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Today we headed to Masai Mara, one of the most famous national parks in Africa. The day was so awesome, I don't know where to begin!

We started the morning off early, with our guide/driver Michael picking us up and taking us to meet Serah at the Eastern & Southern Safari office in Nairobi. Serah was great. She pointed out that the two of us had been communicating about this trip back and forth through email since May of 2003! Such a long time planning...

After taking care of business, we started the 6 hour drive (actually Michael completed it in about 4, thanks to his superior driving skills!) to the Mara. The first half of the drive was on a two lane paved road. We passed a market that was extremely crowded, and several small villages. At one point, we stopped at a view point to see our first view of the Great Rift Valley. The view was beautiful. At the stop, there was a curio shop, where I tried to bargain for the first time. It was pretty difficult! Serah had told us to offer half of what they offer originally, and bargain from there. I picked out a few things, went to pay, and the price was outrageous, so I offered half. He came down a bit, so I counter-offered again. This went back and forth a couple of times until I got a price I was happy with. I went back to the van to get some money and double checked with math wiz Mike about the price. As it turns out, it was still WAY too expensive. So, when I went back, I told them that I could only get 2 of the 6 or 7 items I picked out, because I didn't have much money. He wouldn't give me a good price on those items, so I said, "No thank you," and went back to the van. The guy came out about two minutes later with a fabulous offer, so I got out of the van and went back. Then he threw in a couple more items for a slight price increase, and I ended up doing really well after that exhaustive process! I will be bringing home some gifts... :)

Back on the road again. About half way through the drive, the two lane paved road turned into a dirt road, and let me just say that Michael has some mad driving skills! It literally felt like we were on the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland! As the drive continued, the surroundings changed to be more of what you expect when you think of Africa (Nairobi was really just like any other big city)....the dress became more traditional, and the larger city buildings were no longer to be seen, substituted for smaller villages, shacks, and places where people had set up small businesses and stands. There were Maasai tribal people everywhere, with the men and boys herding cattle (the younger boys get their own herds of baby cows and sheep to take care of), and the women in the villages. The Maasai wear red (to scare animals), and many of them stretch their earlobes out A LOT and wear colorful beads strung through them and around their necks. Their houses are called Manyatta and are built by the WOMEN. They are made of sticks and dried cow dung, and the roofs are flat. Surrounding the groupings of houses were circular fences constructed out of thorny acacia branches. One of the towns we passed through was Narok, and was really bustling with activity, with many people out on the street. Throughout the drive, everytime we would pass the Maasai along the road, they would wave and smile at us, and we would wave and smile back. It was really cute to see the small kids waving.

As we drove, there were several road blocks along the way...zebras (we snapped a few pictures of them), and a couple different herds of Maasai cattle!

Finally we made it to the Mara Sopa Lodge, which is very nice. The rooms are thatched roof huts, and there is a festive restaurant, bar, and pool. There is also a "Manyatta Village" that we walked down to take a look at. One of the Maasai ladies showed me the inside...there was a spot for the mother and babies to sleep, a spot for the father to sleep, a spot for guests, and a little pen for baby cows. All this in a 6-8 foot square house. We had lunch at the restaurant, and the food was very good. Everything has sort of an Indian flavor to it...lots of spices and curries.

At 4pm, we left for our afternoon game drive. We immediately began seeing animals - our guide was very good at spotting the tiny dots off in the distance! The funniest experience today was joining the crowd of other safari vehicles to peer at a lone lioness. She didn't seem to mind being stared at much, but was rather focusing on the gazelles in the distance. She moved toward them a bit, and laid down RIGHT NEXT TO one of the safari vehicles....probably 3 inches from its back bumper. We were about 10 feet from her, with a very clear view. At one point it looked like she was going to stalk the gazelle (I have great pictures of this), but they started moving away, and she seemed to lose interest a bit. Finally we left her alone and shortly after, we saw two more lionesses! Another cool moment, was seeing an old lone elephant bull. He just stared at us, and we stared back. Oooh, also we saw a couple of ostriches, and two of them peed :) It was really rather gross...gushing yellow-white liquid. If we ever see it again, we'll take a picture!

Finally we had dinner back at the lodge. There was a little show going on for people with birthdays. Some Maasai men game out in full red garb, dancing and singing, with birthday cake. No "Happy Birthday" here - the dancing was more like something that resembled a giraffe, with galloping and neck movement....every once in awhile they would jump up and down in time with each other. The singing was a low humming that actually sounded like it was played by an instrument, not sung! Mike was able to get some short videos of it on our Elph camera, hopefully we can put those up at some point.

Let me just say that my new camera ROCKS! I got some great pictures today! I'll post some as soon as I can - there are some fabulous lion, elephant, and ostrich pics. Also the binoculars are great (thanks for the advice, Dad!) - we both got use of them today. We're both very healthy so far, and haven't had to use any of our Imodium yet, yay!....Mike swears it's all the beer we're drinking!

Animals seen today:
Zebra
Grant Gazelle
Thomson Gazelle
Dik Dik
Impala
Elephant
Hartbeest
Topi
Ostrich
Warthog
Buffalo
Giraffe
Lions (3 females!)
Vulture

African Beer tally:
Pilsner Lager
Tusker