We flew from Portland to Amsterdam on December 20, and from Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro Airport near Arusha in Tanzania on December 21, to begin our "Serengeti Wildlife Safari" under the aegis of Wilderness Travel. Our guide M'zee (Swahili for "elder") - a man of seemingly infinite knowledge and experience about the wildlife of the region - met us at the airport and took us to our hotel in Arusha. In the morning we joined the other four participants (six of us in all) and drove to our private tented camp in Tarangire National Park, where we would stay through Christmas day.
Tarangire has some of the best animal viewing in the world, along with striking landscapes, and I took some of my best photos there. Unfortunately, the SD card on which I captured those photos has developed a glitch and refuses to be recognized by my computer. I hope I can get it fixed, but for now I'll have to begin in the middle of the trip, on December 26, when we drove several hours from Tarangire to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. As we entered that area we stopped at a Masai boma, or small village.
The chief of the boma, an impressive man with four wives and many children, standing at the entrance to his cattle corral.
As we entered the boma, we were observed by children and young men.
The women gave us a demonstration of grinding corn, then insisted that we join in.
A young woman wearing typical elaborate ornaments, standing in front of a hut.
In a ritual we also observed in the Omo tribal region of Ethiopia, the young men stand in a semi-circle and try to impress the women standing opposite by jumping as high as they can.
As we left the boma, we were accompanied by some of the women of the village.
