What a Safari!
Mood:  incredulous
Photos up on my new Tanzania WebSite

"Buenas Dias.
Traveling with 7 Spanish speaking folks, I've practiced so much Espanol these last five days that i am totally confused now with languages. Lake Manyara, Serengeti and Ngorongoro were like a dream come true. It was just like being in a National Geographic special on TV. We watched cheetahs stalking gazelle up-close and personal. Watched as a lioness left her clan of cubs and other girls lounging under a tree next to our vehicle and amble across the road and then try to catch an impala! We also watched a bunch of huge crocodiles rolling a dead baby hippo and ripping it's legs off and gulping it down. wow. I have inhaled more dust than i care to think about. I don't think I've ever been so dirty and grimy but oh so happy. We went shopping today in Moshi and i have more batik and shirts and wooden art than i care to think about. I am not sure how i am going to manage to get all this on the plane. I will go back to DAR on Monday and see if i can negotiate with the airlines to allow me an extra 20 kg for my luggage. Otherwise i am in real trouble! haha.

So that's it for now. Love you all and can't wait to show you all the over 600 photos that i've got on my camera chip.

Peace and love,

mama maria

There were three maria's on Safari and guess who was the oldest?"

Tuesday, August 17th
Lake Manyara to the Serengeti

What a luxury to get a whole 8 hours sleep last night. That and Amalie's magic pill that has put an end to my cursed diarrhea makes me feel on top of the world. There was lots of road construction today. We got a late start, 9:30am) and it's a long, long ride. We went out of our way to get to an overlook of the Ngorongoro Crater but it was a waste of time because we were totally in the clouds and couldn't see a thing. That's a shame. We stopped at a Maasai Village where the drivers tried to convince us to spend $50 a vehicle to tour it. The group was split on spending that much extra money and decided to pass on the offer. We made a surprise lunch stop at the Olduvai Gorge. There was a small museum that filled us in on the whole Leakey story, and the fascinating struggle to preserve this site. Mother Nature is busting up those precious footprints found there, and i was amazed at the projects that have been undertaken to preserve them for posterity.

We reach the Serengeti around 4pm. After being told that we wouldn't see much wildlife, our first animal sighting is within minutes - a cheetah - up close!

"Serengeti National Park is undoubtedly the best-known wildlife sanctuary in the world, for its natural beauty and scientific value. With more than two million wildebeest, half a million Thomson's gazelle, and a quarter of a million zebra, it has the greatest concentration of plains game in Africa...The name 'Serengeti' comes from the Maasai language and appropriately means 'endless plain.'"

Our evening drive treats us to sightings of cheetah, gazelle, impala, wildebeest, warthog, crocodile, hippo, giraffe, zebra and the most surprising - a serval cat. This critter is nocturnal and very shy and we are very privileged to see it on the side of the road. We also see ostrich, the largest flightless bird, and so prehistoric looking. Our driver is super patient with us as we scream at him endlessly to stop and let us take one more photo before dinner. We end up putting up tents in the dark because of too many "Kodak moments." We are warned to use our headlamps and to pee next to the tent tonight so that the roving guards don't mistake us for a lion and shoot us. yikes.

Trivia: Hyenas (male and female) are difficult to tell apart. Females have fake male genitals. Females are the largest.