An Appetizer or Maybe a Full Dinner?!

Today was our first day on our tour/safari. We left the Gran Melia early and headed for our next hotel which was 4 hours away. On our way we stopped at what our tour guide called an appetizer game drive/safari. Just a taste of what was to come. Then we had lunch at a safari lodge on the way to our hotel in the late afternoon.

One funny story, if you remember the blog yesterday I told you Jambo meant hello in Swahili! Well today we had an early start maybe my brain wasn't working 100%. I kept saying Jamba to people. They were nice and said Jambo back to me. When I said it to our safari guide he told me it was a bad word and I should stop saying it. Meredith looked it up and I was saying fart to everyone instead of hello!

We play a game every day where we get clues about an animal and we have to guess which it is. Today Meredith won and guessed baboon and won the tie breaker by guessing the right gestation period. YAY Meredith - she won a small print of an elephant!

This is the safari vehicle we will be riding in for our game drives. The top opens and you can stand on the seats to get a better view of the animals.

For our appetizer game ride we stopped at Lake Manyara National Park.

The park is know for having the largest percent of baboons in one location. A few fun facts about baboons:

• They can run 35 miles an hour

• Gestation period is 6 months

• Live about 35 years

• Very hierarchical

• They are not loyal to a mate - they have many different partners!

• Natives called them bad-boons as they get into mischief and try to steal food or get into trouble.

We saw SO many baboons. Mothers, babies and everything in between.

However, not only did we see baboons but we saw elephants, a mother and a baby, and they were right next to our jeep. We also saw a tribe of lions, but they were so far away we really didn't get great photos.

After several hours we left the park, had lunch, then headed to our hotel. We're staying at a hotel that is on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater. It is so cool - every room has a view of the crater. On our way to the hotel we saw a bunch of zebras!

Here are a few pictures of our hotel - we will stay here for the next two nights.

A lesson we learned is always have your camera. Walking to dinner tonight we saw an elephant right in front of our hotel! Meredith ran back and got the camera and got a few great pictures.

Such a great day! We were only on an introductory game drive which was not an appetizer, I'd say we got a full meal -- we saw so much! Tomorrow we have a VERY early start and a game drive that will go from 7am - 3pm in the crater that we see from our room.

Thanks for following our adventures!