June 01, 2012
I'm writing this entry from a very different, but equally beautiful view as on the mountain. High View Hotel certainly deserves its name, situated on a hill quite a ways off the main road. Feels a little silly, actually, being such a sheltered tourist. The view out my room is vast rolling, green hills. Some sections are densely forested, others neat and trimmed farmland. I could almost be in New England. Almost.
My day began at 9:00 when I met my guide/driver, Oscar. There wasn't the quick sense of kinship that I felt with Samuel. Oscar is more of a "that" guy, too cool for school. He's nice enough, but I'm not as comfortable with him. I've never been good with cool people. We chit chatted a bit on the way, but I passed out on the drive to the lunch stop. At the stop we met another Zara group. We had a nice lunch, it was good to see other people. Oscar and I spoke a bit after the break. Along the road there were a lot of Maasai (a tribe in Tanzania) boys with black dress (sort of like capes), sticks, ostrich feathers and white face paint. I don't have any photos because that's rude and weird in my opinion. I hate when strangers take pictures of me, especially on a bad day. And as you'll soon see, these boys are probably having the worst of the bad days ever. It really was quite a sight, though. Very Africa. Oscar told me their story. At this time every year the 3 month circumcision ritual takes place. Starting at age 14 the boys are woken up by a beating with a stick. Presumably to numb the body to pain. Then comes the circumcision. It is done in public, in front of the young girls (whose circumcision is done privately, the government is starting to discourage FGM but it is such a part of the culture it still happens often). If the boy cries the family is shamed and the boy will probably never find a wife in his village, because she saw him cry. After the circumcision is finished the boys are taken to the forest for 3 months. They pain their faces white with dye from a plant and may only wear black. During the 3 months the boys become men. The elders lead the camp and teach about Maasai culture, their way of life and how to be a warrior. Culture is so important to this tribe that when Mayanara became a park they chose to completely relocate rather than live in lands occupied by other groups, afraid the culture would get lost. Once the 3 months are finished the men return home in bright colors ready to take on life. Sometimes instead of age 14 there are 20 somethings who have fled from circumcision.
By the end of this lesson we reached Lake Mayanara Nat'l Park. The name Mayanara comes from the Maasai name for a plant that is used to cure malaria. A good plant to have in a town whose name means Mosquito River. At the entrance to the park Oscar put the top of the land cruiser up and, being the only passenger, gave me leave to stand on the seats to get a perfect view. Shade over my head, wind in my hair, coca cola in my hand and surrounded by jungle: Safari time!
The first animal we saw was the Oliva baboon. We have those in Ethiopia so it wasn't heart stopping exciting. This troop was more lively than the ones I know. There was some fighting against the males and it finally made sense why people say they are so mean. Those teeth! Totally big enough to eat babies. The second animal was a spring buck. They were a little too far to get a good picture, but they're adorable. They look like baby deer - only they're adults. Then came my favorite part of the day - the old elephant. He was my first big animal and I was beyond excited. He was enormous and so close to the car. I asked Oscar why he was alone, because I thought elephants stayed in herds. Oscar said that sometimes elephants get lost (how do you lose a herd of elephants?) and sometimes, if they are sick, they are abandoned. This particular elephant was too old and unable to fight for the women so he was left behind. I suddenly felt overwhelmingly sad for the elephant, I have a soft spot for the elderly. Because he was old he was left alone for the rest of his life. Then thinking of him being alone forever I felt lonely, doing these awesome things by myself without my herd. After a moment of hating every other elephant in the world I realized, humans do this, too. When grandma/grandpa get too old for us to take care of we remove them from the herd and send them to a nursing home. Oscar said this elephant may find other displaced and abandoned elephants and form a band of misfits. Maybe they'll start a bridge club or do puzzles or something. But I love this elephant. I watched him eat for a long time, he was just so big and beautiful and wrinkled. He flapped his ears while he picked up grass with his trunk and fed himself. At one point he walked up to the car and kind of waved/snorted air at me with his trunk. I like to think we shared a moment. After I said goodbye we came upon a herd of impalas (antelope family, also called McDonalds because of the Ms on their butts). There are two types of impala herds, bachelor groups (all male) and stud groups (one male, lots of females). Because strong impalas have multiple females, most males don't have any ladies, so they join bachelor herds. When a male is about 1 1/2 the father kicks him out of the herd, afraid he'll take his women (kind of like Craster from Game of Thrones!!). The young male is then meant to find a bachelor herd. Unfortunately, just coming from him mother, he smells like a female and isn't well received by the other lonely singletons. The head of the herd (who is the only one with a chance of finding lady friends) fights the young male. Eventually they see the new guy isn't a thread and let him join the boys' club.
I saw a ton of animals so I'll only write a few more stories and end with a list. As far as birds go, the 2 coolest were the ugly ground horn bill and the far away flamingos. The ground horn bill is large with black feathers and a little white on the wings. The males have red necks. They can fly, but choose not to because their food is on the ground. The flamingos were far away and few in number because the lake was drying up and far from the road again, and many are at Ngorongoro Crater laying eggs. I'll see them tomorrow. The hippo was also really cool. I've only ever seen them in the water. They don't have any sweat glands, so when it's hot they prefer to be submerged. Fun facts about hippos: they can be underwater for up to 15 minutes, they give birth underwater, babies can feed underwater and their mild is pink. This hippo was walking around on land eating grass. A few little birds were hanging out on her back. The best part was the white duck that was following her around. She'd stop, the duck would stop. She'd walk and the duck would run after her. Pretty funny to watch.
The last animal that deserves a story today is the beautiful and elegant giraffe. We saw a few of them in a foresty area crossing the road into the open plain. The first one I saw was a male and was surprisingly tall. Even for a giraffe. It walked right in front of the car and stopped like it was posing for a picture. There were also a few babies hiding in the bushes. Just the way they move is captivating. After the Old Elephant, these were my favorites.
Now I am at the hotel. Dinner is soon. I feel good about today and how much I've seen already. A big change from Kili though! The whole thing has been incredible. I'd really be missing out if I had left Africa without doing this trip. Egypt and Tanzania were excellent vacation choices. Not 5 star living or great cuisine, but experiences not to be missed. I think PC has made me a better tourist, too. I have more questions, more to base thoughts on and a bigger thirst for cultural knowledge.
Other Animals at Mayanara
black face vervet monkey
yellow beast hawk
wildebeast
zebra
crown crane
blue monkey
buffalo
warthog
hammer crop
pelican
snake
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