This is the third article in a series of articles by Ilene Cox on her trip to Kenya and Rwanda in August 2011.


It was hard to say good-bye to our Maasai friends and to our hosts, Luca and Antonella Belpietro. They have taken eco-tourism and conservation to a whole new level and I certainly hope this provides a model in the future for other wilderness camps.

Our next stop – The Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, a 62,000-acre wildlife sanctuary situated on the northern slopes of Mt. Kenya. Similar to Campi ya Kanzi in its commitment to land management, water conservation and community involvement, “Lewa” has gone a step further and has created a wildlife sanctuary for several endangered species, i.e the Black and White Rhino and the Grevy’s Zebra. Formerly a working cattle ranch, the conservancy has been in the Craig family since the early 1920’s. Three generations of the family continue to be involved in the daily operations on “Lewa” and the conservancy has established a reputation for being a pioneer in wildlife preservation and conservation.

We were met at the airstrip by our guides, Kori Basard and Thomas, and headed for Lewa Downs Safari Lodge, a permanent tented camp located in the Ngare Sergol Rhino Sanctuary within the 62,000 acre conservancy. Not far from the airstrip we encountered our first animal sighting, two young Cheetahs, with very full stomachs, enjoying an afternoon siesta. The cameras started clicking and one of the Cheetahs lifted his head with a look that said, “alright already, we’re tired after the hunt, we need out sleep!”

We continued our drive to the camp, briefly stopping to watch some elephants devour an acacia tree and a Cape Buffalo that looked like he was in a very bad mood. It was when we spotted our first rhino with a young calf that I really got excited. It was a White Rhino (according to Thomas), which was a reddish brown after wallowing in a nearby mud pool. Actually White Rhinos are not white, nor are Black Rhinos black --- they are both shades of gray. The main difference is their lip shape and their eating habits. The Black Rhino has a pointed upper lip, while its white relative has a squared lip. The difference in lip shape is related to the animals' eating habits. Black rhinos are browsers that get most of their sustenance from eating trees and bushes. They use their lips to pluck leaves and fruit from the branches. White rhinos graze on grasses, walking with their enormous heads and squared lips lowered to the ground. Black rhinos are also solitary where white rhinos graze in groups.

Lewa provides a sanctuary for these two endangered species and has built up its population to well over 100 animals. The Conservancy has been instrumental in bringing the Black Rhino back from the brink of extinction in Kenya. 
 

The following morning we were up bright and early for our morning game drive. We passed a dazzle of zebra and I took a quick double take. I was looking at a zebra with thin vertical stripes and a white under belly; definitely not the same type of zebra I saw in Botswana, South Africa, or even in Kenya the day before. It’s called the Grevy’s zebra, and is another critically endangered species protected at Lewa. We are use to seeing the Burchnell’s Zebra or Plains Zebra with distinctive black and white stripes that are thick and wavy. Their stripes come in different patterns unique to each zebra. When new folds are born they usually stay alone with their mother for three days, enough time for them to recognize their moms’ unique pattern. Within a week they are socializing with the rest of the herd.

I really couldn’t believe I had never even heard of Grevy’s zebra before and certainly never saw one until coming to the Lewa Conservancy. Since I’ve been home I’m told there are many zoos in the US that have Grevy’s zebra, including the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens in Griffith Park, the Bronx Zoo in New York and the Cincinnati Zoo in Ohio. After all these years, to see a different type of zebra was fabulous.

Today, Grevys Zebra is near extinction and survives in a few protected areas, including Lewa, which is home to 23% of the world’s population, which is estimated at 2,000 animals.

It was a fun two days at Lewa Downs and I was thrilled at seeing both the black and white rhinos. Join me next week in the Masi Mara for the Wildebeest migration and our first encounter with a large family of hippos.

This is the second article in a series of articles by Ilene Cox on her recent trip to Kenya and Rwanda in August 2011.

We were all sad to say goodbye to our animal friends at Giraffe Manor, but were also looking forward to a new adventure at Campi ya Kanzi, a permanent tented camp in southern Kenya boarding Tsavo, Amboseli and Chyula National Parks with a magnificent view of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Campi ya Kanzi is not your typical safari camp. The camp was founded in 1998 by Luca and Antonella Belpietro in a joint venture with 7000 Maasai. The lodge and the land (280,000 acres) are part of a trust ---- The Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust ---- and serves to protect the wilderness, the wildlife and the cultural heritage of the Maasai of the Greater Mt. Kilimanjaro ecosystem.

I’ve been to ecologically friendly camps in Botswana and South Africa, but Campi ya Kanzi takes conservationism to a whole new level: photovoltaic panels for electricity; solar boilers for hot water; food is cooked in “Agha” stoves where a charcoal made from coffee husks is used; and rainwater and well water stored in specialty designed PVC bladders.

Hand in hand with conservation is preservation. According to Luca, preservation of the wilderness and wildlife is a key to the future and a necessity for future generations of Maasai. Most tourists come to Africa to see the abundant wildlife and tourism is what brings in the money and helps the economy grow. Built into the cost of staying at Campi ya Kazai is a $100 per person per night charge that goes directly to the Maasai Trust. That money, along with grants and private donations, helps build schools and clinics and pays for teachers and medical personnel.

A basic mission of the trust is education. Not only educating the young, but also the elders in the community about the significance of preserving their land and the wildlife that roam freely. The Maasai are herders and their economy is based on co, but also ws; the more cows you own, the richer you are. In the past if a hyena or lion killed their livestock, the Massai “warriors” would track and kill the animal. Now, if a cow or a goat is killed they report it to the Trust and the Trust issues a credit, and the Maasai family is able to purchase another animal. It’s a win-win situation. The wild animal is not harmed and the family gets another cow.

Campi ya Kanzi is a community eco-lodge. 95% of their employees come from the surrounding Maasai villages. A guiding school has also been established to provide better education as well as meaningful employment opportunities for the Maasai community.

After a short flight from Nairobi, we arrived at Campi Ya Kanzi in the early afternoon and were welcomed by our hosts, Luca and Antonella Belpietro, and a group of young Maasai women offering fragrant hand towels and a cool drink. We gathered in the main lodge for a short briefing and then escorted to our rooms. The tents are delightful and have all the comforts of home --- a shower, a sink and a flush toilet. The amenities were all there including bio-degradable body soap, shampoo and conditioner. As part of their water conservation program they filter the run-off which then goes into the watering hole for the animals.

We again gathered at the lodge for a delicious lunch and a more elaborate briefing on the Maasai culture and the establishment of The Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust. We were also introduced to our Maasai guides, Sunti and Pashina, and discussed our activities for the next three days.

As I said before, Campi ya Kansi is not your typical safari camp. After our first game drive the differences were readily apparent. We did not see another vehicle the entire three hours nor were we forced to stay “on the road” (the term road is used very loosely); off-roading is permitted in private reserves.

On previous safaris most of my time was spent in vehicles; an early morning game drive and a late afternoon game drive. At Campi ya Kansi we took morning walks and afternoon hikes into the nearby hills enjoying magnificent sunsets. We also visited the local Maasai village, not as tourists, but as family since we were staying at Campi ya Kanzi. We were welcomed into their homes, met the village elders, toured the local school and met the medicalpersonnel responsible for the health care of 7000 Maasai living in the area.

I will admit that we did not see an abundance of animals since they are not comfortable with the noise of the safari vehicles and tend to be more skittish. In most national parks it is not unusual for animals to be surrounded by Land Rovers as the myriad of armature photographers’ click away. We thoroughly enjoyed watching the zebras, giraffes and elephants come to the watering hole in the early morning hours and at sunset.

The food at the camp was wonderful. All the vegetables are organically grown in Antonella’s garden, and the bread baked fresh daily. During our stay we had dinner in a cave and a surprise brunch in the bush. I have a hard time fixing bacon and eggs over a stove. Our guides, plus several Maasai from the camp, fixed a hot breakfast over an open fire with fresh fruit and hot coffee.

Luca, Antonella, and the entire Massai staff made us feel welcome and were proud to share their dreams and accomplishments. Campi ya Kansi is a pioneer community ecotourism lodge, built with, and owned and run by a Massai community for the benefit of the local people.

By Ilene Cox

Africa is and always has been one of my favorite travel destinations.  I love animals and I love to see them in their natural surroundings.  With this said, I have to share with you my amazing trip to Africa this past August.  I have been on safari several times in the past eight years with my more recent trips to Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa.  I had not been to East Africa for over 15 years and decided it was time for a trip to Kenya to see the Wildebeest migration and to Rwanda for a Gorilla trek. I started planning this trip in February 2010; July and August is peak season in Kenya, and the permits for Gorilla trekking are often sold out a year in advance.

In the past my safaris have all been animal related; seeing the “Big Five”, visiting large animal herds of elephants and zebra, finding packs of wild dogs and learning about the amazing variety of birds that are indigenous to the Africa continent.  This trip I wanted more --- I wanted to learn about the Maasai culture, so prominent in both Kenya and Tanzania.  I wanted to see camps that were ecologically friendly and camps that were concerned about wildlife conservation.  Of course, I also wanted to see “The Great Migration” where over a million Wildebeest and Zebra cross the Serengeti (Tanzania) into the Great Rift Valley to the fertile plains of the Maasai Mara (Kenya).

We started our trip in Nairobi, Kenya.  If you asked me to describe Nairobi in 25 words or less, I would say “traffic jams” (makes Cairo and Los Angeles look easy) and a city in desperate need of city planning.”  Even looking at a map doesn’t help!!!

When I was in Kenya 15 years ago I visited The Giraffe Center, an educational facility built to teach Kenyan school children about wildlife conservation and give tourists an opportunity to come into close contact with a giraffe and to actually be able to feed a wild animal.  The Center is located on the grounds of a family estate called Giraffe Manor, a large manor house turned into a boutique hotel in the 1930s with giraffes roaming freely and even sticking there heads in the front door or your bedroom window.  I had never seen anything like it and vowed that the next time I visited Kenya, I would stay at Giraffe Manor ---- and we did.

Amazing.  Giraffe Manor is the home of several Rothschild giraffes, a large family of wart hogs, and a small family of dikdik (very small antelopes).  The giraffes all have names and definite personalities and really do stick their heads in the windows when you are having breakfast or are right there when you open the front door.  The original manor house has six ensuite bedrooms and the Karen Blixen family unit that can sleep a family of five.  Recently, another small manor-style house was added to the property which has four ensuite double rooms and a large living room.  Reservations need to be made several months in advance (for a group of five or more rooms I would suggest making reservations 18 months to two years in advance).  The cost --- expensive; but it does include three wonderful meals daily including wine and mixed drinks, sundowners and appetizers on the Terrace and complementary laundry service.  Well worth the cost.

We spent two wonderful days at Giraffe Manor.  During our stay we visited an elephant orphanage which is part of The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.  Apparently, the Elephant culture is quite complicated and calves that are orphaned under the age of three have a low survival rate and were rarely able to be reintroduced into the wild.  Through the tireless efforts of Dame Daphne Sheldrick, the widow of David Sheldrick, they found a suitable milk formula for the very young calves and combined with a lot of TLC from their “keepers”, over 85 newborn and very young elephant orphans have been successfully reintroduced to the wild.  We visited the Nairobi nursery and it was fun watching several young elephants splashing in the mud pool and rolling in the dirt.

Another excursion was to the Kasuri Bead factory where ceramic beads, jewelry and pottery are handmade by women from the surrounding villages.  The beads are unique, all handmade and hand painted and strung together to make beautiful necklaces, bracelets and earrings.  I particularly liked the fact that the factory provides employment for so many women, mostly single mothers.  After the tour we all had fun shopping.  We definitely helped the local economy!!!

While in Nairobi we also visited the Karen Blixen Museum.  Karen Blixen was a Danish writer (also known by her pseudonym, Isak Dinesen) who lived in Africa for many years and became internationally known for her memoir, Out of Africa.   The movie version starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep, definitely Romanized  Karen Blixen;s years living in Kenya along with the relationship between Karen Blixen and Denys Finch-Haton.  The museum features wonderful photographs from Karen Blixen’s early days and has several pieces of furniture from her original homestead as well as props from the movie. 

We all hated to see our time in Nairobi come to a close.  Giraffe Manor is fabulous and we all thoroughly enjoyed feeding the giraffes and relaxing on the beautiful terraces surrounding the manor house.  We were challenged getting to the airport because of the dreadful traffic but finally made it to Wilson Airport, the charter airfield, for our flight to our camp on the outskirts of Tsavo National Park in southern Kenya.

Join me next week at Campi ya Kanzi for our introduction to the Maasai culture and some really great Italian food.

Holland America: Take Two: Travel of America Sales Support Manager, Margaret Sta. Ana, comments on her recent sailing on m/s Nieuw Amsterdam

I was so honored when Travel of America President Richard Molander asked me to represent our agency on a recent 7-day western Caribbean “reward” cruise aboard Holland America Line’s ms Nieuw Amsterdam. We were being honored with the “Top 25” award from Ensemble Travel^® Group, one of the oldest and most well-known travel agency organizations in North America.

I was excited about the upcoming trip, but also a tad nervous – OK, maybe even a bit skeptical – about another Holland America cruise. Why? Four years ago, I had the pleasure of escorting a group on a 14-day Canada-New England sailing aboard Holland’s ms Maasdam. It was such an incredible trip, I just couldn’t imagine another cruise coming close to matching that experience.

Well, friends, I’m pleased to tell you that Holland America has hit another homerun (Yes, I’m a huge LA Dodgers fan!) with its newest ship, Nieuw Amsterdam. The sleek and elegant vessel carries 2,106 passengers, but never did any of the venues appear crowded – and I’m talking about the important things like restaurants and elevators. And keep in mind that our sailing was sold out, so we experienced it when everything was tested to the max.

The ship and crew passed with flying colors. Nieuw Amsterdam’s staff continues Holland America’s tradition of impeccable customer service, with the highest regard to detail and genuine warmth and hospitality. (How do they remember everyone’s name?) The staterooms were modern and spacious, with a surprising amount of closet and storage space throughout, including a huge, hidden drawer under the bed. I must admit we so enjoyed the balcony, especially in the early morning and late evening. So peaceful and serene. We’ll never cruise without one.

And the food, oh my. From the huge and tasty selection at the Lido restaurant to the upscale alternative dining at the Tamarind, there was always a divine dish to suit everyone’s palette regardless of where you chose to indulge. We even opted for complimentary room service for breakfast one day. That was special – and much appreciated – after a late night in the lively Explorer’s Lounge.

The ports of call included Half Moon Cay, Grand Turk, Grand Cayman, and Costa Maya – all of which were tropical, festive, and rated a 10 on the beach scale. Each stop offered dozens of interesting shore activities. In fact, we’re still talking about our snorkeling and stingray lagoon excursions. And, although this Caribbean itinerary tended to attract a younger crowd, we still saw a wide range of ages, interests, and abilities on board. We even overheard some teenagers talking about their private areas, The Loft and The Oasis. And having raised two kids, I know how hard it is to please a 16-year-old.

Well, I guess you can tell that I had a great time on the cruise. But there’s so much more for me to tell you about. If you would like to speak to me personally, send me your contact information, and I will call you back to answer any questions you may have.

Margaret Sta. Ana

Travel of America

Manager, Sales Support

        Towards the end of July, my wife and I got away on a 10-day cruise to the Greek Isles, sailing from Athens to Istanbul aboard the Azamara Quest.  It was our first real vacation together and alone in the last nine years. We have two beautiful daughters who are now six and eight years old, and this time we traveled sans  kids.

        Having been in this industry for over thirty years and having been to literally hundreds of inaugurals of brand new ships, it is easy to become jaded. The ships have become bigger and bigger, with unbelievable venues on board for both dining and entertainment.  But when was the last time you cruised and the crew members remembered and called you by name?  Well, they did exactly this on the Quest  and that included both the Captain and the Hotel Director, who were not only visible but approachable every single day of the cruise.  When we disembarked in Istanbul, they both stood at the end of the gangway and shook every single passenger’s hand and wished each a pleasant journey home.

        On the last day, the Captain had a little farewell party, and he introduced 37 crew members representing the 37 different nationalities of the crew who served us.  When he was done, all of the guests stood up and applauded for ten minutes. Even a few tears were shed, as we had all become family.

        The ports were extraordinary and although it was very HOT, as a heat wave was covering Eastern Europe at the time, we explored and shopped non-stop. We both can’t wait to go back to Istanbul to spend some more time.

        When you sail with Azamara Club Cruises, all your gratuities are included for housekeeping and dining staff. They provide you with complimentary bottled water, sodas, and specialty coffees.  Every day at lunch and dinner they serve red or white wine, complimentary—a nice touch indeed.

        Fellow travelers, this was one of the very best cruise experiences I have ever had, and I would highly recommend it. The ambience and service you will enjoy onboard an Azamara Club cruise will truly make it one of your best cruise experiences. If you would like to speak to me personally, send me your contact information, and I will call you back to answer any questions you may have.

                                                                        --Richard Molander

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