[Alessandro] Day 3 at Mpala.

I woke up early this morning to see the sunrise, and it was totally worth it. Seeing the sun coming up over the African landscape and just on the side of Mount Kenya was utterly beautiful. After breakfast, we all went up to the northern part of the Mpala reserve. We climbed a huge black Cambrian rock and got a breathtaking view of the plains spreading to the North. Afterwards, we visited a number of glades, and got to see more of the amazing creatures that populate this land.

Right past lunchtime, Catherine (PhD student from Princeton) finally joined us! Some of us drove out again in the afternoon looking for ants stuff, while others, me included, went on talking about projects and chilled out playing some frisbee. I also went on a run! Fun fact: while passing by the local village headed to the landing strip, I got caught up watching kids playing soccer and ran into the electric fence meant to keep the elephants out the research center area. While it was not the most pleasant thing for me -- the thing keeps out ELEPHANTS -- the kids found the scene pretty amusing. Anyway, four of them joined me running on the landing strip, someone being very talkative and someone relatively shy. It was great to meet and interact with them.

At sunset, the tenants of the Jenga House (i.e. our faculties) invited us over for a few beers and sodas on their veranda. "I can easily get used to this" was the most appropriate comment I heard.

The sun rises at Mpala Research Center. The outline of Mount Kenya is visible on the right.