We're back on!!

9 days to go.

It was starting to look more and more dicey for the trip but Marylyn called on Tuesday and said the tour company had revised the itinerary to avoid Kenya. I guess their insurance carrier wouldn't cover them if the travel advisory was still in place. We weren't out of the woods yet though. There was some question of us being able to get a flight from Nairobi (way too late to change our flights to avoid Kenya all together) to the Kilimanjaro Airport. The European guests has an 8 hour head start on us and had snapped up most of the seats on the connector flights. Marylyn came through once again, organized flights, hotels and transfers plus cancellation of the Nairobi hotel etc. I won't even complain about the new 12 hour lay over in Nairobi where we aren't supposed to leave the airport. Yikes, bring an extra novel.

So now the tour is starting in Arushu, Tanzania and we won't be visiting any of the Kenya stops. I was really looking forward to the Oldavai Gorge but now I see in today's news that this is the area with the worst violence. Things seemed to be getting better over the weekend. The UN envoy had arrived and the opposing leaders were shaking hands but by Monday that was all a distant memory and the death toll was rising fast. So just as well that we are avoiding the whole thing.

I have updated the Tour Intinary (post 2 - Jan 10 '08) to show the changes, I left the original tour in blue so you can compare and contrast if you so choose.

Ok, so no more updates on Kenya. I can go back to discussing more important issues such as should I take boots AND shoes or just boots or just shoes. (yes, I realize that I should be and am forever thankful for my lot in life as a rich North American who has the luxury of such trivial problems).