Transit to Lake Manyara and Game Drive - August 18

Today we went for a drive on “Toyota Road” to Lake Manyara built by Toyota to save the company money, the original road was in such bad condition that it would break all the vehicles still under warranty. We made our way along "Toyota Road" through villages, and through the area we would soon be exploring called 'Mosquito Creek'. At first we were a little bit nervous about driving next to 'mosquito creek', but we still didn't see any...beginning to think we won't come home with yellow fever...caused contemplation about why prostitution, and marijuana are legal in the Netherlands, but not Permethrin, a chemical we put on our clothes to protect us from diseases like Malaria.

We had lunch at Serena Lodge atop escarpment of Great Rift Valley, the views were stunning, we could see forever, and our lunch was wonderful. After lunch our drivers picked us up and we headed out on our game drive through Lake Manyara National Park. There were so many white butterflies, about 2 inches big, that in many of our pictures it looks like it's snowing. There were hundreds of them in each picture we took, it was magical! The farther we went along in our day the more we felt like we were in a zoo designed for grown-ups, so many animals, so many birds and plants. The afternoon ended with us arriving at the famous Hippopotamus pool where we watched for 20 minutes as hippo's yawned, entered and exited the water,and played.

After the Hippo Pool we headed to our lodging for the night. We drove through several Maasai villages on the way. Our lodging for the night was also Maasai themed, stunningly beautiful, it's very nice...surprisingly they have a website MaasaiVillage.com. We also had our first good look at the way Maasai people dress. Women have shaved heads and white beaded earrings which go down to their shoulders, and wear more blue than the men. Men wear up to three square pieces of clothing tied in knots over their shoulders, and they have a beaded belt and beaded ankle bracelets, and wear more red than the women. The area of the Great Rift Valley was very lush and tropical compared to the somewhat dry tarangire