Mountain Biking at the Gate of Hell

While the Latin portion (+Kelly) of the Sloanies in Nairobi went on Safari by balloon and car this weekend, the Ugly Americans terrorized a National Park.

Tamara, Susan, Shrinu, Keith, "Marathon" Rob Ware, Parag and I went out to Hell's Gate for some mountain biking and a hike. The mountain biking was pretty low-key -- all on a road. The only significant obstacles were the occaisional sand pit, zebra, baboon, and the rear hub on Parag's crappy rented bike. It died on the trip home, which wasn't so much of a hassle as it was an excuse for Marathon Rob to take his shirt off.

The hike was super-fun. We walked through a dried-up stream-bed, jumped off rocks, showered in a hot spring (my first stand-up shower since getting to Nairobi, thanks to British plumbing and a lack of a shower curtain), picked up a chameleon and one of us had her face painted like a Masai warrior. All-in-all: a perfect afternoon!

Here's a pic of the park for you.

Monkeys stole my snacks

One thing about living in Nairobi that I didn't expect: pests include random feral cats and...MONKEYS.

My team came home yesterday to find that someone (we assumed the staff) had eaten all of our bananas and even cheekily left a peel on the counter. We were a little offended and considered mentioning it to the administration.

When later, we came home to find a feral cat streaking through our house, we began to consider other alternatives. Could a cat have hauled away a pound of bananas? They were small. But peeling one? It doesn't even have opposate thumbs, Greg (Meet the Parents, anyone?).

It all became clear in the morning when Susan discovered a GIANT MONKEY crouched on the windowsill of our kitchen, just waiting for us to leave.

We reported the incident to the front desk, who tried (ineffectively) to conceal its obvious belief that we were HUGE IDIOTS. Trying to explain that monkeys were not an expected pest didn't exactly win us any perceived IQ points, so we scooted off to work and vowed to lock the windows.