July 9 - Moshi, Tanzania to Nairobi, Kenya

So we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel, and then finished packing up our bags.  Andy, Jon and I are all walking very funny because our muscles hurt so badly.  The bus to Nairobi was a charter bus arranged by Dragoman - our main tour operators - and it picked us up at 10:30 directly at the hotel.  We said good-bye to everyone we knew at the hotel, and we were off.

Before we left Moshi, the bus stopped at a few other hotels to pick up other people.  Eric, the guy from Chicago we met at Kibo Hut, got on.  We were psyched to hear about his own experience getting to the summit.  He also made it down the mountain in one day and was walking just as funny as we were.  The bus ride was a 7 hour ride, and was relatively uneventful.  We chatted, laughed, read, and listened to music.  Towards the end of the trip, we pulled out the cards and Eric taught us Spades.  Then we taught him Cho Dai Day, which he liked a lot.

Nairobbery

We arrived in Nairobi at about 6:00 and Andy, Jon and I checked into the 680 Hotel.  This is the hotel we should have stayed at in Nairobi if we had returned with the Kiboko group.  But since we didn't use up our night before Kili, we decided to use it now.  They didn't seem to have a problem at the desk, and we were glad because the hotel is much too expensive for our budget traveler tastes - $70/night!

Andy and Jon went to get money from an ATM and I met them at a pub at the Hilton around the corner.  Then we went to an Italian Ristorante that Andy ate at the week before.  We had a lovely dinner and actually had some red wine too - such a treat!  Andy is great company to have around.  He is full of hysterical stories and is very easy to talk to.  I think we'll miss him when he leaves for his safari tomorrow AM.

We were a bit leery of walking around Nairobi at night.  It's not a safe city and plenty of sketchy people hanging out on street corners.  Not to mention the working girls!  So we walked briskly from the restaurant to an Internet Cafe nearby our hotel.  Then we went to a bar next-door for a few beers.  By now, it was 10:00 and was quite cold so the outdoor bar we'd chosen wasn't suitable anymore.  So we crossed the street and went to the hotel to sleep.