After our bath, we contacted our friend LS (no, not you Lauren) who was able to recommend some safe accommodation in a safe neibourhood not far from the centre of town (Hurlingham). Without hardly enough time to unpack, our ride for dinner had arrived (still part of our safari tour).

For the last week, we observed many beautiful and exotic animals. Now it was time to eat them!!

At the world famous Carnivore Restaurant, we ate (in addition to the usuals - chicken, beef, pork) ostrich, zebra, crockodile and Rick's favourite, gazelle! It's a great system, the BBQ keeps coming until you put the flag on your table down, indicating surrender. We (especially Rick) did Canada proud!

Hurlingham is the neighbourhood in which we stayed in Nairobi. It was safe to walk, steps from the amazing Blue Nile Ethiopian Restaurant, a great internet cafe, as well as the YaYa Shopping Centre. The YaYa Centre had a French Patisserie that made the most amazing espresso and croisants with fresh local fruit - that was a daily excursion for our caffeine fix.

On Sunday, our friend PC had us for dinner in Karen. Karen is a suburb of Nairobi named after Karen Blixen of Out of Africa fame - more on that later.

On the way to Karen, we stopped at the Kenyan monument celebrating Kenya's independance. It's located in a great park near a fig tree that was planted by Kenya's first Prime Minister, Jomo Kenyatta, on Independance Day - 12 Dec 1963.

PC's place in Karen faces the Ngong Hills, the backdrop for Karen Blixen's Out if Africa. It's a lovely, quite place away from the hustle and bustle of Nairobi. We had a fabulous evening and dinner with PC before returning to Hurlingham.

One of the main transit vehicles in Kenya is the matatu. It's a minibus that runs a particular route. There's a driver and a 'tout'.

They seat about 18 comfortably, but we are told that before recent controls were implemented, it was not uncommon to see 30 people crammed into one!

The driver is a real professional. Anyone driving in Nairobi must be - neither of us would even dream of attempting it. His job is to weave through traffic as quickly as he can without hitting another vehicle (pedestrians don't count as it's their responsibility to avoid speeding vehicles), as well as to interpret and obey the signals that the tout taps on the roof with a coin.

The tout is like a conductor - his responsibility is to generate funds for the matatu owner by getting passengers. Once appropriate (someone signalling that they want to get on or off, or the approach of a bus stop), the tout signals the driver to slow down - you have to understand that these things rarely come to a full stop - and then he directs the off/on traffic through the single sliding door with the urgency of an evacuation. It's really quite exhilerating and did feed Rick's insatiable need to jump both on and off of a moving vehicle. You could just see the 'not bad for a white guy' look on the tout's face. Janet thought that the tout was going to offer Rick a job.

Unfortunately, we didn't carry a camera around Nairobi so do not have a picture of a matatu.

The National Museum is a must for those visiting Nairobi. It's outstanding exhibits include Joy Adamson's watercolours of various Kenyan tribes in every day and ceremonial dress, and indiginous plants; a collection of stuffed birds of East Africa (an excellent reference after our safaris); a collection of stuffed fish; and an incredible paleontological exhibit showing skeletal remains of our ancestors and various large mammals. We visited every exhibit!

This is in Karen. A family of rare Rothschild giraffes that was recovered from poachers resides here. It's a great opportunity for school children from Nairobi to come and see giraffes (about 1 of 3 million people that live in Nairobi live in a slum!!!!).

(In Kenya (as well as Tanzania and Uganda) all school children must wear a school uniform)

The drill is that you go up the stairs, get your handfull of giraffe pellets, and feed the giraffe. Rick, of course, can't do what everyone else does, he has to kiss the giraffe!

This is another wonderful site that we saw at Legata. The warthogs were just happy to be lazing in the sun. It was so funny because every time the mother started moving the little ones just scampered behind to feed where they left off!

The wealthy well secured area of Karen outside Nairobi is home to many private homes as well as this museum. It is the original home of Karen Blixen, famous for her extravagant lifestyle and Out of Africa novel. The house and kitchen are restored to their original splendor and there are many photographs of her and the original. This was quite an interesting contrast to experience. The flowers and trees were beautiful and there were many lovely birds to accent the beautiful views. You can faintly see the Gardeners in front of the house.

In the movie Out of Africa, Meryl Streep played Karen Blixen / opposite to Robert Redford! There is a famous scene under the tree in front of the house where Streep looked just like Janet does here in the same spot!

The Hotel we stayed at in Hurlingham, suburb of Nairobi, was called the Olive Garden. It was new and very nice. Here’s Janet toasting a fairwell.