Elena in Kenya: Safari!

It was finally the day I have been waiting for since I saw the Lion King as a kid- an African safari! We woke up at 6:00am to catch the first mutatu (bus/van type thing) so we could meet the group at 7:30 to leave for safari! But of course, this is Africa, so the adventure always begins with the public transportation. First let me explain what transportation is like here. To get around we have to ride in mutatus which are like a van that they pile tons of people into and drive them really fast around town. Usually these have strobe lights and blasting music and very interesting people on them. Also, the door always stays open. There is someone who drives and then someone who hangs out of the door yelling at people trying to get them to come on. When he wants the driver to stop he just bangs on the side of the car and we come to a screeching stop. It’s very loud, bumpy, and chaotic. You don’t even pay when you get on or off, a guy comes and gets money from you mid-ride and decides what he's going to charge you so we really never know if we are getting ripped off or not. I’ve had funny, scary, and weird experiences on mutatus but one thing is for sure- there is no way you can understand the craziness of public transportation in Kenya until you witness it yourself. So we walked in the dark before the sun came up to the bus stop and like 20 drivers came running at us trying to get us on. We told them we needed to go to junction (the place where volunteers meet) and this lady assures us her mutatu will stop there. So we get on and we are riding along and then we blow right by junction. We are like omg they missed our stop! So we stand up and try to make our way to the front which is like surfing in the aisle of the bus because its so bumpy and fast so by the time we shove past everyone to the front and yell at them for not stopping the guy goes “we don't stop at junction just get off here” and opens the door and shoves us off. We were like wait what? Where are we?? And they just sped away. We looked at each other like GREAT. So we start walking in the direction we think junction is in and end up walking with all of our stuff for 45 minutes and finally get there. But the funny thing is- we weren't even surprised. As mzungus (white people) living in Africa we are pretty much always expecting something to go wrong! Once you can accept this, the easier life here becomes.

Finally we were off to safari! We arrived after a very long and bumpy (as usual) ride to the amazing campsite we were staying at. It was right inside the Massai Mara Reserve, the best place to go on safari in the world. These weren't regular tents though, they were luxury tents! No freezing cold bucket showers for us! Outside our tent was an amazing view of hills and savannah. At night we couldn't believe our eyes at how many stars you could see. It was incredibly beautiful. The next day we were up bright and early for a full day game drive. We saw too many cool things to name so I’ll just post a few of the hundred pics I took:

Herd of giraffes in the distance

Cheetah

My favorite animal- the amazing elephants!

Simba and Nala watching the sunrise

Lions hanging out next to a dead zebra

We were lucky enough to witness the Great Migration, thousands of wildebeest stampeding right in front of us!

What I thought was amazing was when one lion got up from his nap and started walking across the feild, all the animals in the surrounding area stood completely still and silent watching him. It was like time stood still until he layed down again. Wild lions truly act like they are royalty! We had an awesome tour guide who would do whatever it took to see an animal. He got word that there was an extremely rare black rhino nearby so we went offroading across a field speeding straight at it so fast and bumpy we were flying up and down and a back piece of his car fell off. We saw that some lions were sleeping under a tree and our driver drove past all of the other cars straight towards the lions so close we were freaking out yelling at him to back up! We were so close to one lion eating that you could hear the bones of the animal crunching in his mouth. We almost tipped at several points and held on for our lives at others but that’s what made it so fun! Going on an African safari has always been a dream of mine and it did not disappoint! We also got to spend the evening with a Massai Tribe nearby. We got to see their dances and the inside of their homes and ask them questions. These people live with no technology or anything, killing all their own food and building fires and houses by hand. It was really cool to see their way of life for a night.

After spending a day and a half on the Massai Mara we spent some time at Lake Nakuru which is a beautiful lake where we saw more rhinos and LOTS of monkeys