the Big 5.

Bucketlist life goal complete! I got to see the Big 5 in the flesh!
For those of you who dont know, the big 5 consist of the Leopard, Giraffe, Elephant, Lion, and Rhino
Back in 2007 I went to Kenya with my sisters, grandma and mom with an organization called Reach the Children. We went on a 3 day safari and saw 4 of the 5-- minus the rare Rhino. 
Let me break down how it all happened...

On the first day of safari we went to Tarangire-- the gang consisted of my little, Duy, and our 3 friends from Denmark-- Astrid, Marie & Sigrid.
Of course-obviously- I had to start with the classic game "whoever sees the first animal wins!" (my dad always made us play that on our way to our cabin to make us all shut up). And guess who saw the first animal? THIS GIRL! yeah it might have only been a Zebra-- but everyone was stoked!!!

At first all the animals were pretty far away.  The girls were stoked to see them though and used their zoom to maximum capacity.  Since I aint no rook and it wasn't my first rodeo I knew that it would be only a matter of time before we would see the animals up close and personal.  We saw SO MANY ELEPHANTS that day.  It almost got to the point where it was like, "oh there's another elephant...not a big deal" but really-- it kinda wasnt a big deal.

The second day is when all the action happened.  We stopped at the Ngorongoro park entrance (you drive through it to get to Serengeti) and were waiting to use the bathroom and whatnot. The place was flooded with baboons so we were snapping pics while I was educating the girls not to look the baboons in the eye or they will take is as a threat (learned that on my last safari)  We stop, park, and the boys get out while all the girls sit in the car and just chat.  Our friend Georgie (who took us on the tour) made a rookie mistake and left a door open. Next thing I know there are not 1, not 2, but 4 GIANT BABOONS IN OUR CAR!!!!!!! I literally basically tried to jump out of the window (head first--- I was expecting it to bite my leg off but not my face) and yelled for help.  The rest of the time was a blur but somehow they got out and I was just screaming basically embracing myself for a bite.  Luckily we survived. It was basially the scariest moment of my life, but something we can look back and laugh at now.

Serengeti was truly amazing.  We saw so many Lions!!! Its mating season and they mate every 5-10 minutes for 6 days straight! Can you believe that? So yes-- we did see the procreation in real life!
That night we slept LITERALLY in the middle of the safari! No electrical fence, not even a Masai guard to protect us.  We were cautioned not to go use the bathroom late at night (which was a pretty far walk) and to just go pee outside of our tent. Well, naturally since my little and I are BA we decided to use the toilet.  On the way there she said "do a quick scan". There were some scary green animal eyes just lurking near the bathroom so we decided to just run back to our tent and wait until the morning. Not gonna lie, I was pretty scared all night hearing so many animals calls and whatnot-- not to mention our driver and guide has seen lions there before!!! I didn't feel safe but I survived, luckily!  
this picture says it all...

We woke up at 5 am the next morning and with a good reason-- to see all the lions in action! We saw this really incredible basically fight between the huge water buffalo and 9 lions.  They were basically fighting over this rock-- the buffalo all charged the lions but the lions stood their ground and eventually won as the buffalo walked off to other land.  It went on for about 30 minutes and was seriously so sweet to see! We saw so many lions in Serengeti it was TOO COOL. We saw a total of 46 lions that trip.

We also saw the Leopard.  It was up in a tree-- but with binoculars it was crystal clear to see how beautiful it was with all of its spots. I even got educated on the difference between cheetahs and leopards-- you would be surprised at the difference.

The 2 days we spent in Serengeti were amazing and my favorite part of the safari-- but then it was off to the next spot: Ngorongoro
Ngorongoro is a truly amazing and beautiful place.  It is in a giant crater where yes-- a giant meteor hit the earth.  It was different because unlike the Serengeti with tall grass everywhere it was basically wide open except where the river was-- it was so lush and so green. That's where I saw the blessed Rhino!!!!
So a bunch of cars were parked over by the river and said they saw a Rhino. Our driver said they were making it up because it was too far away and we were wasting our time.  Lets just say I was DETERMINED to see this Rhino and I wouldn't let him leave until I saw it.  I looked all over until I saw it! And basically, it was one of the happiest moments of my life.  It sorta sucked because it just looked like a rock, but literally 1 minute before we left it got up and walked away and I was the only one that got to see it's horn! 5 out of the 5! Bucket-list-life-goal COMPLETE!!!!

All I'm saying is... I am so glad that we took time to do the safari even though it is such the tourist thing to do (and I basically consider myself a local now).  But without it, you don't realize how amazing and beautiful the world is in all parts of the world.  Listen, if you are planning your trip to Africa: DONT SKIP THE SAFARI! Worth it!

2 more days until Zanzibar, then 9 more days and I'm back to the land of the free-- the home of the brave. 

But like I always say... "We live in a beautiful world... yeah we do, yeah we do"