Oloitokitok

Around Oloitokitok you have beautiful views of mount Kilimanjaro. And a souvenir shop and parking for tours heading towards Tsavo park.
A few locals hang around, including some Maasai.

We learnt a bit of their culture visiting one village. For example that women build the house, have kids and then take care of everything, while men "patrol the village" and "solve problems" (created by themselves, I suppose, as women are quite busy doing everything else). A Maasai who wants a wife has to pay for her - with cows.

In Oloitokitok we practiced Maasai culture.

European tourist: do you want her? I can sell it for 100 cows.
Maasai: you should ask much more for her.
Maasai 1, European tourist 0

European tourist: but you know, she won't allow you to have any more women.
Maasai: a woman like her is worth 5 women, I don't need anyone else. When you have a woman like this, you should do everything to make her happy.
Maasai 2, European tourist 0

European tourist: I'm from Italy.
Maasai: ahi ahi ahi, Berlusconi, bunga bunga. Not good, too many scandals.
Maasai 3, European tourist 0

People from Tanzania

First of all, in Africa, take it easy, no problem, hakuna matata. And here the main Italian representative of the attitude ;) who's also going to contribute to the blog.

One of the first Maasais we met on the road. They didn't like to be taken on pictures - unless accompanied by a "tip".

After a couple of National Parks and a few hundred km on unpaved road, splashing tons of dust on unwilling Maasais passing by, we stopped to visit a school. Primary school teaching is in Swahili, while in secondary school courses are in English.

Remember the tourist waking up early and starting to run? One day it was for the purpose of accompanying the Hadzapi to go hunting. Read it again: me and my friends waking up early and running for 2 hours after hunters chasing animals with bow and arrows (caught a couple of birds).

We met the children afterwards.

Here, special photo for some French colleague of mine who has a special passion for the Maasai tribe (D., there are 122 tribes in TZ, not only them ;)

One of them even accepted to dance with our driver guide, the mytical Isack. Of course after tip of 1 USD.

"In Africa, you're never alone", said Ali the cook of the expedition (allegedly quoting a slogan from the Liverpool football team). In any case, if a truck gets stuck in the middle of nowhere, you got to help out.

In Zanzibar, on a little boat called Hakuna Matata, heading to some atol, we could not forget the days in the bush and the animals we saw :)