Day 3 of our Kenyan safari, we started early again to catch the sunrise. We saw a herb of zebras but they kept moving and not to the direction of the sunrise so we continued to search for a more open spot.

No luck on a vast plain nor animals as backdrop and the sun quickly rose.

We saw a buffalo passing by.

The park was very quiet…

Nicolas got the news and sped again to the cheetahs. When we got there, we saw a cheetah chasing something, being the fastest animal, it just zoomed by our eyes. Safari trucks were chasing it and we tried to make it to the front-row seat but were stuck for a few seconds by a huge bush in front of us. Once we got unstuck and arrived at the hunting site, the cheetahs just got their kill and started their breakfast. We missed the action by a few seconds!

It behaves like lions: at least one guards/watches the surroundings while the rest feast on the antelope.

Their furry faces turned pink by the blood of the antelope.

That tree was blocking my view so I moved around inside our safari truck to try to get a better angle.

We watched them for at least 15 minutes and then a hyena jumped in out of nowhere and the cheetahs were scared so their first reaction was to jump away, at that exact second, the hyena snapped the remains of the antelope! It happened so fast that it caught us all by surprise!

We were waiting for the cheetahs to chase the hyena but they didn’t! Instead, they moved to a nearby spot and started to licking each other to clean their faces.

We watched the hyena came back at a distance while the cheetahs were watching him.

There was a chase but no more hunting.

That was the excitement of the morning. Then we continued our safari drive, and we saw a boom running.

He ran and climbed up this tree.

Next, Nicolas got the news of a pair of lions so off we went…….they were napping inside those tall grasses.

I guessed they had finished their breakfast and it was time for a nap!

Another herd of zebras we saw out in the open plain.

A silly warthog passing by.

The zebras under another lone tree.

Whenever we got close, they turned their butts toward us LOL.

They were so cute!

A baby zebra drinking milk.

After the zebras, Nicolas took us to another plain where buffalos usually hang out, sure enough, they were there. A lot of them….

This guy kept looking at me……as buffalos are among the most dangerous animals, I kept thinking, aren’t we too close?

They seemed to be in a good mood and again, we saw babies.

We finally saw a giraffe next to a lone tree! Now that would be a perfect great sunrise/sunset silhouette hahaha!

At 10:30 AM, we headed to a Maasai village as one of the activities that Nicolas recommended. I wasn’t planning on it but one of our coworkers said it was one of his highlights of the safari trip so we went. It was $30 USD each, cash only. When we arrived, the head of the village came out to greet us and I heard singing inside the village as there was another group of tourists finishing their visits. The head introduced that we’ll see their traditional dances, their living huts, stringing beads, weaving clothes, and that 50% of the entrance fee goes to the school they built and run.

The members of the tribe all came out to welcome us with their tradition song and instructments.

Their clothings were bright and colorful.

Almost all the women carried a baby behind their back!

After the welcoming song, we walked inside their “village” which consisted of a central open area where they kept the livestock inside at night surrounded by over 20+ huts.

In addition to wearing colorful clothes, they wore lots of beaded jewelry.

The women sang another song and then came by to give us high-fives as part of their welcoming tradition.

Next, the men performed their jumping song/contest, oh wow, they really can jump high!

They invited Jason, Brian, and TJ to join too haha.

They also demonstrated how to start a fire by hand…..hard work!

Their hut was made up of mud, cow dung, and wood.

The interior of the hut:

The “supporting beam” was the kitchen, which was in the center of the hut. Next to it were two rooms, just enough room for the bed.

The kids were playing outside the huts in the center open space.

More close up of the accessories.

After showing us their huts, they took us to the “marketplace” behind the huts. It was inflated souvenir shopping. There was no bead-making or cloth-weaving demonstration urg!

No price tag which mean you could bargain but there was no point in bargaining when they inflated the price by at least 3X!!!

For example, this blue necklace, the asking price was $50 USD!!!! I saw the exact same thing from the women selling right at the entrance of the park for $20 (I got it the next day for $15 without much bargaining, the women kept lowering the price if you said no thanks).

After I knew the price was inflated so much so I just walked around to take photos.

Brian bought a few items and did not bargain for $105 (he said it is a “donation”). At first, they said they accept credit cards. Guess what, their credit card machine wasn’t working so I ended up paying with my precious cash, I said $100 and they took it. I do not recommend buying from them as a “donation”, instead, bring school supplies to donate directly to the school! I felt like even the $30 admission fee was already too much for a few songs and they did not show us what he said would show, that was already a donation. The whole visit felt commercialized, in my opinion.

After the village visit, we asked Nicolas if we could stop by a local school so we could donate school supplies. He picked one that was near by our lodge. He took us to the office where we met with the principal.

The principal introduced himself; he has been the schoolmaster for ten years. Then, 5 students came in to receive the gifts and to take photos with us, it was like a drill that showed lots of tourists had done the same.

The supplies get distributed among the class and sometimes as rewards to outstanding students. The principal also showed us the progress they made academically:

They thanked us for our donations and I highly recommend to those of you who plan to visit Kenya/Tanzania to pack school supplies to donate.

After the short school visit, we went back to our lodge to have lunch and take a break.

The meatballs were nothing to rave about…

But the cream cake was pretty good!

Later in the afternoon, we headed out the game drive again!

Was that the same family we saw in the morning???

Another radio call of the lion pride! A group of warthogs, they were running around, stopped, and continue, it was fun to watch them.

The pride of lions were hanging out in the open area…

We waited and waited, hoping for a hunt, but instead, they went to nap! While two hyenas sneaked by from behind. According to Nicolas, the hyenas don’t taste good so the lions weren’t interested of them.

The male lion rolled around and slept with his legs up :O

We waited for 30+ minutes and no action so we moved on…..we spotted a clowned crane on top of a tree, he was huge!

The sun was about to set and we spotted a lone lioness.

After a few minutes, another lioness joined. Are they sisters, I wondered?

Not far from the lioness, we found the lion drinking water!

After he finished drinking, as he was walking back, he roared so loud so many times!!! He roared to let others know that this is his terrority.

A colorful sunset!

We waited until it got dark but no action so we had to leave because the park was closing. Nicolas was cruising back and made it back to the gate. It was cold after the sun set so a hot soup would be a comfort food but this vegetable soup wasn’t good.

This was the worst dinner out of the 3 nights 🙁

And the worst dessert too 🙁 I wish they have leftovers from lunch!

Our 3rd safari day in Kenya was another action-packed day; it started with the exciting cheetah hunt, followed by tons of zebras, lions, and buffalos. The Masai village visit started okay but it got commercialized afterward, I much preferred the school visit. Kenya has surprised me with its beautiful wide-open landscape, the amount of animals and actions we saw, and of course The Great Migration. We were super lucky to see all those in 3 days in Kenya!