Back from Masai Mara

Hello again from the Masai Mara. It was one crazy day of travel as you can see. I do not remember the exact number of flats. We had one flat on the way to the Mara, and I want to say either 4 or 5 on the way back. We would have to all unload from the cars, to have one of the drivers head towards the closest town to have the tire tube patched. We would get 30 minutes down the road and that same tire would bust. If you could see the roads that we were traveling on, you would understand why we kept busting the tubes of our tires. The roads were like dirt roads with mini sized boulders all over it. I think I actually have internal bleeding from the bumpy ride. All the problems kept happening the same tire, on the same van. I just so happened to be in the other van. So I thought it was great. We kept pulling over in some interesting places. It was all good to me. That was until we (the other van) ran out of gas. Now it was our turn to experience some frustration. Only this time, the other van was way ahead of us and nearly back to the guest house. So we were left to ourselves with no one to take one of us to get gas. That is when our brave driver hiked it to the nearest gas station and filled up on a little bit of petrol. The bad thing about this was, we were stranded in a very bad part of the country. Before we were in the country side with only a few Masai and passing cars to worry about. This time we were in a rough neighborhood. That is when Patrick had mark close his window. Than he went on to tell us that two tribes are still killing each other in the area. Also, it was a big area for carjackings and theft. Patrick said they will take your car, and all your clothes and only leave you in your underwear if you are lucky. Thanks Patrick! That put all of us into the right spirit. 

The Masai Mara was beautiful. We stayed at the most amazing hotel. It was funny, because it was called a hotel. It was more like these luxurious tents with your own personal bathrooms. It had a beautiful dining hall, pool, lounge, and small fire circle just to name a few amenities. The best thing about this hotel was that it was all open to the outdoors. So the dining hall had netting around it to keep the bugs, birds, and bats out. It was by far the nicest establishment we have seen in Kenya thus far. 

Our tents were so amazing. It had two nice beds that were changed in the morning and night. In the morning, the comforter was changed to a light comforter to just lounge on. In the evening, your room attendant changed your bed with these super comfortable white comforter. So this hotel was really a class act. Our back porches was by far the best part. We had a river running alongside our porches. So you could see baboons, elephant, hippos, and a few other species. The last night we were at the Mara, you could hear the monkeys going crazy at around 3 or 4 in the morning, than a loud scream, and than some silence. So we thank a leopard got a monkey. 

I know a few others are writing out some blogs this evening, so I don't want things to get repetitive. I will post up a few pictures and read everyone's blog. Than I will try to fill in some areas that might have been left off.