Yes, it's safe to go to Kenya

On safari in southern Kenya, we were fascinated by the king of beasts.

Clearly, they were not so fascinated by us.

The hornbill was the model for the character Zazu in The Lion King.

Also in The Lion King, the wise shaman Rafiki is a baboon.

Dancers and singers in traditional Masai dress greet visitors to Amboseli Sopa Lodge in southern Kenya.

Yellow-billed oxpecker perches on the back of an oryx. Click on the photo to see more detail.

Young boy by the open doorway to a typical home in his Masai village in southern Kenya.

Curious vervet monkey at the window of my room at the Serena Beach Hotel and Spa on the Indian Ocean coast.

Riding a camel for the first time on the sands of the Indian Ocean coast.

Sound and light show at Fort Jesus, a Portuguese bastion and slave fort built in 1593 in Mombasa, Kenya.

Mt. Kilimanjaro pokes through the clouds in aerial photo taken on flight from Mombasa to Nairobi.

Hippos loll in Mzima Springs in Tsavo West National Park in southern Kenya.

Giraffe stops to stare at photographers in Tsavo West National Park in southern Kenya.

Brilliant plummage of vulturine guineafowl in Tsavo West National Park in southern Kenya.

Injured lioness and her two cubs at Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary in southern Kenya.

In a leafy Nairobi suburb, the Karen Blixen Museum, a colonial farmhouse where the author of Out of Africa lived for many years.

Young Kenyan woman at the Karen Blixen Museum, a colonial farmhouse where the author of Out of Africa lived.

Used by all 42 ethnic groups in Kenya, gourds are on exhibit at the newly renovated and expanded Nairobi National Museum.

Masai staff at the Amboseli Sopa Lodge greet visitors with a traditional dance.

Baby elephant is protected by adults at Amboseli National Park in southern Kenya.

Published June 7, 2008

'Jambo' and 'karibu' from Kenya

By Lorne Mallin

TAITA HILLS WILDLIFE SANCTUARY, Kenya — From the safety of the popped top of our safari van, we pointed our cameras at the tawny head of a lioness sitting a dozen metres away in the tall grasses of the southern Kenyan savanna.

Then the heads of her two young cubs also peeked through the leaves. Many more shutter clicks. As the mother lion roused herself to move, we could see that she was lame. Our driver and guide James Mungai Njungo pointed out that she was very scrawny.

Later, Willie Mwadilo, manager of the nearby Sarova Salt Lick Game Lodge, told me the lion had been kicked when she attacked a powerful Cape buffalo. A veterinarian had treated her and her leg was expected to heal. And (psst, don't tell anyone) she and her cubs were getting food to keep them alive.

Mwadilo hopes the Kenyan tourism industry will also heal and thrive again. Tourism, the East African country's biggest foreign-currency earner, was deeply wounded by ethnic violence that erupted after disputed elections at the end of the year.

He said his occupancy rates had plummeted from an expected 80 or more percent to less than 12 per cent. I heard similar figures from other operators. The economic effects have been far-reaching, ruining for example the farmers who supply vegetables to the lodges and the souvenir shopkeepers who rely on a steady stream of visitors. Kenya is just a little smaller than Manitoba and almost 60 percent of its 38 million people live on less than $2 a day. Thousands have lost jobs.

It's a shame because Kenya is a magnificent destination. Like many Canadians, I grew up hoping someday I'd go to Africa and see the wild animals.

We saw so much on a week-long press tour spent embedded with Kenya's charm offensive — several lions, herds of elephants with adorably cute babies, giraffes, zebras, hippos, baboons, hyenas, oryx, antelope, gazelles and stunning birds. The Kenya Tourist Board and the tourist industry spent about $1.6 million to bring more than 200 foreign travel journalists here, including nine from Canada.

My mission was to get a sense of whether it's safe to travel again in Kenya, where two million visitors spent about $1 billion last year. Peace is a relative term in Kenya. Not a single tourist was harmed during all of the unrest in January and February when more than 1,000 Kenyans were killed and hundreds of thousands fled their homes. While we were there a power-sharing cabinet was announced. But the day we left several people died in gang-related violence in non-tourist areas.

So, on balance I'd say it's very safe. Just stay on the well-worn tourist track. That's what we did and I had a fantastic time with our van of four journalists from Montreal, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and me, a native of Winnipeg from Vancouver.

First we flew into the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, an unremarkable-looking city of about three million people with some remarkable attractions. There are fascinating museums and galleries, great shopping, interesting people watching, a rich variety of food and at Nairobi National Park more than a hint of Kenya's fabulous wildlife.

If you've read Out of Africa or seen the 1985 Oscar-winning movie starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep, the Karen Blixen Museum is a must. Blixen, who wrote the novel, lived in the colonial farmhouse between 1914 and 1931 and it is full of memorabilia from that time as well as props from the movie. Ironic detail: Blixen was a heavy smoker but a sign advises as you enter the house "Lungs at work. No smoking please."

After visiting the house, linger in the area for a delightful outdoor lunch at the Karen Blixen Coffee Garden and Cottages.

We were among the first visitors to the newly refurbished and expanded Nairobi National Museum. It includes Turkana Boy, which is considered the most complete early human fossil dating back 1.5 million years. I was captivated by an exhibit of dozens of gourds, which are used by all of the 42 ethnic groups in Kenya for everyday tasks.

We rested a night at the Nairobi Hilton and then our driver Mungai pointed his van south to national parks for two days of game drives in Amboseli and Tsavo West national parks as well as the private Taita Hills sanctuary. Once we left the paved highway we experienced what Mungai called the "Kenyan massage" on rutted dirt roads. It felt like my kidneys were put through a cement mixer.

But it was worth it. The diversity and amount of wildlife is beyond belief. When a herd of elephants wanted to cross the road in front of our van, they definitely got the right of way. And we got the thrill of taking their pictures.

It's a photographer's dream, no matter if you have a basic point-and-shoot or the fanciest gear. Many animals are close to the road and they're not spooked by the vehicles.

Staying at the luxury Amboseli Sopa Lodge and Salt Lick Lodge made our safari experience even more fun. Both have their own creative interpretations of the local hut styles.

From Tsavo West National Park we drove to exotic, hot and humid Mombasa on the Indian Ocean coast, where few Canadians have vacationed.

On the way we stopped at a village of the Masai tribe, where we were shown their dances and their homes built from mud, cow dung and sticks. Even though the Kenya Tourist Board paid for us to take any photos we wanted, and the money was going directly to the villagers, it still felt inappropriate to be sticking our cameras in their faces.

North and south of Mombasa, gorgeous resorts grace the palm-fringed coastline. I stayed at a jewel called the Serena Beach Hotel and Spa, whose spacious rooms feature beautiful details. One unexpected attraction was a vervet monkey staring in a window when I awoke. I was forewarned not to open the window. They'll come in and make off with anything that attracts their fancy.

Throughout Kenya, we enjoyed roast meat, seafood and Indian cuisine. I especially liked a simple dish at breakfast at the Serena Beach: mbaazi in coconut milk, usually made with pigeon peas but in this case cowpeas.

I teamed up with a Seattle writer, Jennifer Haupt, to go snorkelling. Our schedule restricted us to a less than ideal time of day for viewing fish. But we saw quite a few from a Buccaneer Diving boat and it was simply wonderful to be floating in the warm Indian Ocean. Back on the beach we went for camel rides.

At night, the journalists boarded a traditional dhow boat for a 45-minute cruise to Mombasa's Old Town. We walked the ancient streets that lead to Fort Jesus, a fabled Portuguese bastion with metre-thick coral walls built in 1593. Much of the fort's history was detailed in a sound and light show with actors in period costumes. The fort's key role in the slave trade was not mentioned.

On the flight back to Nairobi, we were treated to a spectacular view of Mt. Kilimanjaro poking through the clouds.

Despite coming during the rainy season, I got caught in only one downpour. There's better weather and most amazing wildlife experience in late summer — winter for Kenyans on the other side of the equator — when millions of wildebeests migrate north through the Masai Mara Game Reserve.

Everywhere in Kenya, people were very happy to see us, greeting us with "Jambo" (hello, in Swahili) and "Karibu" (welcome). They'll be happy to see you, too.

Kenya is safe, for tourists, says U of M prof

NAIROBI, Kenya — On the faculty of both the University of Manitoba and the University of Nairobi, Larry Gelmon is uniquely positioned to advise Manitobans about travelling to Kenya.

"Canadians who freely travel to Mexico, Jamaica, Colombia or Brazil (or, for that matter, Detroit or Dallas) should not fear a trip to Kenya," Dr. Gelmon told me by e-mail.

He's the senior UofM representative on the AIDS research collaboration between the two universities and has been here 18 years.

Dr. Gelmon said the collaboration's annual meeting in Nairobi in January was postponed because of the unrest in the country but it was held in mid-April with almost 20 researchers and administrators coming from Winnipeg.

"They attended the conference, and many of them took off on the weekend to visit some of the splendid sites to see in Kenya, all without incident," he said.

"We have been welcoming visitors from Canada for many years, practically all of whom are staggered by the variety of things to see here and the beauty of the country."

If you go

• Kenya Airways flies direct to Nairobi from London.
• Check with travel agents for bargains as Kenya woos back visitors.
• Our driver-guide Mungai works for a great company called Paws Africa Safaris: www.pawsafrica.com.
• The official Kenya destination website is www.magickenya.com.
• The Lonely Planet's Kenya guide is a solid resource.
• You're not required to get a Yellow Fever vaccination but I got one anyway, as well as hepatitis shots and anti-malarials. Consult www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/tmp-pmv/pub-eng.php.
• Once again the homeopathic remedy No Jet Lag saved me from that dreaded malady.

Embedded With the Kenya Charm Offensive

Listen to my dispatch with an introduction by host Rick MacInnes-Rae


Drummers and dancers perform at gala in Nairobi for 200 foreign journalists and 800 well-connected Kenyans enjoying free-flowing booze, roast goat and chocolate fountains.

Peru: On the huaca trail to treasure

One of the treasures in Museum of the Royal Tombs of Sipan.

The imposing pyramid architecture of Lambayeque's Museum of the Royal Tombs of Sipan.

Huaca del Sol as seen from the southeast, with the Moche River delta beyond and city ruins in the foreground.

Geometric designs and seabirds on walls of the vast city of Chan Chan, the capital of the Chimu culture, near Trujillo, Peru.

Mural at Huaca de la Luna of the Decapitator, the Moche god to whom human victims were sacrificed.

Trujillo tour guide Laura Duran Perez cuddles a Peruvian hairless dog.

Basket of peppers at La Rosa Nautica restaurant on Lima's waterfront.

Catching a wave off one of Lima's popular surfing beaches.

Peruvian fisherman launches his reed boat off the beach at Huanchaco on the country's north coast.

Peruvian students learn about their national heritage at the Hauca el Brujo archeological complex 60 km north of Trujillo.

Published March 8, 2008

Northern Peru refreshingly friendly, and so different

By Lorne Mallin

TRUJILLO, Peru — For Manitobans who love to winter in the desert, here's something new. Expand your horizons far beyond Arizona across the equator to the north coast of Peru with its endless sands flanked by Pacific surf and the majestic Andes mountains.

The long Peruvian coastal desert, which varies from about 65 to 160 kilometres wide, is a treasure trove of temple and pyramid ruins called huacas, the legacy of cultures much more ancient than the Incas going back as much as 5,000 years.

There are ecological wonders in such nature reserves as the "dry tropical forest'' with its abundance of exotic birds and carob trees. Plus marvellous beaches to relax on and waves that attract surfers from all over the world.

While it certainly costs more to fly to South America than, say, Phoenix, the hotel and restaurant expenses here can be a fraction of what vacationers pay closer to home.

And Peru is so different as well as refreshingly friendly. So few Canadians have touched down here that you feel like an explorer. The bonus being that on the other side of the equator it's solidly into summertime now. The best of the heat in the arid desert continues through March.

The country is about twice as big as Manitoba, with a population of more than 28 million, of whom more than half are reported to live on less than $2 a day. It's bordered on the north by Colombia and Ecuador, on the east by Bolivia and Brazil, with Chile in the south and the Pacific Ocean in the west.

You can see everywhere that compared to Canada, Peru has retained much of its aboriginal heritage. Their first nations people are 45 percent of the population, plus another 37 percent of mixed heritage. Only 15 percent are of European descent.

After six days on a tour of the north coast, my senses were whirling from the richness and complexity of the country's history. Most everyone has heard of the Incas and their most-famous wonder of the world -- Machu Picchu. It's reached by turning south from Lima and embarking, if you're hardy, on the Inca Trail, from Cuzco in the Andes, or take the train like I did.

Instead, I headed north on what I call the "huaca trail.'' Many other civilizations predated the 16th-century Spanish conquerors with lost cities that will excite even the most jaded traveller. All from huacas, which look like large dirt hills made out of mud bricks but are so much more.

Thanks to an explosion of archeological discoveries in the last 20 years, fantastic pyramids, temples and amazingly intricate artifacts -- many in gleaming gold and precious jewels -- are emerging from hundreds of huacas.

Peru's charms are not all about digging in the dirt. The food is wonderful. We launched our adventure on Lima's seashore at the excellent La Rosa Nautica restaurant, perched over the ocean. At a table with a view of surfers riding the waves, we were introduced to the two main themes, at least for me, of our dining delights -- ceviche and pisco sours.

Our ceviche was chunks of raw sea bass marinated in lime juice and garnished with onion slices and seaweed. Very tender and flavourful and much more like cooked fish than sashimi. Pisco sours are a deceptively mild cocktail of a regional grape brandy called pisco, lemon juice (Peruvian lemons taste more like limes), egg white and sugar syrup, then shaken or blended, and topped with a dash or two of bitters.

Also in Lima, we got a taste of the sophistication of early Peruvian cultures at Larco Herrera Museum, which houses a unique collection of erotic ceramics from the Moche era (about 200-800 AD). They're very artistic, humorous and highly explicit with grandiose depictions of phallic dimensions.

That night we flew less than an hour north to Trujillo, a coastal regional capital of about 760,000 in the Rio Moche Valley, where our exploration of the huaca trail began. It's well worth spending time seeing the streets, churches and mansions of the colonial city, founded by the conqueror Francisco Pizarro in 1534, a year before establishing Lima.

We headed about 10 kms southeast of the city to the massive Moche-era pyramids called Huacas del Sol y de la Luna (Temples of the Sun and the Moon). The largest pre-Columbian structure in the Americas, the Huaca del Sol was built from an estimated 140 million adobe bricks and was finished about 600 AD. It was damaged by the Spaniards and more modern-day looters, and about a third has been washed away by rains, the heaviest and most damaging from the weather phenomenon known as El Nino.

Welling up usually once or twice a decade, El Nino at its worst devastated crops and villages, driving temple priests to step up their human sacrifices. The smaller, more-detailed Huaca de la Luna contains colourful murals, many with the striking figure of the Decapitator, the Moche god to whom victims were sacrificed. El Nino is still a potent force in the region, causing months of catastrophic rains in 1998.

Another tremendous site in the Trujillo area is Chan Chan, at 28-square-kilometres the largest city in the Americas before the Spaniards. It dates from 1300 AD and was built by the Chimu culture (about 850-1470 AD) as their capital. Geometric designs and images of fish and seabirds have been restored on the walls of a vast plaza and other complexes. Standing in the plaza, I could imagine being transported back to a time of massed ancient rituals.

Off the beaten path about 60 klilometres north of Trujillo off the Panamerican Highway, we visited the Huaca el Brujo (Wizard or Sorcerer) with its magnificent murals. The resident archeologists took us behind the scenes in their labs to reveal in a large cardboard box the mummified remains of the tattooed Lady of Cao, who graced the June 2006 cover of National Geographic magazine.

Further north we explored Tucume, a huge site with at least 26 pyramids. Closer to the large city of Chiclayo, population 600,000, we were amazed by the jaw-dropping beauty of the intricate gold artifacts at the Royal Tombs of Sican Museum. The museum itself is a marvel of architecture, shaped like the ancient treasure-filled pyramid that archeologists explored in 1987.

Further east, the Bosque de Pomac Historic Sanctuary encompasses dozens of huacas from the Sican or Lambayeque culture (around 800-1300 AD) in its almost 6,000 hectares of dry tropical forest. The sanctuary includes 27 bird species, such as the vermillion flycatcher and Peruvian pygmy owl, and thousands of carob trees. We were extremely lucky to view an active dig in the sanctuary and be guided by Dr. Carlos Elera Arevalo, a Peruvian who earned his doctorate at the University of Calgary and is director of the Sican National Museum in Ferrenafe.

By the way, if you can't make it to Peru, you can see 120 gold and ceramic objects excavated from a Sican tomb at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, across the river from Ottawa. The exhibit, Secret Riches: Ancient Peru Unearthed, is on display until April 27.

IF YOU GO

Getting there: You can fly to Lima on Air Canada or LAN Peru, which also has connecting flights to Trujillo.

Where to stay: In Lima, the Posada Olivar; in Trujillo, the Gran Marques Trujillo; in Tucume, Los Horcones; in Chiclayo, the Gran Hotel Chiclayo; and a great new boon to travellers, the new Ramada is a few metres from baggage claim at Lima Airport.

Getting around: There are many ways to save money in Peru but a good guide for the huaca trail is essential. You can take specialized archeological tours with companies like InkaNatural Travel - www.inkanatura.com. Our tour guide, Laura Duran Perez of Trujillo, was invaluable. E-mail lauraduran@yahoo.com. I didn't hire a guide on my own for Machu Picchu and ended up feeling I missed worthwhile insights.

Information: The Peruvian government's travel website is great -- www.peru.info/perueng.asp. Lonely Planet's Peru book is a solid guide.

Machu Picchu: Wondrous Wonder of the World

On Nov. 5 on a bright spring day – this is south of the equator – I was chanting at Machu Picchu. I travelled to the Andes after a week-long press tour of the Peruvian north coast. Machu Picchu is truly stunning and majestic. The place is crawling with tourists and hard to find solitude. But I discovered a small cave on the mountainside and sat just outside in the shade. Before me were glorious green-clad mountain tops amid the clouds. I meditated for a while and then began chanting "Esa eynai el he-harim" (I lift my eyes up to the mountains), composed from Psalm 121 by my teacher, Rabbi Shefa Gold.

On a short hike from the ruins to the Inca drawbridge through jungle foliage and butterflies, I wanted to chant something that reflects the area but I know no Quechua, the native language. So I used a phrase of Spanish, the language of the Incans' conquerors, "Vaya con Dios" (Go With God), with a melody that owes a lot to "The More We Get Together". It was my intention to plant seeds for Shefa's pilgrimage there in March.

Northern Peru: Whacked out on huacas

After six days on a press tour of the north coast of Peru, my mind is reeling with the richness and complexity of the country's ancient cultures. Everyone's heard of the Incas and their most famous wonder of the world -- Machu Picchu. It's reached by turning south from Lima. But head north and there are many other civilizations that predate the Spanish conquerors with lost cities and buried treasure that will excite even the most jaded traveller. All from huacas, which look like large dirt hills but are so much more. Thanks to an explosion of archeological discoveries in the last 20 years, fantastic pyramids, temples and amazingly intricate artifacts -- many in gleaming gold and precious jewels -- are emerging from dozens of huacas.

Coming up for air after Yom Kippur

It's the day after Yom Kippur, a purposefully undemanding day after the intensity of the past few weeks. Intense because of preparations for the High Holy Days. I led some of the services at Ahavat Olam -- and new this year I was a baal tekiah, a shofar blower. What a thrill. It feels very elemental and grounded in the earth, almost shamanic.

For the third year at Or Shalom, I led "Chanting at the Gates," a chant workshop that comes at the break in the afternoon before the Minha service. The spiritual goal was to call out to God to keep open the Gates of Righteousness, which our tradition tells us close for another year at the end of Yom Kippur. The intention of the workshop was that the gates are always open for an open heart. And the opportunities for "returning" to our essential selves after missing the mark are always there.

The year ahead brings a focus on Jewish learning. I've begun a year-long course in Biblical Hebrew, and am contemplating enrolling in the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School to fill in some of the many holes in my basic Jewish knowledge. Anyone else have experience with that program?

I've begun assembling a team to organize the third-annual Vancouver InterSpiritual Chant Festival. We're looking at possible dates in February or March at the Centre for Peace.

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