Last weekend, we had a visitor from the US! Maretta (the volunteer coordinator for Maryknoll) came to visit, which we used as a great excuse to travel!! It's been about two months since we've been here, so it was definitely time to do some exploring, and we couldn't let Maretta come half way around the world and not go to the SERENGETI!!!!!

So Sunday, we drove an hour and a half to one of the Serengeti gates (who knew it was so close this whole time?!?), where we met our driver Martin. In true Rachel, Kat and Stephanie style, the first thing we did when we got there was eat! Unfortunately after one PB & J each, some baboons descended on us, and stole the rest of the food before we knew what was even going on! We were later told that they recognize white people as easy targets! So after a great start, we hopped in the car with Martin and started our adventure, hoping that we really had somehwere booked for the night, and that Martin knew where it was...since the whole booking process was a little crazy and the confirmations kindof vague.

So going to the Serengeti is a little like watching the discovery channel, minus the great zooms and slow motions! You aren't really allowed to walk around, because apparently there are some dangerous animals that live there. So we basically just drove on one road towards the center of the park, sticking our head out the window and yelling stop every time we saw an animal (which was a lot) so that we could take a picture!

It's really as gorgeous as it looks in the pictures, tons of wide open spaces that seem to go on forever, so the scenery didn't really get boring. And even though we weren't there at the height of animal viewing season, we still saw tons of animals. Some highlights include: lots of zebras, wildebeest, huge buffaloes, crazy horns, a river of crocodiles eating a hippo head, giraffes (one so close to the road we thought it was a statue at first!), elephants, warthogs, a mama leopard and her cubs, hippos in and out of the water, lions waaaaaay off in the distance and lots of other animals! we kindof hit the jackpot!

We found our campsite no problem. On arrival we had our tents all set up and ready for us, and someone waiting to cook us dinner! It's really the best way to camp! We had a great meal, slept like rocks, and woke up early the next day to....look at more animals! We were only in the park for 24 hrs, but had a a great visit and saw a lot. Hopefully we'll be back before long!

PS we posted a few more pictures!