The Wildebeest Crossing was one of the highlights of our trip. We had seen the big five. We had seen many species of antelope. We had seen enormous crocodiles feeding and lounging. We had seen all types of birds, all of them interesting and some of them breathtakingly beautiful. We had fished for and caught Nile Perch. We had ballooned across the Savannah and flown in a bush plane. What was left? For me, more of the same would have been just fine but for the rest of my family, it was time to head home. And, not just coincidentally, we would be starting our journey home the next morning. We were booked t to leave Mara Intrepids at 11 AM on the regularly scheduled Safari Air flight to Nairobi, having the afternoon and evening free ... read more

Hooray! Some people do read this stuff. There were three opinions on the Jelly Jam question. They may have been correct, but not quite what I had in mind. 1) "jelly is strained, jam isn't." Well maybe but why would I ask a question with such a boring answer? 2) blahblahblah says, "Jelly is wobbly like my upper arm." I don't think you have wobbly upper arms. 3) I believe jelly has a lot of pectin and is cheaper and not as full tasting as jam so there!!" Boring too. So there yourself. My answer is really just a question? Have you ever gotten yourself into a real Jelly? Nope. But I've been in a Jam. And then there's a dirty joke, but let's move on. Tourists going to the Serengeti or the Mara are offered ... read more

The next morning, we left the hotel at 6:15 to descend into the crater. Kelvin asked if we had any interest in making a surprise visit to a Masai village. “Sure,” we said. That’s pretty cool, stopping in at 6:30 in the morning to see how the Masai really lived. Jonathan only showed us the abandoned village near Amboseli. We had never been in a real visit where the Masai lived and cattle, goats and sheep pooped. As we approached the village Kelvin warned us that Masai are very friendly. They like to shake hands and sometimes hug, but we should be careful and use our Purel afterward because they are not good about cleanliness. We had no Purel so I said what my friend Rick Strain always says; “hey, that’s what stomach acid is for.” ... read more

Amboseli is famous for its enormous herds of elephants and it has a magnificent view of Mt. Kilimanjaro whenever she chooses to show herself. Often, she hides in the clouds and haze as she did when we arrived. I have a picture of Greg and Lizzie with the mountain behind them. Unfortunately the mountain chose to hide from the camera. It’s right behind them. Here’s the picture anyway. The elephants, though, don’t hide well and on our first drive they were around as were Wildebeest, Thompson’s Gazelle, Grant’s Gazelle, Impala, Zebra, Buffalo, Hippos, Jackals, Ostrich and a zillion kinds of birds, including Flamingos, Egyptian Geese, falcons, herons - we were overwhelmed. The place teemed with animals. But if you asked me, as our guide, Godfrey did, to say a single word that describes Amboseli, I’d probably ... read more

Our Portuguese roots: Yesterday morning, Fran and I walked to the Portuguese Synagogue. The 400 year old synagogue was designed by a famous Amsterdam architect (Goyim) but inside it’s all Mishpocha, if you know what I mean. The Portuguese Jews left, guess where. . . . right, France, during the 17th century when the Arabs and Christians made life not so much fun on the Iberian peninsula. The Christians wanted to convert the Jews and many did. Others were burned at the stake. The Arabs tried to knock them off too; hated them even more than they hated the Christians but maybe not as much as they hated each other. Anyway, the Portuguese Jews with money caught the first KLM flight to Amsterdam where they settled and had freedom. They could do just about anything but ... read more