Africa is pretty cool.

Just got back from four days in the most incredible resort hotel I've ever seen. Graduate students have no business in the world staying in a place this nice. It was amazing. We were by far the youngest people there that weren't with their parents. We were also the only group whose males were not wearing speedos. Crazy Euros. Dudes in Speedos... I don't think I'll ever get used to that. At least I hope I never do.



Anyway, on the way there, we saw some African wildlife. This is the only cool picture I got. We saw a few giraffes too, but they were too far off the road to try to take pictures. And we were in a bit of a crazy spot on the road. Getting smashed by an 18-wheeler is not something I want to do anytime soon, so we kept moving. But I can check wild zebras and wild giraffe off my list. We saw tons of monkeys too. I can't remember what kind they were, but they're a lot bigger than I expected. They're everywhere on the coast. The girls in the room next to ours had room service at one point, and left their dishes sitting outside of their room. I walked out later that day, and there was a monkey sitting there cleaning up after them. I tried to get my camera, but he was gone before I could get a picture.

In other wildlife news, there are geckos everywhere. We've seen a few in our apartment back in Nairobi. So far, I don't think they're the kind that makes noise at night, so I'm completely cool with having them around. It's kind of cool to have something scurry across the wall and have it not be a cockroach, or anything else nasty.


I also got to do some deep sea fishing. I was hoping to catch a dorado or two (a.k.a. mahi mahi, a.k.a. dolphin fish), or maybe a tuna, but that wasn't in the cards. We tried for them for about 2 hours, and didn't see anything other than one of the most intense rain storms I've ever seen. At one point you couldn't really even see the swells on the ocean because there was so much water splashing with the rain falling. Thankfully we were in a cab cruiser b/c I wasn't in the mood to get soaked, and I didn't take my rain jacket.

This one had already been dead for a while when I took the picture. I really wanted to get a picture of it when it was alive b/c they look so much better in pictures when they're alive. But the guides insisted that they were too dangerous to pick up. What they didn't know, and didn't understand when I tried to explain to them was that I have handled this type of fish before, and am no greenhorn when it comes to handling fish, and I frankly don't care if I get stung or bitten a little bit. Anything for a good picture.


This is what they look like when they're alive. I waited for the guides to turn their backs, and picked it up for the picture. I got cut up a little, but nothing too bad. It was worth it.









This one got attacked by a big barracuda as my buddy was reeling it in. I was really hoping to get to catch a big barracuda, but it didn't happen. Any fish that can do this to another fish with one speeding pass is cool in my book.

So anyway, this is my first Africa post. I'll try to do them every so often, but it's difficult b/c the internet is so painfully slow and inconsistent here. But I'll do my best.