Weekend Trips

With such an intense experience during the week it is almost essential to leave on the weekends for a break. During our weekend trips we have headed to Lake Baringo and to the Kakamega rainforest. Lake Baringo is a fresh water lake three hours away from Eldoret. We spent the evening at a resort on an island in the center of the lake. It was a beautiful spot to relax and process some of the difficult sights from the medical wards. One of the highlights of the trip was taking a boat ride to see the hippos that live around the edge of the lake. Hippos can live in groups of up to 40 called a bloat. Their life span is 40-50 years and average 11 ft long 5ft tall and weigh up to 7000 pounds. They can reach speeds of 18 mph while on land but prefer to spend the heat of the day submerged in water.

Kakamega rainforest was only a couple of hours from Eldoret and was also a welcome place to relax. We stayed at the Rondo resort in the heart of the rainforest. We were surrounded by big old growth trees (Kenya’s last remnant of the Guineo-Congolian rainforest) that were teeming with monkeys and birds. The cottage we stayed in had a large veranda where you could sit and read while still watching the monkeys in the trees. It was a great place to get away from the noise and crowds of the city.