this is from yesterday cause the internet failed.

Day 19 (9/23)
This morning, bright and early we left for Amboseli again! We went there to do some research, animal counting. Each car/group was assigned a section of the park and we had to count the number of animals within 500 m of either side of the road. Call me an environmental science nerd but counting animals was SO much fun. We had the first section so it wasn’t too far into the park so no watering holes but we saw lots of Thomson’s Gaselle, Grant’s Gaselle, Impala, Ostriches, Elephant, Oryx, Giraffe, some wildebeests and zebra. It literally took 3 hours to count the whole thing but it was a great time.

After we finished with our counting we went to a lodge in Amboseli and it was gorgeous. But at the same time, the difference between the lodge and the park was night and day. Everything was lush, beautiful, flowering, and utterly magnificent. However within 5 feet of the boundary nearly everything is desolate (except around the watering hole) and literally there are carcasses strewn across the plains that are clearly visible from the back porch. At first, my reaction was completely and utterly negative to the entire lodge because they are using up valuable resources and clearly the environment is going through the worst drought in living history. So why have a place like this when all the animals around are suffering and dying right in front of our eyes? Then, after I thought about it a little bit more, the money that tourists bring into this region is essential and without lodges that make tourists happy the income for the park is highly diminished. Also, the lodges are running off an aquifer that is pumped solely for their use, and if not tapped it would not make it to the surface. And to be fair, they do seem to use water sparingly…for the most part.

Anyway…we ate our lunch on the porch of a church, a little bit out of the main resort area. (I missed this because Kim, Lia and I went to go see if they ice cream…a rare thing in Kenya) While everyone else was finishing their lunches, a Baboon came up and ran in the middle of the group to search for food. Lauren held up her Tupperware while she was sitting down to keep it away from the Baboon. Before she could stand up the Baboon jumped up, grabbed the Tupperware and ran off. It didn’t go very far and threw the Tupperware. So at least she got the Tupperware back, but it ate her entire lunch. After lunch we relaxed in the lodge until 2. I have to say the view is incredible, especially by the peanut shaped beautiful sparkling blue pool. We all sat in the grass (a luxury in Kenya because there are usually thorns EVERYWHERE, and there isn’t a lot of grass left) and had a guest lecturer come to talk to us from the Elephant Trust, Amboseli Elephant Research Project. If you’re interested visit http://www.elephanttrust.org she went over all of the things they do and how they do it. The program is something like 37 years old and they know each and every Elephant in the park (1000+). The work that they do is beyond amazing.

After the lecture, we went back to the Land Cruisers to find some Vervet Monkeys checking us out. One thing led to another and all of a sudden one of the Monkeys was up on the windshield/top of the Land Cruiser (remember, the panels of the roof pop out, so everyone was standing up, limo style) and Lauren was starting to peel her orange (same girl that got her lunch stolen by the Baboons), the Vervet jumped at her and she threw her orange at it. Hilarious. The Monkey darted off the car and into the tree, orange in hand. So after seeing this about 3 more tried (unsuccessfully) to get more food. Finally we left and on the way back we went on a mini-game drive. Did you know tourists think there are actually tigers in Kenya? True story.

Day 20
..not too much happened.