A view of Lake Manyara National Park from a road above the park.

Getting ready for the game drive! We were able to stand on the seats while we were driving which was super fun! Our drivers are so knowledgable about the parks and animals, and they are always teaching us new things and answering our (my) non-stop questions!

First animals we saw: blue monkeys at our picnic site. This one came over and grabbed food from Lily’s lunch in a flash of a second! Needless to say, I jumped up and screamed. 🙂

Lake Manyara is known for its many baboon tribes. They are pretty cool animals – and the babies are especially cute.

Elephants right next to us! A little scary but so incredible. And the little ones were TOO cute!

Sylvia loves the zebras. They are so stocky and more like donkeys than horses. They even bray like donkeys!

The buffalos are huge! And so cool. We saw many pelicans, flamingos and numerous shore birds, as well. There were also hippos in this pool, but we didn’t get a good photo.

Ninapenda twiga!! I love giraffes!! They are so awesome. I love watching them run – they look like they’re in slow motion. I love watching them eat, too – their big lips and tongues ripping leaves off of the thorny acacia trees.

Lake Manyara. There were many, many birds, grazing animals, and hippos!

The Lilac-breasted Roller, a spectacular bird! And look at the thorns on that acacia bush!

With Chacha, the ecology professor from UDSM who joined us on our safari. It was great to have him along to teach us about different aspects of the parks and answer our questions. He also coordinated student stories (presentations) about the geology, history, ecology and animal biology of the parks and mammals that we encountered. It was an awesome learning experience!

Our campsite in the woods. We had a few serval cats check out the camp in the middle of the night. I woke up to the clanging of pots and pans as they investigated the kitchen area. Fortunately, no harm was done. 🙂