Masaai Mara Safari

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Sopa! (Masaai for Hello)

Last weekend I went to Nairobi for five days and spent three of those on a safari to the Masaai Mara. When I heard about the opportunity, I had to take it; I mean really, how often in your life are you going to get to go on a safari inAfrica.

Honestly I was not excited about going to Nairobi. I had heard nothing positive from others who had been already and with a nickname like “Nairobbery” you would definitely be more wary of visiting. I was pleasantly surprised with what I found when I visited Nairobi. It was a very clean, colorful and western city. Although I did not spend much time in the city, all the Kenyan’s I met while on my trip were truly fantastic and really changed my opinion about the city, I loved seeing it. I think Nairobi, at least the part I visited, is one of the cleanest cities I have ever been too.

Our safari left on a Thursday morning and we drove about 5 hours to get to our campsite where we would spend two nights. That first day, we went on a walking safari with a Masaai guy, Saitoti. He tried to convince me and the other girl Abbie to marry Masaai men and move to Kenya, um yeah…no thanks. Our amazing driver and guide Sami told us that the Masaai men can have many wives (and because of that they do most of their work at night…ha ha). The Masaai are very interesting and are very distinct in their signature red, a color they say scares away the lions. There are five decorations that the men can have, and each one sounds quite painful. They can have burns on their thighs, circumcision, their bottom front teeth knocked out, a whole in the top of their ear or a whole in their ear to make their earlobes droop down. If I remember what Saitoti said correctly, they must have at least four of the five decorations.

Friday was our most amazing day; we spent the entire day at the Masaai Mara Game Preserve on a game drive. In one day we saw 25 different animals. We were even lucky enough to see a leopard, a hard animal to find. Sami our guide told us so much about the animals and really encouraged us to ask more questions and learn more about all the animals we were seeing. I think the pictures will do a better job showing what we saw than me explaining it. That evening we invited the cook, Hasan, to join us for dinner. He not only made wonderful food but was great company. Both he and Sami are really well informed and we had a great time talking late into the night. I think this was probably one of my best trips I have ever taken and a large part of that is due to our wonderful guides Sami and Hasan. We booked this trip through our hostel Milimani backpackers, the hostel where we stayed in Nairobi. If you want their information, let me know, I highly recommend going with them.

On Saturday morning we went on an early game drive and brought Hasan with us. This morning we were incredibly lucky, we saw a black rhino! According to Sami they are very hard to see; they are the grumpy ones of the rhino world and often stay as far away from people as they can. Hasan had never seen a rhino before either and was so excited that we all got to see one together. After a few hours at the park we went back to the camp for breakfast and to pack up to go back to Nairobi. Our drive back was beautiful and Sami really went out of his way to show us some of Nairobi. I was so impressed with the city and his short tour of the city really cemented my opinion that Nairobi is a beautiful city.

I don’t know if I’ll ever have the chance to visit again, but I am so happy I got the chance to see some of Kenya, a beautiful, colorful and wonderful place.

Enjoy the pictures!

Alyssa

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Photos

Photo 18
Made in China- Ni Poa (Swahili for it's cool)

Photo 20
With Abbie, Hasan and Sami