the masai mara

january 6, 2009
note to readers: make sure you read yesterday's blog before you read today's.

last night, marc settled into bed, which was quite warm and comfortable despite a cold night; something we loved since our africa trip has been very very warm. marc kept awaking every 2 or 3 hours from a deep deep sleep full of dreams that he was sleeping in a tent in the middle of the african wilderness surrounded by wild animals. then, he realized he really was...and went back to sleep.
finally, it was 630 am and he got himself and the rest of the family up.
we at a leisurely breakfast at 700 then boarded the jeeps at 8;00 for a long game drive down to the mara river to see hippos and crocs. [wait a moment; a bat just flew overhead. ok, it's gone. i continue]. on the way out, we saw giraffe, gazelle, zebra, crested crane, eagles, black rhino, buffalo, antelope, impala, and elephants. we returned to the site of the lion eating the giraffe. the lion was still eating the giraffe.
we continued on for a few more hours until magic brought us to a signpost. we got out of the jeeps and learned that the signpost marked the border between kenya and tanzania. we took photos of ourselves in two countries at once and then headed up the serrengetti [spelling?] for a picnic lunch under a tree in the midst of a vast rolling plain. we saw warthogs, hippos, a crocodile, monkeys, and baboons on the way. after an hour or so lounging over lunch, we headed back to camp.
when we passed a ranger station, we were told that a cheetah had been sighted back in the area we just left. magic turned the jeep around and we headed back. with help from the ranger, we found a cheetah and pulled within 20 feet of it. we watched it for about 15 minutes until it got up and started looking for prey. we headed back, once again, this time siting many elephants, and a few elephant babies, giraffes, warthogs, zebras, and more that i've already forgotten. magic is well known among the locals, partly because he is kind enough to offer locals a ride from place to place. we took one chef from a mara lodge for about an hour to get him to his family for vacation then took two masai young men who had many miles to walk home to their village.
back in camp, we returned to our tents to change for swimming. marc noticed that two of his plastic baggies full of mixed nuts had been moved from where he placed them to the table by the tent door. [because of marc's diabetes, he created many large packs of mixed nuts to keep him going between meals and, in uganda especially, to deal with the occasional missed meal]. upon closer inspection, he saw that the bags were both nearly empty and were full of jagged holes, rips, and tears. how could this be? it took but a millisecond to realize the truth....a monkey had at marc's bags of nuts. but, why were they no neatly placed on the table? the mystery deepends. marc took the disheveled bags to the hotel manager who said, I've been meaning to tell you. monkeys got into your tent and ate your food. i asked him how they could have gotten in since the tent was padlocked, as requested. he said that the monkeys can find a tiny opening in the underneath of the tent lining, tear it open, and find their way in. he told me [marc] that they had gotten into the sink basin as well. the camp crew had cleaned it all up, sealed up the tear, and we were back in business...
a few hours later, i went back to the manager to suggest that perhaps we might need to sleep in another tent. another employee of the camp who happened to be standing there said, oh, you're in tent 7. the monkeys had a real good time in your tent.' we were assured that all was fine.
when i next returned to the tent, i found some of the nuts had remained on the floor, an ant hill had developed, and it was now just plain gross. i sprayed the ants, then realized it smelled too bad to remain. i went and found two of our tent attendants who relayed even more of the monkey story. they said that 'more than 20 monkeys'were in the tent. they did not limit themselves to the sink basin. in fact, they were jumping on all our beds! he said it was a real party until they came in and chased them all away. the hotel manager had earlier said that this sort of thing was happening often and they were struggling with a way to deal with it. we told the girls the full story and shayna just kept laughing and laughing and laughing. rebecca seemed unfazed by the whole thing. marc was thinking once again, maybe we need to move tents since these monkeys may want to come back for more partying. we returned to the tent and this time really looked hard to see if any other damage was done. we noticed that one of our gifts, wrapped in newspaper, had the newspaper eaten through. when we told one of the employees at dinner about it, he laughed out loud and explained that he saw the monkey open it looking for food. finding no food, the monkey took the package outside the tent, climbed a tree, and then proceeded to drop the package from the tree to the ground. the employee picked it up and brought it back to the tent.
we had several thoughts at this point. 1, we remembered the ride at disneyland where the monkeys had turned over the jeep and were harrassing the safari folk. 2, we started singing, no more monkeys jumping in my bed, 3, we thought ruben would love this, vivien not so much 4, michael would love this, noa not so much, 5, maybe its time to move to a different tent.
finally....dinner time. we sat outside by the campfire first, chatted with magic, took pictures, look angrily at the monkeys running around [marc threatened them on numerous occasions. they seemed unconcerned]. during dinner, the hotel manager came up to us and said that he thought it would a good idea for us to change tents. in fact, he offered us 2 tents so we wouldn't have to pack all four of us into the same space.
with a millisecond's contemplation, we accepted his offer.
it is now 9 pm, marc is finishing the blog, and heading to my new tent with shayna. we'll tell you how it goes tomorrow...
laila salama from the masai mara, kenya, where the adventure definitely continues..