14 falls and Tala

I spent this past weekend in Tala, visiting a fellow VSO, Mark. We went on a little trip from Tala to fourteen falls which was spectacular. We took a mutatu from Tala, which unlike the Nairobi mutatus, was a tiny pickup truck with benches down the sides of the bed and a roof. Maximum, this thing should hold 12 people, and that is really pushing it. They crammed over 18 souls inside the thing with another hanging out the back. Offically, the road from Tala to Thika has been paved, but I did not see any ashphault. Since it “has been paved” they will not scrape it to make it smoother, and of course they will not re-pave it, because the money has already been spent to pave it. Needless to say, this is the worst road in the world. When squished in the back of an overcrouded pickup with too many smelly Kenyans for over an hour, the ride turned out to be an un-pleasurable experience. Just as the name implies, fourteen falls is fourteen waterfalls and is a very nice site to see. As soon as we arrived we were being harrassed by a local who wanted to take us on a tour of the falls we were already looking at. It felt quite like Nairobi. Initially we were skeptical, probalby from the constant harrassment we recieve all day, every day. Finally we agreed to let the guy show us around for 100 bob (about $1.50). I was absolutly amazed, I ended up paying him 500 because he showed us such a good time. We waded across the river hopping from stone to stone and I fell in and got wet and almost broke my camera. Finally on the other side of the river, we walked up to the top of the falls. For our entertainment, our guide did a backwards dive off the top of the falls into the river below. I could not pass up the opportunity like this, it seemed like a scene from a movie. I stripped down to my knickers and jumped off the falls at about a 30 foot drop into the river. It was amazing (see the picture, but mind the tightie wighties). Then I climbed back up the rock through the waterfall, it was completely nuts. This place was my favorite spot in Kenya so far, I had such an excellent time. One more for my mom; the mutatu ride back to Nairobi had about 20 chickens in the van under the seats. I thought they were dead, but then they started clucking and biting peoples ankeles. Just another day in Kenya. Oh, and orange won the election so we avoided violence for now.