The Serengeti National Park really stole the show in terms of big mammals. It was well worth the 3 1/2 days we chose to be there.

On the way from Ngorogoro to the western Serengeti we had a pre-arranged stop at a Maasai “village.” We don’t think it was a real village where people were living. It was more a replication of a traditional Maasai village, maintained for tourists. There were no signs of people actually living there - the interior of the quarters we went inside were devoid of the day-to-day things one might expect in a home: clothing, cooking utensils, general signs of life. Also, there were no signs that cattle - the mainstay of Maasai life - had ever used the kraal (no dung, no hoof prints.)

That being said, given the restrictions placed on Maasai pastoralism in today’s Tanzania, it made sense (to me at least) that our tourism dollars would pay for much of the natural and cultural preservation happening in Tanzania - including enabling the Maasai to remain primarily pastoralists. We paid separate fees for all of our park visits, and for the visit to this village.

national geographic

Serengeti Day One