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From Africa to South-America

Time had come to change course, and after Mombasa we went back to Nairobi to say goodbye to Maggie, Buru Buru and Kenya. Next destination: Brazil!

Here is some of the pictures from our last days in Nairobi.

Pictures taken from  the animal orphanage by the Nairobi National Park.

The giraffe center - where you get really close to the giraffes and where you also can feed them.

"I kissed a giraffe, and I liked it. But it was no cherry chap stick"

Outside Maggies house in Buru Buru.

Monday afternoon our flight went from Nairobi to Johannesburg. There we had a long night waiting for our next flight to Sao Paulo tuesday morning. Since the real backpacking-trip starts now, we thought we couldn`t start by booking a night in an Airport Hotel. In stead we found a nice little corner in the second floor at the airport, where we slept (or basically just stayed) the whole night.




Sandra actually got a little sleep that night on the floor

Finally we arrived to Sao Paulo after a long night, two sore backs, 10 hours in an airplane and alot of plane-food. Still the traveling was not finished. Since we are going back to Sao Paulo in october, we decided to take the trip to Rio de Janeiro. The plan was to stay in Rio just four days, but we have already fallen in love with the city! Plans have therefor changed, and today we are booking more night in the hostel "

A special combination of mountain, skyscrapers and beaches - here on a cloudy day. We hope the weather will get better in a day or two. The christ statue is still to be experienced.

Coconut water, and it`s really good! Only R$ 3.

We are staying in a cheep hostel by the Ipanema beach that`s called "Girl from Ipanema" - real Frank Sinatra style. Six people in each room, shared bathroom and alot of great atmosphere with people (mostly backpackers) from all over the world.

The highest bunk bed we`ve ever seen. Three "floors" and thin air on the top by the ceiling.

Kwaheri Meru, Jamobo Mombasa

Last week, it was time to say goodbye to Meru and to KCA. In many ways it was hard to leave everybody, now that we've gotten to know the kids so well. But as Presilla said: This was only an introduction. Maybe one day we'll see them again - hopefully!





Amos and Emanuel



This is how you do your laundry in KCA



After a few days at Maggies place in Nairobi, we left for Mombasa - a city by the coast of Kenya. We booked a hostel called "The Beach Africa" online. Cheep and nice, we thought. But when we arrived there we realised why it was so cheep. First of all, it was a bit further from Mombasa town than we thought. It was in a place called Mtwapa, and it takes about 35 min with  the local matatus to get there.
Secondly, the hostel. We stayed in a one-room-cottage with two stone beds. There was no glass in the windows, but instead fishingnets. As a result the wind was blowing through our rooms at all times, and the sounds of the waves still haunts us.
Anyway, we learned to enjoy the place and the people there. It was like living in the nature, away from the materialistic environment we often get so used to. And it was really beautiful there, with the indian ocean just a few steps away from our door.


The Beach Bar, also known as the reception



The beach looked like this when the tide was at its lowest, and as you can see you can walk very far out before it gets deep.  Here is a picture of the trees and all the roots that starts to stick out of the water as the earth is getting more and more visible. Theese trees live and get all their nutrition from the saltwater.

Luckaly other places was more suitable for swimming.



The toilets.



Safari, not the excursion but the man on the photo, took us to see a beach nearby the hostel where we could see turtles. Unfortunately the only turtle we saw was this on the wall. So far we haven't been too lucky with spotting the animals. We hope that will change in the future!

It was warmer in Mombasa than in Meru :)



Tuesday we went to experience Mombasa and the old town. Mombasa is a historic city by the coast of East-Africa, but as we figured out, many of the placed near the dock are not open for anyone and is strickly monitored. We still found a little place near the ocean to get a peek at a few ships.



Sunset in Mombasa



African wedding-crashers

Saturday was the big day for Timothy and Yvonne (which we don't know). Anyway, we were invited to their wedding together with the KCA staff. The church-ceremony was supposed to start at 10 a.m., but as we are getting used to "African time", we showed up at 12 a.m. and were still early. The ceremony lasted for two long hours, with many long speeches - specially from the priest. Luckily they spoke English most of the time, though we have to admit we didn't pay much attention. During this two weeks here at KCA we have been spending too much time in church, and we were also too busy thinking about food and where we could place ourselves among the crowd.

The little bridesmaids waiting to enter "Gods house"

After the ceremony we were invited to the reception in a beautiful garden a few kilometers away. Unlike in the church, this was nothing like a Norwegian wedding-reception. The food, entertainment, surroundings, music and the number of guests (at least between 300-400 guests) was unlike anything we've seen before.

The wedding couple is welcomed with singing and dancing

There were many "tents" like this in the Olive Garden, where people could sit and eat. Unlike a Norwegian wedding where people would sit around the table facing each other, the chairs were placed like in a theater - all facing to the front. It made it a little harder to have a conversation, but we figured out that this might be the easiest way to make room for so many guests. 

Even the papaya-trees were celebrating the love

Sandra were also celebrating...

Janne was celebrating in her own way in the meditation corner...