Turning 23 in the rainforest

Again I decided to do a little exploring this past weekend and it was extra special because Saturday was my 23rd birthday! To celebrate Friday night we went out for dinner and dancing. Topped off the night with a cake around midnight. Its great to be halfway around the world but still have great friends who will celebrate with you!

Saturday we were off to Kakamega Forest. Kakamega Forest is the last remaining piece of the great African rain forest that once spanned the entire continent. The forest is home to tons of butterflies, spiders, snakes, mammals, monkeys, and even people. The local Luhya people still live off the forest and live under its canopy. It receives the most rainfall in the whole of Kenya at 2 meters annually. Sadly although the forest is part of the Kenya Wildlife Reserves it is still slowly disappearing due to illegal logging. The forest is considered to be one of Kenya's disappearing wonders and it is highly recommended that visitors spend a day or two hiking the trails. (Wow I sound like a travel guide)

After traveling for about 3 hours we made it to the guest house. Not the Hilton but definitely met Kenya standards. Running water check! Electricity....not so important. We spent the afternoon hiking some of the trails close to the compound and doing photo shoots with the monkeys who live in the area. There were so many up in the trees!!

Upon our arrival we made sure that the first thing we clarified was where we could watch the USA vs. Ghana match that evening. I mean gorgeous forest but come on; This is the world cup! We ended up at a family's home in the forest along with about 20 other Americans. (There happened to be a FSD volunteer retreat that same weekend there and we met a girl from U of M medical school. Small world!) It was amazing how they just opened their home to us. So the evening of my 23rd birthday I was huddled in a living room with one of the family's boys on my lap cheering for the USA soccer team as the game played on a small TV run by two car batteries. Definitely a night to remember and would have been even more if the USA team would have pulled out a win, but I guess if they had to loose I'm glad it was to an African team.

The next day we got up super early and did the sunrise hike. Now I'm not normally one to be like "yes, sure. I'd love to get out of my nice warm bed at the crack of dawn". But this was worth it. Sure I had to walk 2 hours in the pitch black through mud and up a side of a mountain. I also got to just sit on the top of the forest and watch the sun come up in complete silence with only the forest's song in the background. Definitely something I will never forget.

After hiking back we grabbed a quick breakfast and started back for Kisumu. The road is terrible and what should be 30 minutes is about 2 hours. 2 hours of bladder smashing, butt bruising, stomach churning fun. All in all a great weekend and a wonderful birthday. How many people can say they turned 23 in the middle of the rainforest?!