Nairobi, weekend three:

we finally figured out our weekend activity schedule for the rest of the weeks in kenya: this weekend to lake naivasha, weekend four to mombasa (on the coast), five in nairobi, and six to maasai mara (for a safari)

lake naivasha is an easy hour and a half mutatu ride northwest of nairobi; it was a great weekend with pascal and the three of us walking and biking around lake naivasha and hells gate national park; saturday was spent checking out the campsite where we stayed and the nearby village; this morning we got up early, rented bikes and paid $25 to get into the park; there was some amazing scenery on the ride through the main road of the park, but the best part was taking a tour of the hell's gate gorge; hell's gate is named for the volcano and hot springs in the area, but is anything but a vision of hell; the gorge was cut by a stream that grows to a river every rainy season and descends into maasai land to the south; we walked through the bottom of the gorge, from the start to the devil's mouth (the point of no return) and to the first of the hot springs before climbing back out; it was a two hour tour (with a guide), but next time we'll have to take the 5+ hour tour that goes to the large hot springs and caves near the end of the gorge (and some scenes from the first tomb raider movie were filmed in the gorge and at those caves); definitely worth the entry fee, and definitely worth repeating if i'm ever in the area again

and of course we had to watch ghana beat the usa, as well as germany smoking england, and argentina beating mexico; wes is a soccer (properly, football) fanatic and so cheers for mexico first, then germany, then usa; so though germany had success tonight, he may end up drowning his sorrows in fanta (orange and black currant) after the mexico loss (we'll see how he takes the knockout) ... either way, now that the elimination rounds are started, there should be some excellent matches to watch every evening