding gourmet dinner for 200! Notice that the bottom right photo below was taken at 9:15 and it's still daylight.

After a very late night (early morning... we left the wedding around 2:30am, others stayed til 5am or later) we headed back to Madrid around noon with Stacy, Kim & Hanna (sister of the bride) for a last night out. We dined and wined before they headed for home. 

Pat & Bill had an extra day and used it for another visit to Casa Lucas Tapas Bar where we had dined in 2001 and 2002 with our friends Peter & Peggi. It still has great small plates and fine wine.

Next morning we were on our flight to Boston to visit friends and family around New England.