I’m just back from a quick walk to buy water and, more importantly, stretch my legs a bit. Sad to say, but I’m recovering a little from just that short walk! I’d forgotten about the altitude here and as I was walking (slightly) up hill from the little store where i bought my water, I quickly ran out of breath.
Anyway, I had a couple nice nights in Kenya. One evening, a group of about 8 of us went to dinner at a continental restaurant not far from the Embassy. In this case, “continental” means the African continent, not European. I had a wonderful piece of lamb. While the food was great, the setting was most notable, too. Kenya is just over 1′ south of the Equator, and situated such that the days are usually in the high 70s. There is no growing season – every season is growing season. As such, every meal featured wonderfully fresh vegetables, juices to drink, and meat that is produced the old fashioned way (i.e. not mass produced). Everything tasted so good!
the other evening, we splurged and went to “Carnivore,” a place that is something of a tourist trap, but fun nonetheless. They skewer and roast lots of different kinds of meat over an open flame, then walk around the restaurant with the cooked, skewered meat which they will carve for you at your table. Some Brazilian restaurants do this, too. The gimic here, of course, is that some of the meats are rather exotic. I had (and enjoyed) ostrich, crocodile, and the like. Apparently they used to serve impala, gazelle and other, even more exotic, meats, but have stopped under pressure from people who objected to eating such cute animals. The crocodile was surprisingly good!
Anyway, today is a down day for me, finally. Tomorrow the team is having a late lunch with some folks from the office here and then maybe we’ll do a little sightseeing. The others are out hitting the shops already, but I’m content to enjoy my balcony or in the rose garden for a bit.