Wednesday, 7-22-09 Day 36

I woke up around 6 this morning, and had my coffee pretty much right away. Jan and I were very glad to know that the buffet has coffee in the early morning hours. We met a 19 year old Masai guy named Sammy, who wanted to take Jan and I back to his tribe. Ha! Not gonna happen!
It wasn’t long before the rest of the team was up, and we were on our way to tour the wild savannah of Masai Mara! Since it was our first day, we decided to “invest” in a tour guide, whose name was Joseph. We saw zebra, gazelle, and impala right away. Mike was upset because we stopped to take pictures. He’ll get over it. Mark told him to shut up, and continued taking his pictures of the zebra.
Not long after, we saw elephants! They really are beautiful when they’re in the wild! (Oh yeah, I don’t think I mentioned that Masai Mara is a wildlife reserve. You drive through dirt trails, and all the animals are wild and in their natural habitat. It’s cool, because they are in the middle of a migration right now!) It was a whole elephant family- A bull, a mama, and 2 babies! We also saw a bull charging today, to protect a mama elephant from what he thought was danger.
My favorite part of the morning thus far is that I was able to witness the fiery African sunrise over the savannah plains. It’s quite a site! We also spotted Lions, lots of wildebeest, and ended up driving right in the middle of a heard of Cape buffalo! (Also known as Water Buffalo- mean creatures!) It was thrilling to know that if I wanted to, I could reach out and pet a cape buffalo. (Rest assured, I didn’t attempt this!) We saw some wild ostrich, and a giraffe eating from a tree. It wasn’t until I saw meerkats and a warthog that I was really thinking about The Lion King movie…
We came back for breakfast at 9. We were served sweet chapatti, toast, potatoes, beans, some omelet thing, and tea. We ate our breakfast slowly, because we don’t go back out until 11. I’m looking forward to seeing more animals when we go out again.
We drove a long way when we went back out again. We saw Tanzania in the distance (and were even IN Tanzania for a few minutes.) It was worth it, though. We saw a HUGE Crocodile and lots of hippos! Hearing the hippos make noise was really entertaining! They make this deep throated sound… the only thing I can compare it to is the sound of an evil villain’s deep, maniacal laughter in a scary movie. Our tour guide taught us that the Crocs will eat baby hippos if they’re left alone, which is why the adult hippos form a circle around the baby hippos. The hippos are also playful with each other. While taking pictures, we watched the hippos all rush into the water at the same time, pushing in the baby hippos! It was so much better than anything you could find at a zoo!
On the way back from visiting the hippos, we spotted a small herd of Giraffes. That was quite a site! We also saw a herd of about 20 elephants, who were all rolling around and playing in the mud! It was awesome! We found a gift shop on the way back to the tent, and decided to check it out. I ended up buying a shirt for me, Titus, and Brad (I plan on pranking him when I get home!). It was at this gift shop that Jan and I discovered that Titus had never had Pringles before! You see, when you ask a Kenyan if he wants chips, he’s talking about fries. Titus had yet to be formerly introduced to American chips, so Jan and I shared our Pringles with him. Mike also “lost” his cigars today- not that I had anything to do with it, of course. It was just entertaining that for a few hours, his precious cigars were, uh, misplaced.
Dinner tonight was a bread with soup, chapatti, and pineapple. Chai was our staple drink of the evening. Titus is so funny- He keeps saying that we are going to “do our thing”! it’s so funny! Everyone on our team has immensely enjoyed the trip here to Masai Mara. Jan and I retired early in favor of getting in long, hot showers before bed. Tomorrow, we pack up our things and go back to Kimikungi! Since the drive is so long, we decided that on the way home we would stay the night in a hotel, and give ourselves a break from the van! I think we’re all getting a little van-ed out!
Sweet dreams, everyone!