A Family Reunion: Part I

We left Spain, boarding a bus from Seville to Lisbon, with happy hearts to finally be seeing family after so long on the road. An uneventful 7 hours later, we were entering the lobby of the Holiday Inn in Lisbon, thinking “we haven’t been in a hotel like this for a while!”

A knock on the door an hour later, and we reunited with Anna’s family: parents Mark and Donna and brother Peter, fresh off the plane from home. We went out to a late celebration dinner, then collapsed in sleep.

The next morning, Donna said that we had to try the Portuguese custard tarts, so we bought a few along with espressos, picked up our spacious VW Passat rental wagon and zoomed off toward the tiny town of Penedo, west of Lisbon and nearer the coast. We were expecting a nice leisurely drive, but instead got hair raising turns and two-way streets that only let one car by at a time! We made it to our Casa de Artistes, an older-style Portuguese house, then went straight down to the center of Colares, the town just south of us, to check out a local festival that was going on that weekend. We were starving, and one of the two places to eat was at a booth that ended up serving us chicken livers, snails in the shell, and sangria.

We picked through our food, not being sure if we liked the snails or not, met the town priest, as well as a nice British woman by the name Agnes Anderson, and watched our new priest friend lead a church processional up the street.

We then went to a weekend market of fruits and vegetables, where we picked up some supplies for the following days.

Then next day, we drove to the beach town of Ericeira, enjoyed the ocean scenery, ate a wonderful seafood lunch, and saw another church processional down the street. Then, it was time to do some sightseeing, so we got up early the next day to drive into Sintra, a little inland of Penedo. There, we visited the Palacio Nacional de Pena, and the Moorish Castle, both perched high atop the mountains overlooking the coastline. The Palacio was a bit Disneyland-ish, but interesting nonetheless, and the Moorish Castle made you feel like you were back defending your people against invaders:

Our next day consisted of visiting the Capuchos Convent, otherwise known as the Cork Convent, an old stone complex with cork lining the windows and doors for insulation. It’s definitely a one-of-a-kind place.

Monserrate, with its expansive gardens and summer house was our favorite, as its less fussy rooms and big wood library we could imagine “summering” in.

We also got the satisfaction of standing at the western-most point of continental Europe!

and buying a 5 liter jug of wine for only 4 euros!

At the end of each day, we would drive our wagon (which got around 55 mpg!) home through the narrow streets, honk as we arrived at our driveway on a curve, and then be greeted by a friendly Siamese cat that made herself at home our entire stay:

We’d eat dinner, drink some good Portuguese wine and port, then tuck ourselves in, in our upstairs bedrooms.

Like all the other regional tourists, we spent a day at the beach (Praia de Macas) on one of the only beach-worthy days, and dined at restaurants where Ryan had to practice his somewhat-Portuguese Spanish. We also visited the Palace in Mafra, north of Penedo, which had an outstanding preserved library complete with resident bats that eat the bugs that would otherwise ruin the books!

We visited a market outside of Mafra, where we bought our lunch of salami, cheese, bread, fruits, and wine - these items were a consistent lunchtime staple throughout our Portugal visit. The next day we drove to Obidos, an ancient walled city with some sketchy non hand-railed walkways high above the city:

Afterwards, we wanted to do some wine tasting, but following the map we had, there was only one open tasting room, which had some good wine which again accompanied our consistent lunchtime staples.

Lisbon was just a short drive away from our little hilltop, so we hopped in the car to visit the city. We visited the Castelo de Sao Jorge, which was nowhere as cool as the Moorish Castle, Anna got bird-pooed on at lunch, and by that time we were a little over Lisbon. It’s a big city with the usual big city happenings. On our way out, we explored the Tower of Belem, a watch tower built by the ocean, and then drove the long, scenic way home.

Our stay in Portugal was winding down, so the next day consisted of visiting Agnes Anderson, an 1800’s-style English lady who we had met the first day, and who owns an old wine making estate. We got a tour of her unused winemaking barns and the old house she lives in. Then we chowed down on sausage rolls from a stand at the weekend market that we’d been eyeing since the previous weekend. Our last outing was to the Queluz Palace, a summer house for royalty that even had its own manmade canals for the pleasure of its residents.

Our last day in Portugal was spent doing chores and last minute things, and then it was already time to say goodbye to Anna's family! Peter would be going back to Babson College the following Monday, and the parents back to their jobs (which we'll be looking for in a couple weeks!) so we were going to be back on our own. It was so wonderful seeing and spending time with people we know, and thank you so much Mom, Dad, and Peter for giving us a "vacation from our vacation!"

The Many Markets of Morocco

As with previous flights, our flight arrived in Casablanca, Morocco at an ungodly hour, but we made it to our hotel in the city center without incident. It was only after 5 hours of sleep that we were off again, catching the 3 hour train to Marrakech. After meeting our contact Ingrid and a 5 minute taxi ride later, we were at the apartment where our stay was given to us as a wedding gift (thank you Lisa and Seth!)

We would spend the next 10 days using the apartment as our base exploring the splendors of Marrakech. We felt spoiled having such a nice place all to ourselves for our entire stay but we took advantage and made the most of it. There was a nice grocery store within walking distance that we ended up visiting on a daily basis and getting around to other parts of the city was pretty painless with the plethora of cheap petit taxis available.

We visited Djamaa el Fna, the central square of the medina, on several occasions. This is where the snake charmers hang out along with the endless stalls selling fresh squeezed orange juice; and there’s nothing that beats a cold glass on a scorching day.


From the main square we also explored the many tiny alleyways of the different souks (markets) that filled the medina, getting lost on more than one occasion. The souks were some of the best places we’ve seen for shopping and it was difficult not to buy more than our packs could handle. Mixed in with all the shops were the stalls selling spices, fresh meat, fruits and vegetables.


It made for a mind boggling experience that touched on all the senses.

We ended up taking a cooking class one of the days and bought all the ingredients fresh from the market, including the live chicken that would be the basis for our tasty tagine. The medina is also home to some great arab architecture including the Medersa Ben Youssef and the Saddian tombs. We were so inspired by some of the ceramic artwork that we ended up buying a few things for what little space we had.




We felt replenished a bit after our nice stay in Marrakech but before we knew, it was time to pack up again.

Next up on our itinerary was Fes, so we hopped on the train north and 8 hours later we arrived. We no longer had a nice apartment all to ourselves but we did manage to find a great little place in the medina called Dar Houdou. We really felt like we were living in an authentic Moroccan house at this 3 bedroom place. We only had one full day in Fes before our flight to Seville, Spain but we were able to explore most of the medina in the little time we had.

One of the highlights was trying to find our way to the tanneries and once we did, we were in awe of the many pits filled with the different colors used in tanning the leather hides.


Anna also did something she’s wanted to do ever since India, she got a henna tattoo. The lady that did the artwork took us into her house right in the medina which was very interesting to say the least.


We also bought some last minute items as we knew we were heading into Europe and things weren’t going to get any cheaper. Like Marrakech, Fes is a shopper’s paradise, so deciding on what to buy was the hardest part.

The next morning we were off again and caught our 45 minute flight to Seville. We stayed in Seville for 2 nights, just long enough to happily embrace the siestas and sangria. We visited the Alcazar, Plaza de Espana, Cathedral de Sevilla and saw a great flamenco performance.


We were able to walk everywhere but paid the price in the 100 degree weather. We really liked what we saw in Seville and got excited to see more of Spain but first it was time to head into Portugal and up to Lisbon where we would meet up with the Oliver family. So we hopped on the bus and made the 7 hour journey to Lisbon where we were all too happy to finally see some familiar faces!

A Brief History In Egypt

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We were envisioning dreams of pharaohs and kings when we boarded our red-eye flight from Johannesburg to Cairo. Instead, we got a screaming baby five rows in front of us and no sleep. Our hostel sent a driver to pick us up at 6:30am and, for once, he was actually there (unlike in India) complete with our names on a card. The car pulled up in front of a dubious-looking building in downtown Cairo 20 minutes later and we started scratching our heads. There was no sign for the place (Hostel Brothers) to be seen, and the building our driver led us inside seemed quite old and deserted. We followed him into the 1930’s elevator, got off at the 4th floor, and everything was just fine.

Our room wasn’t quite ready so we waited about an hour in the main lobby. Luckily, Mohammed and his crew made us feel at home, and we collapsed on the couch, also taking advantage of the free wi-fi. By the time our room was ready, we were on the verge of passing out, and we spent most of the day asleep. Our one activity was to arrange a dinner cruise on the Nile for that night, complete with a belly-dancing show. The cruise was okay. Usually we don’t go for things like “dinner cruises” but we decided since we were only in Egypt for one week, it was okay to be a typical tourist. We called the dancer a booby-dancer rather than a belly-dancer, shaking her boobs more than her belly, but the guy in the skirt that spun like a never ending top made up for it.



The next morning we headed off to Giza with “Egyptian Bob” (our driver for the day) to see the famous pyramids. Somehow we beat the tour buses and crowds (it wasn’t that early), and welcomed uninterrupted views of the Sphinx. And yes, it’s true – the Sphinx really is a lot smaller than envisioned. Impressive nonetheless.

By the time we strolled up to the Pyramids of Giza, the sun was out in full force, and so were the tourists. Again, impressive but sadly, what got our attention the most, was how badly the site is managed.

We’ve been fortunate enough to see many great historical monuments in our travels thus far, and the pyramids are by far the poorest maintained. It seems to us that the government is more focused on restoration than preservation.

We witnessed guards being bribed so ignorant tour-bus tourists could climb onto parts for that “great” photo (in fact, it’s depressing how many visitors just have no idea of the greatness of these sites) and the parking lot for the big buses is 25 feet away from the pyramids. It’s amazing, but you can see portions of the pyramids affected by exhaust and smog. We’re hopeful that some of these practices will change so future generations will be able to witness one of the great Seven Wonders of the World.


Looking past the negative, we thoroughly enjoyed our time there, and, for the first time in our lives, felt as if we were in a true desert slogging through the sand.

Next on the itinerary were the Sakkara pyramids, or step pyramids, which are even older than the Pyramids of Giza. Here you are allowed to go inside one of the pyramids (without an additional charge –amazing!) :

and witness just how claustrophobic the insides are! Some of the hieroglyphics at the Sakkara site were well preserved and it was hard to comprehend that they were done so, so long ago:

After finishing the sites at Sakkara, the heat was unbearable, (remember, we’d travelled from the intense heat of India’s summer, straight to South Africa’s cold dead of winter, and now back to the searing sun of the Middle East – it’s draining), and we were starving. We ate at a pretty well-known place in Cairo called Felfela. A little pricey (for Egyptian standards), but the food was good, except for the extra protein in the form of a bug that made it into Anna’s dish.

Khan Al Khalili, Cairo’s main market and tourist trap, pulled us in the next day. We scoped out what was on offer and got an idea for prices, but didn’t pull the trigger on any purchasing. Instead, we ate lunch and took a cab to the Egyptian Museum.

It seems as though anything and everything from ancient Egypt is in this museum. It’s not particularly huge, just crammed with stuff! Seeing the contents of King Tutankhamen’s tomb was mind-boggling. “How exactly did they make that, how did they fit it into that other thing?” The highlight, however, was the Mummy Room, which of course costs extra. It is a little creepy at first, but very interesting. We’re just sure that’s not how the ancient kings and queens meant for their bodies to end up. After a few hours in the stifling hot museum (we think their A/C may have been broken), it was time to get ready for our train ride.

When we first arrived in Cairo, we had no idea what to do in the short span of one week. We considered diving at the Red Sea, but our budget considered otherwise. In the end, we took Mohammed’s advice to visit Luxor for a few days, and continue our historical sightseeing.

The overnight train ride to Luxor has been the best we’ve had yet, as we had our own compartment complete with towels, soap, and sink. We boarded the train an hour late at around 9pm, were promptly served dinner that was included (think airline food), and then lights out. We were woken at 4:30am, served a horrible breakfast consisting of 5 different dry breads, and by the time we were finished, we were in Luxor.

Again, we were met by a person from our hotel, and jumped into a taxi for the 2 minute ride. We slept okay on the train, but considering it was only 5:30am, we decided to nap for a while before waking up to lunch. We walked around town, stopping in to EgyptAir to re-confirm our flight from Cairo to Casablanca, Morocco, and good thing we did. For whatever reason, even after speaking to representatives twice on the phone, Ryan was not confirmed and had no seat, while Anna was all squared away. This has happened several times with our round-the-world tickets through Star Alliance carriers. Luckily, we’ve always been able to get on our flights, and this proved no exception.

That night we headed out for a drink on the rooftop terrace of Alibaba, where we enjoyed a sheesha session while watching the happenings of the square below, including a loud, musical wedding procession. We woke up in the Nefertiti Hotel to a nice breakfast of juice, coffee, cereal, bread, butter, jam, and an egg – all included in the price of our room. Then we hopped in a van with 3 other tourists, and crossed to the other side of the Nile for some more sightseeing. The first stop – Valley of the Kings, where we saw underground tombs of Ramses IV, Ramses IX, and Horemheb.

Next was the Temple of Hatshepsut, a huge temple built by one of the most powerful women in ancient Egypt.

Lastly was Valley of the Queens, where we saw tombs of Chamuas, Titi, and Amen Khopshef. And of course we made the obligatory stop at an alabaster and papyrus workshop on the way back to the hotel.

That evening we went out to dinner at a restaurant recommended by the Lonely Planet guidebook by the name of Chez Omar. The food was tasty and we left filling satisfied, until Anna woke early the next morning with a case of food poisoning. Ryan got off lucky, even though he tasted Anna’s food. Needless to say, Anna spent the entire day in bed trying to rid her body of the evil toxin. She was barely feeling well enough that evening to catch the train back to Cairo, but she pushed through and we made it back to Cairo in one piece.

Our last day in Egypt was mostly spent recuperating while sitting in the Hostel Brothers reception, as Anna was still feeling a bit out of sorts. We did manage to make it back to the market for some last minute bargaining, however. Next thing we knew it was time to catch a taxi to the airport and hightail it out of Egypt and into Morocco, where a luxurious apartment awaited us in Marrakech!

We don’t have a ton of photos from the historical sites as they are not allowed to be taken in the tombs or the museum. You all will just have to go to Egypt to see for yourselves!

A Broke Down African Melody

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So our interesting story starts with the drive north from Maputo in Mozambique. Our destination was Tofo, about an 8 hours drive.

But, since our trip had been relatively big-problem-free, fate decided to turn on us. Our car decided it had had enough of the pot-hole riddled road we were enduring, and broke down going up a hill about 3 hours south of Tofo.

A bunch of local kids started staring, so we got them to help us push the car off the road. Here is where a cell phone might’ve come in handy, although in the end it wouldn’t have made a difference. Dark was setting in, but luckily several local cars stopped and tried to help. None of them could figure out what was wrong with the car, so one guy offered to tow us to the next “big” town. Supposedly this town had a hotel and food, so we could sort out our car situation. But, it being dark now and on a busy road, the hotel was full, so we started to worry. We didn’t even get dinner as we spent most of the night trying to call back to South Africa and contact the rental company, to no avail.

Our only choice was to sleep in the broke down car.

Definitely the low point of our entire trip thus far (and cross your fingers that that’s it!)

Neither of us really slept, as we were constantly on the lookout for any suspicious locals. Nobody bothered us and we made it till morning safely, though we now know that they rake the gravel parking lot at 4am.

We tried to phone the rental company a few more times after breakfast, got through, but didn’t get a definite answer as to what to do about the car. The last we heard was that WE had to tow the car back to South Africa at our own expense. Huh. Yeah, right. Our cash was getting low, as to call South Africa required buying airtime for the local’s cell phones. But wouldn’t you know, the little town of Quissico had an ATM (two actually). One hotel, but 2 ATMs.

While Ryan was waiting in line, a voice behind said a friendly hello. He turned around to meet Jaji Stam, a South African woman now living in Quissico. After an explanation of our situation to her, Jaji said not to worry; she would take care of us and get us back on our feet. We were almost desperate for help at that point, so we took her up on her kind offer, not really knowing what to expect.

One to always carry a tow bar, she was able to tow our car to her place, and offered us hot showers, cups of coffee, and a clean comfortable bed. She even called the rental company for us and used her knowledge of the South Africans to get them to send a new car all the way to us, which arrived 2 days later.

We owe an overwhelming amount of thanks to Jaji, who is a true lifesaver and one of the most genuine, caring people we have ever met. She moved to Mozambique 4 years ago, and is currently in the process of building a tourist lodge to be called The Crow’s Nest, so called because of the thousands of crows that roost in the coconut trees around the property, opposite an amazing lookout of a big lake sitting right next to the sea.

While chatting with Jaji, she told us about her involvement in the local community, and that she sometimes takes groups to see Mozambican everyday life. We had been feeling as though we hadn’t experienced the real Africa yet, so we climbed into the back of her used-to-be-4X4 truck and off we went. This experience was one of the best ever!

Highlights included: visiting a local school where they put on a timbila (a type of xylophone), drum, and dance performance for us:


visiting Ngyadane, a local witch doctor who performed a ritual involving calling up her ancestors (Anna was told she has blood flow problems and to get that looked at!):

drinking and eating lots of coconuts (Adamir, Jaji’s assistant climbed the tree to get a bunch):


seeing cassava being uprooted (Jaji makes the best cassava fries, yum!):

and pumping water for the local girls to carry back on their heads:
The nights were clear and just slightly chilly, so a bonfire was whipped up on a dune overlooking the ocean one night, and we drank our Dois M’s (local 2M beer) while saluting the stars and a full moon.

Of course, to top this all off, Jaji cooked up some delicious meals!

So what else can we say about this breakdown except that it was a great one!

After 3 days of enjoying good company, we said goodbye, loaded our new car which was a different car entirely and 100 times better anyways, and drove north to Barra (right next to Tofo) to enjoy the beach and do some diving. Jaji referred us to her friend’s Palm Grove Lodge in Barra, where we settled into a casita 20 meters from the beach, and would enjoy 6 nights of sand, sun, and seafood.

Every morning, locals would come by our porch trying to sell prawns, calamari, fish, and crayfish (lobster); every night we had something different to braai (bbq). We also did 2 dives, one of which was an adventure dive cert that now allows us to dive to 30 meters instead of 18. The reef we dove at was called Manta Reef, known for its population of Manta Rays, but of course, they were nowhere to be found. Some humpback whales did perform for us on the boat ride back, however.

In addition, we met some more friends of Jaji’s; Abrie, Irma, and family, who kindly invited us for an afternoon on the beach. Again, some of the nicest people! A big reason we look forward to coming back to South Africa and Mozambique is the kind people we have met.

After getting our dose of sun and sand, we had another adventure to look forward to. We had reservations for a hut in the Kruger National Park, so had to drive back down the Mozambican coast (not forgetting a stop-in to say thank you to Jaji again) and into the park, which borders Mozambique. We took an out-of-the-way road to get back to South Africa, where at one point we thought we were lost...nope, just in the middle of Mozambique.

Abrie and Irma have a fantastic lodge in Komatipoort near the southern Kruger gate (they are also building one in Barra) called Ambri Africa, where we stayed the night before entering the park. We chatted with them the next morning, telling them of our plans to definitely return, before heading off into Kruger.

The speed limit being 50 km/h (35 mph) in the park (don’t want to hit an elephant going 90!) it took us most of the day to drive to our camp at Olifants. Of course, this takes into consideration all the animal sightings you see. Just that day, we got lucky and saw two lionesses lying in the grass very close to the road, not to mention a rhino, elephants, zebras, giraffes, impalas, hippos, and more.

The view at our hut at Olifants was pretty nice, as we could watch hippos, crocodiles, giraffes, and elephants drink their fill at the Olifants River, down the hill from the fence.

We spotted all of the Big 5 (buffalo, elephants, rhinos, lions, and leopards) over the next four days, plus all the other wildlife roaming the park.


One very early morning, we took a walk with armed guides into the bush with the wildlife (you can only get out of your car at various camps in the park, for obvious reasons, so it’s all wildlife viewing sitting in your car). The rangers pointed out two Impala kills hanging in a tree, dragged up there by a leopard. Unfortunately, the leopard wasn’t around that morning but we did spot some giraffes and an elephant, accompanied by lion roars, which can be heard for up to 8km.

Each camp has a board with animal spotting markers, so we drove toward where a leopard had been spotted, and lo and behold, there was a big cat lounging way up in a bare tree!

Not more than 0.5km farther down the road, we witnessed a little rhino and mom chase a hyena from their grazing territory!



But the best viewing place on our drive out of the park on our last day. A pair of leopards in a riverbed crossed under the bridge we were on, and one came so near the road and our car (albeit partially hidden by brush) that Anna started rolling the window up! It got about 10 feet away before ducking under the bridge. We were so excited that we could only manage to snap a few blurry pictures as they walked out of sight.

But what a way to end our Kruger Park experience! We then took the rest of the day to drive to Nelspruit for one final night in South Africa, before catching our flight to Cairo, Egypt.

South Africa and Mozambique have been the highlights of our trip so far, so much so that “when we come back…” has been a much-used phrase. It may be a long flight, but it is well worth it!

Living the Life in South Africa

Our flight from Mumbai landed in Johannesburg, but we had heard that it isn’t the safest city, so we decided to book an onward flight straight to Cape Town, and we sure were glad we did! Arriving in the city, we almost froze due to cooler weather that we haven’t been accustomed to. Beanies, jackets, and scarves all came out of the bottom of our bags. However, Cape Town was having an unusually cold week when we arrived.

We had booked 2 dorm beds at The Backpack Hostel, which was a super nice place to start out. Nice clean sheets and comfy down comforters and pillows only helped us like it more. It’s been a little difficult getting used to sometimes sleeping with others in dorms after all of Asia affording us our own room, but it’s been fine. Something we loved straight away was the Afrikaans language, a derivative of the Dutch language, but with a few English and native African words mixed in.

The day after arriving, we took the metro down to Simonstown, a cute quiet town about an hour south of the city and facing the bay. We were there to see a penguin colony, and they definitely didn’t fail to entertain.

We followed the penguin viewing with lunch/dinner of delicious fish and chips with a tasty beer and we were already commenting “I think we could live here.” We did errands the next day (got all the Indian dirt and smog out of our clothes), enjoyed a delicious braai (bbq) and decided to climb table Mountain the next morning.

We got lucky with a beautiful day for hiking. The Platteklip Gorge trail is the most common way to the top, and it’s a tough uphill climb most of the way. We made it, and got amazing views as reward. You could see all the way past Cape Town out into the ocean, to the other side of the big bay, 360 degree views of the entire peninsula! We even spotted a whale!

We enjoyed a little picnic up top, a beer celebrating feeling alive again, and then took the steep cable car back down. What a great wonderful day that was.

After a lot of financial debating, we decided to hire a car for our stay in southern Africa. We had taken local transportation since Australia, and this was a country to explore on our own. We picked up our rental, stocked up on some groceries (good cheese and bread again, yes!) and a pair of binoculars, and drove to a great lookout to eat lunch. Our ultimate destination that day was Stellenbosch in the wine country, so we booked it out there to find a place before dark. Ryan had been craving some good steak, so we finally enjoyed a nice dinner of steaks and wine. No wonder we like this country so much!

Wine tasting the next day was okay. Most of them charge for tasting, and most of the wines were so-so. Guess we really are spoiled Californians! But it was wonderful weather again, and we were one of the few people tasting, so we had a good time.

Our next stop, after a beautiful drive along the coast, was Hermanus, close to the town of Gansbaai, where we booked a shark cage diving adventure! We paid quite a bit of money for this, but were a little disappointed – not with the sharks, they showed up! The boat was tiny for the 15 people onboard, and there was a swell that was just enough to make a few people sick and made getting changed in and out of their inadequate wetsuits (the water was freezing) nearly impossible. But, when the sharks showed up, they were what you think of – eyeing you as they swim past, showing lots of pointy teeth, and wrestling around with the bait. We saw 6 different sharks, the biggest of which was 4 meters long! We have an underwater camera that we haven’t developed yet, but here’s an above water photo:

That same night we drove down to Cape Agulhas and stayed at a very nice, almost empty hostel. South Africa’s wintertime is their low season, which has been obvious in many places with a lack of people. The next morning, we proudly stood at the southernmost tip of Africa!


After indulging in that accomplishment, our drive took us inland along the Garden Route, with port tasting, cheese and elan (a type of antelope) jerky buying, and ostrich sighting. We ended up in Wilderness, a little town back near the coast, where we were again 2 of 4 people staying in our hostel, and where we got to pick chard and sweet potatoes from their garden for our dinner that night. Not a bad day.

Our good weather was coming to an end, as the next day brought super-winds, and dark clouds. We were headed to Jeffrey’s Bay, home of the famous surf break Supertubes. En route, we again got to stop and buy some yummy homemade cheeses and bread. Once in J-Bay, we found a wonderful, modern 2 bedroom apartment at the Zen Guesthouse that was probably the best valued accommodation we’ve had yet (thank you low season)! Helping matters were the owners, Logan and Lisel, who were extremely friendly and helpful, and had a killer DVD collection that we got to borrow from! Even better, we could see Supertubes break from our bedroom window, a view that Ryan would take advantage of every day. A gigantic swell was rocking J-Bay at that time too, so all the breaks were going off.


It started to rain the day we arrived, but we were perfectly happy watching movies, taking advantage of a full kitchen, and not driving for a couple days. Another plus was watching the U.S. beat Spain in the Confederations Cup that had been going on here in South Africa! After 4 nights in J-Bay, we decided to check out, but it happened to be on the day the clouds cleared and the surf got more surfable, so Ryan decided to rent a board and wetsuit and get some waves before we left. He was pooped afterwards, but stoked that he got out.

We had casually looked at the mini-laptops that are for sale everywhere now, but on our way to East London, we stopped in Port Elizabeth, found a great price on an Acer, and bought one. So far, it’s been a great addition.

Our stop that night was at Buccaneers, a hostel in Chintsa, a little off the beaten track, but that’s what we were aiming for. Well, we aimed wrong, as the hostel was almost completely booked with a volunteer group. We got the last 2 dorm beds in the place, which were in the middle of a room full of drunken volunteers. Needless to say, it was a rather sleepless night.

It was raining the next morning, which didn’t help our already crabby moods. On our drive north, we saw at least 5 accidents, some of which were kind of funny (“how did they end up backwards up that embankment?”) but a couple that did not look good. Passing one, Anna viewed a man lying covered in a quilt, being comforted by his family, but the look on his face was agony. Ryan had been driving super safe all day, but as we came up to a curve, another car came around it obviously out of control. At that point, we knew we would not be the cause of an accident – the others would be. It was the most scared that we have ever felt while driving in a car. And, to top that entire wonderful day off, driving toward our hostel after getting something to eat, we ran over a piggy. Yep, didn’t even see it until the last second. Poor little thing. Oh wait, did we say the awful day was over? Not quite…that evening the U.S. lost to Brazil during the final of the Confederations Cup, and our “hut” at our hostel was about the same quality we had in Laos, for about 4 times as much. Ughh.

Durban was the next destination, where we stayed 2 nights at an overpriced hostel that at least had comfy beds and wireless internet for our computer! We didn’t explore the city much as it’s pretty dangerous and the owner of the hostel had just been mugged the night we got there (not near the hostel!). Instead, since the weather had turned nice again, we relaxed in the Botanical Gardens, Anna got her hair trimmed up, and we finally saw Transformers 2 for only $2.50 per ticket (not as good as the first, but they never are!).

After our quick Durban visit, we decided to drive to St. Lucia Estuary, a little town near the big Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, where hippos and crocs live on the banks of the estuary and the supermarket closes at 5 on Saturday nights. We got a good deal for another apartment rental, complete with its own braai, so Ryan got to braai up some good steaks, though we’re now lugging around a huge bag of charcoal! Everything was within walking distance, and we explored the beach, complete with resident hippos. Anna found some tall wood giraffes that she knew she wanted to get when in Africa, and we bargained hard for them.

We took the wooden giraffes hostage and bagged their heads

On the 4th of July, we took a trip into the Park, which contains a good variety of wild animals, and these “loop” roads that turn off the main road to more easily see the animals. We weren’t disappointed! And by the end of the day, we had seen hippos, crocodiles, warthogs, deer, kudu (a type of antelope), dolphins, buffalo, eagles, zebras, and the elusive rhino! See some pics below:



The sun was shining, and, being farther north now, it was much warmer, so we relaxed on the beach for a few hours. We could’ve been at home for the 4th of July, there were so many families out! All in all, it was a wonderful day, and one that was much needed for our bodies and souls.

Then, it was out of South Africa and into Mozambique. En route, we stopped one night in Swaziland to break things up, where Ryan had some of the best chicken he’s ever had. Secret ingredient? Peri-peri, a mild chili pepper that grows in this region, and which Swazis and Mozambicans use constantly. Easing through the borders the next morning, we got into Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. We only stayed one night as the warmer waters and weather are calling our names, and Ryan is getting antsy to surf again.

Mozambique has an interesting background, as it’s the only country in Southern Africa to have not been ruled by the British at some point. Instead, the Portuguese colonized it. Today, Portuguese is the main language, which we don’t mind as it’s very similar to Spanish. That and we can practice for when we meet Anna’s parents in Portugal in August.

We had an interesting experience after we left Maputo, but that’s for another blog entirely…