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Very detailed Africa travelogue with lots of information for anyone planning a trip. Indexed for easy reference. 11 Countries over 3 months.
3 months in Africa -- detailed travelogue, travel tips, indexed
Larry2006-05-27 03:11:54
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the park), with the rest going to
the "village" (they must be the richest Masai in the world!) It wouldn't
have been so bad if there was even a small effort made to teach visitors
about the Masai culture, but the place exists merely to sell curios and
extract Tsh5,000 from tourists for allowing them to take pictures.
Real Masai are nomads, tending cattle and sheep, and you CAN find some
"authentic" Masai within the park (usually wanting nothing to do with
outsiders except to ask for water). Besides the tourist "village", the park
administration allows real Masai to let their cattle graze in the park and
crater as long as they don't settle there, and while stopped for lunch under
a tree, some real Masai children tending a small herd of cattle approached
us. One (looking about 11 or 12) carried a spear, but the rest just had
walking sticks. Offering to be in pictures for money, Ted instead offered
them some oranges while others in the group snuck pictures (I didn't). When
it was time to leave, the kids asked the driver for some water, so Ted
bartered with them: instead of money, we'd give them some water for some
pictures. They agreed, and we made the trade. The kids went back to
tending their herd (along with their tan dogs -- the Masai always seem to
have tan dogs with them that all look alike), and one of the drivers told us
that the Masai consider any cattle they find to be theirs -- that if they
come across some wandering freely, they'll just take them and consider them
as their property. True or not I don't know, but observing some real Masai,
they live quite a slow but harsh life: they're extremely thin, and as such,
always have walking sticks. As a tradition, the girls bore huge holes in
their earlobes with large corks, and water is in constant need. As with
Swazi culture, a Masai man can have
...
See photographs from:
Botswana Gallery
,
Cape Verde Gallery
,
Kenya Gallery
,
Lesotho Gallery
,
Malawi Gallery
,
Mauritius Gallery
,
Swaziland Gallery
,
Tanzania Gallery
,
Zambia Gallery
,
Zimbabwe Gallery
I just thought it might be helpful for you to know how i am finding your system.
Thank you
Susan J, 2008-01-28 14:00:20