Safari!

Wow! What a full day!!!! The Mara did not disappoint!!! Before we even entered the gate, we saw zebras and topi. But I'm getting ahead of myself.....

It took us a couple of hours to get to the gate of the Mara. On the way there, we stopped at a Masai manyatta (village). I have truly never experienced anything like it. The view that these villagers have of the Mara is unbelievable (see photo below). The Masai wear a wrap calleda shuka for their tribe that is bright orangey-red and purple - it complements their skin so perfectly. Their traditional dress is very elaborate with bead necklaces, earrings, and headdresses. Peter was our 'tour guide'. He showed us around the village and taught us of life there. The Masai believe they own all the cows in the world and each individual Masai village care for hundreds of cattle. To protect their flock from the predators, they build a fence around their homes and bring their animals inside the walls each night. This equal poop everywhere in the village. And where there is poop, their are FLIES. I have honestly never seen so many flies in one place!!! It was really gross. You swatted in vain. There was no way to keep them off of you. It was pretty uncomfortable.

The Masai live off the cows blood and milk. As their guests, they wanted to share cow blood with us - here's how it goes: they round up a cow, put a rope as a tourniquet around the cows neck to distend the jugular, then they take an arrow and puncture the vein.... They fill a charcoal lined (to kill the germs-ha) gourd with the blood then pass it around for you to drink. Sound appealing? Did I mention the flies really like the blood too? Although I did not partake (I'm not crazy!) some of my teammates did.... I took a video of the ceremony and will post it if I can.

We are staying at the Mara Serena Lodge. The pic below is taken from my bedroom balcony.... Breathtaking! The hospitality here is great and the food is wonderful! I highly recommend it!

On our game drive this afternoon we found a pack of lions resting by a ginormous dead hippo. The lions were spectacular! We were REALLY fortunate to see THE Big Daddy Lion King as well - isn't he beautiful?! I couldve watched them all day. Watch the video - super cool!

I kept saying that each animal was my favorite as we cam upon them.... It's really hard to choose a favorite when they are all so beautiful and unique. So fortunate to see them in their natural habitat. It was a great day and I'm off to dream of riding an elephant. Nite!