Courtesy of Marriott International, Inc.
Of course, you’re not out here simply to luxuriate in the spa, or lounge by the outdoor pool, or indulge in the endless supply of hearty meals on offer—you’re here to see the animals. And on the doorstep of the Masai Mara, there are few places better in the world to do it. It merely took the ride over from the airstrip to catch our first sightings of herds of giraffes and zebra—the sheer concentration of animals of all stripes in this corner of the world is truly head-spinning—and over the course of the following days, our guides got us up close and personal with a pair of cheetahs prowling the open landscapes for prey, a female leopard and her cubs luxuriating in the grasses by a waterhole, and most breathtaking of all (or stomach-turning, depending on your constitution) was stumbling upon a pride of lions feasting on the carcass of a buffalo at twilight. It’s a cliché, but out here in the depths of the wilderness, you realize just how small and inconsequential you really are.
It doesn’t take long, either, to realize that the animals—however gripping their domestic dramas and their attack strategies may be—wouldn’t be half as fascinating without the people. There are the thoughtful safari guides, who will get you up to speed with the nuances of the dog-eat-dog hierarchy out here in the badlands, or regale you with their jokes and euphemisms. (Anybody needing to relieve themselves can politely suggest they wish to “pick some flowers,” while the suspected glimpse of a leopard in the faraway scrub was quickly corrected as an “ALT”: animal-looking tree, of course.) There is the impeccable service from the resort’s manager Barnabas and the delightful restaurant manager Thelma, which is underscored by the fact the resort is aiming to have the makeup of its staff be over two-thirds Maasai, a goal it has almost achieved already. It’s cheering, too, to see the efforts being made across the board to ensure that the local communities are being engaged with respectfully here; the hotel is working with an array of local nonprofits to give back to the Maasai people, and has launched its own apprenticeship program to support young women in the region with education and a first step into the hospitality industry.
Nowhere was the efficiency and expertise of the hotel’s staff more in evidence than on the final night of our safari. After hopping in our Jeeps and plugging our way through the bush and up the side of a majestic hill—with a lone acacia tree dramatically silhouetted at the top, naturally—a jaw-dropping Masai sunset began to glow, casting honey-colored light across a semi-circle of chairs arranged around a roaring fire while cocktails were whizzed up and served from a makeshift bar.
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