I spoke yesterday of how we locked our valuables in our tent with the room key for a normal hardwood door, only to discover that the sides could be easily unzipped by an intruder.  However there are Maasai tribesmen hired to stand outside all night long among the tents, the sky filled with mosquitoes and bugs of every sort, to prevent mischief by humans and animals.  Very tough guys.  By the way, James demonstrated the reason for the fancy cloths.  They don’t signify anything, and they are used to swat the insects when needed.   Today we visited a crater filled with 30,000 animals of many sorts, happy in their own stable ecosystem 12 miles across.

At the entry gate, Ami told us to roll up the windows and lock the doors if we wanted to leave the truck while he checked in, because the baboons would quickly invade the car and steal our lunches and anything else they liked.   Shortly after leaving the entry gate, a honey badger crossed the road and ran up the hill.  Ami was surprised, since they are nocturnal.  He explained that they are fearless, powerful and very mean.  They are a problem for the remote camps because they ravage the supplies for honey and jams and tear things up, including resisters.  But even worse, he says they have been known to kill a water buffalo by latching on to his testicles, causing him to bleed to death.  Clever fighters that know just where to strike.   We had our box lunch in the crater next to a hippo pond.  Ami told us to stay in the car to eat our lunch because of the kites.  What’s wrong with a kite?  Besides, a lot of people are strolling around taking pics of the hippo and the pond, having a fine time. The guide in the next vehicle beside us is angry with his client who has taken some lunch and tossed it out on the ground to get a picture of a kite.  Then I see the kites.  Hawk- like birds in the raptor family, flying about 40 feet in circles, diving furiously for any visible food.  Very fast.  Not like a pesky starling or pigeon.  I then notice all the people strolling know better and have no food in their hands.  We eat in the car.  Ami however joins two guides to bs.  Has a small piece of quiche in hand.  A kite dives, snatches the piece from his hand.  The guides leap back in shock and awe.  Amis thumb is bleeding from a small laceration.  He is very embarrassed since all clients are warned.  He tells me he has seen many injuries and tears among clients from these kites who collect every lunchtime in the crater.   Strangeness, thievery, and danger everywhere.   Mambo mambo