maasai mara- day 1

Well- I don’t even know where to start about Maasai Mara. It was probably the most amazing weekend I’ve ever had, and we packed soo much in but it still went by way to fast! We left in two vans early Saturday morning and drove an incredibly bumpy six hours through part of the Rift Valley and to the Mara. On the way there, even though it wasn’t officially a game drive, we saw monkeys and warthogs and giraffes and antelope, just on the side of the road. We also saw tons of Maasai out in the fields with their herds of cattle and goats, and lots of little Maasai villages. (The Maasai are the nomadic tribe that live in Kenya and Tanzania- and usually dress in lots of red and beads- kind of the Totem tribe that you always see pictures of in books or whatever.)

So we decided the luxury camp we were staying at was probably the nicest place any of us have or will ever stay. Every “tent” (and you could really only call it that because of the zipper to get in and the cloth walls) were basically like honeymoon suites. Also the food was amazing! We had three course meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner that were soo good!

So on our afternoon game drive in the Maasai Mara Game Reserve we got to see impalas, hippos, elephants, hyenas and a leopard. We saw the sunset from the van on the way back, and then upon arriving back at the camp, our driver told us that we were supposed to report to main area for our sadona. We weren’t exactly sure what the entailed, but some of the Maasai led us down into this dried up river bed, behind the camp, where they had made us a camp fire, and had a little bar set up to make us “Crocodile Tears”. (The Maasai working there were fully decked out in their traditional attire and escorted us around at night, because although it’s really not unsafe or at all, you can actually hear lions in the distance.)

After dinner, we sat out by the fire again to look at the stars, which are truly indescribable. Nairobi is so smoggy and polluted that just being away from the city for the weekend was incredibly refreshing. I don’t think I’d seen stars the whole time I’d been in Kenya, and I’m not sure how or why- maybe something to do with being on the equator- but the sky seems sooo much bigger here.