IN SEARCH OF THE BIG 5 AT MAASAI MARA

MAASAI MARA, Kenya - After watching the sun rise from our balcony at the Sarova Lion Hill Game Lodge, we set off and reached Maasai Mara around lunchtime.

- THERESE JAMORA-GARCEAU

Maasai women and children decked out in colorful attire

Maasai women garbed in colorful fabrics swarmed our vehicle to sell us local jewelry and crafts. (Protip: Try not to buy any souvenirs before meeting these Maasai women, who will sell you bunches of them for US$10, versus stores by the road where the same price will get you just one small item.)

The jewel in the crown of Kenya's wildlife viewing areas, Maasai Mara is 1,510 sq kms in size—not the largest in Kenya (that would be Tsavo National Park). In fact, it’s one of the smallest reserves in Africa—a 10th of the size of the neighboring Serengeti in Tanzania, but it’s one of the densest in terms of wildlife populations, boasting a high density of lions and the wildebeest that lead the Great Migration every year.

ELEPHANT WALK

After checking into the Sarova Mara Game Camp, for the next two days from 4 to 6 p.m. we'd go on a game drive with our guide Max in a Land Cruiser, the roof of which lifted for safe viewing of the animals. Out in the wild we never left the vehicle; when we or Max spotted something interesting, he would drive up close, open the top, we'd stand on our seats (in our socks) and take as many photos or videos as we wanted. Max told us to say, “Sawa, sawa (okay, okay)” when we were done, which was easy for us to remember because it means pretty much the same thing in Tagalog.

Our second day the big sighting was an elephant mom and her baby drinking from a watering hole, which was moving to see. We also saw wildebeest, Topi (a type of antelope with black patches on its legs that the derms dubbed “Mongolian spots”), warthogs (which we called Pumbaa, after The Lion King; Max said “pumbaa” means “stupid”), and a fierce-looking ostrich striding across the plain. Our last reward of the day was seeing a herd of elephants and getting right up close to one, which swaggered in front of our vehicle slowly and gracefully.