Safari, Day One

ALEX: Today we began our safari part of the trip. We loaded our Land Cruisers provided by Mama Zara’s Adventures and hit the road. We made a short stop at Shoprite to pick up any needed supplies before we left Arusha. We drove for around 30-45 minutes before we reached the Masaii Museum and snake park. The Masaii are a semi-nomadic tribe who inhabit the areas of Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti. We toured their museum to see examples of traditional housing, dress, and rituals. A few people even took a camel ride. It was a close look at a culture that holds many traditions from a long time ago; such as polygamy, value of cattle as a sign of power and female circumcision. Many of these practices are so foreign and strange to us visiting, but our guide didn’t understand why we had no cattle. These are serious cultural differences which have to be observed and acknowledged when interacting with these people.

The other half of the complex was a snake and reptile park. There were many examples of indigenous (but exotic to us) snakes such as the Black Mamba, Egyptian Cobra, Forest Cobra, and giant East African Rock Python. There were also some baby crocodiles, giant turtles, and birds. I took the chance to hold one of the snakes to pet, as did half of the group.

This was about the time I started going downhill. The group went to eat lunch while I slept in our Land Cruiser. My temperature was a little high for the rest of the afternoon, but I got started on some antibiotics right away. Needless to say, all the jolting of the car the rest of the day was a bit rough on me. Everyone else was doing okay though.

Our afternoon excursion was to Lake Manyara, one of Tanzania’s many national parks. We did a game drive for a few hours and even our first day proved to be a fruitful safari. Initially entering the park, we saw a few groups of blue monkeys, followed shortly by baboons. We encountered impala, gazelle, antelope, and wildebeests. We visited the hippo pond, but non of the big guys got too close. Some of our best pictures came from three giraffes along the trail and a couple of elephants off the trail a hundred yards or so. It was awesome!!

We arrived at the Highview Hotel, one of Zara’s accommodations, right at sunset. It was an unbelievable hotel that sits only fifteen minutes from the gate of Ngorogoro Crater. We were amazed at our accommodations and the beautiful view of the mountains from our room. There was entertainment after dinner and then our group got together to work on our Global Text Project. I however went to sleep at nine and slept till morning. But the project is coming along well and we have much of the raw material there. It is all about organizing and structuring now. I believe we have the prerequisite understanding of Tanzania to begin to writing our entrepreneurial template. We are all excited to begin the “tourist” part of the trip. A number of people mentioned that this is what they thought about when pondering Africa. It is exciting to be able to see some wildlife that only exists here. I think everyone is praying for lions. We’ll see… Anyway, we will be hitting one for the best wildlife viewing areas tomorrow. We can’t wait to see what the safari will hold. Until then, good night.

EDITOR: I apologize for the delay in blogs. We were without internet during the entire safari trip! A price to pay for being close to the action... thanks for your patience.