Weekend Photos: Quickie Elephants Edition

Work has been crazy and things have just been hectic but I didn't want to let the weekend totally get away from me without taking the opportunity to rub it in a little that we saw elephants. Lots of elephants. Really really close to us. It felt a little like the elephants were clocking in... "ok, its my turn to go stand by the water, eat some grass and entertain the tourists." All in a hard days work for an elephant.

We will show this photo to poor T someday as proof that she "saw" elephants.

Hopefully K is old enough that she will actually remember them. She has spoken of them fondly quite often since the trip, so there is hope.

Classic elephant pose... you have to tip extra for that!

We're watching you....

Yup, that's pretty cool.

Sunday Photos: River Horse Edition

We just had an amazing long weekend at a camp in the south of the country, along one of the big rivers. There were some minor logistical bumps in the road, but we like to think of it as practice for all of our future adventures once friends and family start to visit. The accommodations were lovely, the food was delicious, and we saw an abundance of elephants and hippos. This first post is devoted to the the blog's namesake: the majestic river horse.

A family of hippos hanging out next to a sandbar. The gates to the major hydroelectric damn had been opened so the water was very high when we arrived on Friday. But the shut the gates sometime during the day on Friday so the water dropped close to two meters overnight. That whole sandbar was underwater the day before.

Another, larger family group hanging out. We went out on boat rides on Friday afternoon, and then again Saturday morning and afternoon. Each time we saw 5 or 6 big groups (hippo groups are called a pod, herd or bloat) like this. They were always very aware of our presence but did not seem bothered. They would sink under water and then pop back up snorting and shaking their ears to clear out the water. We saw lots of baby hippos, including a few standing on top of their mothers backs.

We also saw some solitary hippos, which were most likely young males who had been kicked out of their family groups but had not yet established their own families.

This small puppy was out on the river bank having a snack.

He was even kind enough to give us a profile shot highlighting his shapely legs and scary teeth.

Elephants, crocodiles, and, of course, the logistical shenanigans involved in this adventure still to come so stay tuned.

Sunday Rainbows

Happy Sunday everyone. Another good week here but nothing particularly exciting to report. I saw my first monkeys in Africa... at the Chinese Embassy, of all places! But there will be lots and lots of monkeys and other assorted flora and fauna next weekend because we decided spur of the moment to take a long weekend and go down to one of the game parks for a few nights. It should be really amazing and we can't wait to show the girls animals and it will be nice to get out of town for a few days. It does mean we had to actually trot out the anti-malarial meds and those puppies are really nasty tasting (and just might cause psychotic dreams, which sounds like a lot of fun for everyone!).

Oh, a baby related update as I am writing this! T just rolled over for the first time that I have seen (for all I know she rolls around like a log all day long but the nanny is too nice to tell me). It doesn't count as a first until mom sees it is generally my rule of thumb. She rolled back to front and then got stuck on her tummy and was highly displeased with her situation. Wait, why am I excited about this, that means she is one step closer to being mobile. Damn!

So stay tuned for what I hope will be lots of really fun photos next weekend. In the interim...

Uh-oh, someone is learning to fight back! T has started pulling hair (mine, K's, any unsuspecting victim foolish enough to wander into her grasp zone) like a champ.

But it's ok, everyone is happy in the end.

Especially mommy and daddy because their beer pong table fits nicely in their ridiculously large living room.

We are transitioning from the hot, rainy season to the dry, cool season, but while the weather has cooled off very nicely, apparently the rain gods didn't get the memo that it was time for them to start wrapping things up so it has been a very dreary, damp weekend. But we did get a very nice rainbow right around sunset on Friday. Actually, it wasn't just a rainbow, it was a full double rainbow (just for you, Shauna).

Sunday Baby Crocodiles

Another week has flow by! Work continues to be good, if hectic for both C and I. The girls seem to be adapting well to the new schedule and I have finally moved T into her actual crib in the room with K and the transition has been remarkably smooth thus far.

We always try to get out and do something fun during the weekend, and this Sunday our plan was to go to one of the local hotels for brunch. Not just because we like brunch, but because it has a pond in the courtyard with baby crocodiles. I can report that we were successful in seeing baby crocodiles, which was fun, but the brunch part of the equation was less successful. It was a perfect case study in eating out here. We sat down and ordered a smoothie for K and lattes for C and I while perusing the menu. Seemed reasonable enough. We wait and watch the crocs... wait... wait... wait... and finally the server brings out K's smoothie (strawberry instead of the requested banana, but who am I to squabble over a minor detail like that).

But no lattes. Which isn't unusual for a coffee beverage to take so long as the locals take their coffee seriously and take a year and a half to throw together a mocha. Not to say they aren't good, they just take an inordinately long time. And there is no such thing as a coffee place where you can just walk up to a counter, place your order, pay, get your coffee and leave. No. Even for take away coffee you must sit down. Someone brings a menu and then scurries off before you can order. The eventually wander back and you order. And wait. And wait. And then your coffee comes. And then you ask for a check. And the check eventually materializes. And then you wait for them to bring change. And finally, at long, long last, you take your coffee and go. All of this happens on a good day. Wherefore art thou Starbucks!

We continue to wait for our lattes, and the server does swing back by and we ask if they are serving food yet, as it is a bit early. The response C and I both swear we heard was, no, only on the other side of the restaurant and only for the guests of the hotel. Ok, no big deal, we will just have drinks and seek food elsewhere. If our drinks ever come. Finally a different server wanders over and says something along the lines of the handle is broken, so you can't have, would two cappuccino be ok instead. Sure! Anything with caffeine will be fine at this point!

So we continue our baby croc vigil while waiting for the drinks. We also notice that people around us are totally being served food. Er. Um. Ok. Whatever. The coffees finally arrive, and they are beautiful and tasty, I will give them that. But K is getting antsy so we ask for the check. And wait. And wait. And flag down someone else and ask again. More waiting. Finally, a full 30 minutes (I am NOT exaggerating!) later we finally get the check. And this is not unusual. I don't think we have ever managed to have a meal out where everything we tried to order was available. Inevitably there is something they don't have that day, or the cinnamon rolls are still baking (at 9am on a Saturday), or some piece of equipment is broken so they can't make something. It is always interesting to see just which item will be unavailable because it is almost always a totally random surprise.

But the story has a very happy ending because we found the Indian place in town (there are many, all pretty good) that does Sunday Indian brunch buffet. Yummy! And we did get to hang out with baby crocodiles for an hour.

Big and scary looking, huh! Its all about scale, he is really only about two feet long, if that. Baby crocodiles!

K very much enjoyed her reptilian friends. In fact, she wanted to order food for them off the menu. When we wouldn't let her do that, she instead started pointing out potential snacks to her new friends: "look alligator (there was some confusion on this point)! Mr. Froggy is over there!" How quickly she turned on poor Mr. Froggy!

There are four crocs in this photo. Can you find them all?

Gratuitous smiley T! Not rolling over, but almost sitting up, just like her sister at this age.

And K is using a lovely carved thing... vase? bowl? spittoon? as a repository for her play doh. Obviously that is the precise use for which the Afri-crap was intended. A little known fact about Afri-crap: it reproduces spontaneously. Possibly through budding, possibly through some other process, but inevitably there is more of this stuff than you thought you had, and we have only been here a few months!