Vic Falls - End of the Overlander

My overland adventure has come to a close. It ended in Victoria Falls last night. We all went out for a nice dinner at Mama Africa's and then went to Shoestring's for drinks afterward.

The overland trip has by far been the best adventure yet. I got to see elephants, giraffe, buffalo, crocodiles, rhinos and 2 lions. It was awesome. I also got to meet a lot of cool people. I'll expound more on all of this later because I am exhausted and need to get some rest.

Namibia - The Desert

I joined up with my tour safely last week and we've been traveling overland. I'm in Swakopmund, Namibia. There's a lot of Dutch people on my tour, three Germans, two people from Ireland, and two guys from Korea. The Korean guys and I get along fairly well. One is a photographers and the other guy produces music videos.

So far we've gone canoeing down the Orange River and hiked giant sand dunes in Namibia. The sand dunes were amazing. They were orangish red in color and really stood out against the blue sky. We climbed Dune 45 which is 180 meters high and then we did a walk where we learned about the Bushman. The Bushman lived in Southern Africa and snuck up on animals by hiding behind bushes. If there wasn't a bush in the area they would carry one in and hide behind it. The Bushman used to kill a lot of settlers here becasue the settlers were encroaching on their land.

Yesterday, we arrived here in Swakopmund and we did some quadbiking. This is basically 4-wheelers that you drive off-road. We took them all over the dunes. It was a lot of funbecause it was so wide open. We'd go up and down all over the place. One of Koreans caught the most air about 3 feet. However, he was more surprised that he did it then anything else and yelled like crazy.

We're off to a remote camp site today where there is no electricity and running water. Should be a good time. I'm not sure when I will have internet access next so I might not post for another week or so.

Cape Town- Danger Again

Another not so good day in Cape Town. This morning I headed down the street to the office of the safari company. It's near where I got mugged and I wasn't able to locate it last time. I wanted to do a dry run for tomorrow morning to make sure I knew where it was. On the way there, I found one whole city block cordoned off by the Police. They were out in force but were just getting set up. Apparently someone held up a restaurant and is holding everyone in there hostage. This is only like 3 blocks down from where I am staying and it's across the street from the ATM I went to after my mugging. (Check out the news article.) Then, when I get back to my hostel, I learned that some girl got all her bags stolen. They were all locked up in her room, even locked in a locker. Someone got in and stole everything. She only has her phone on her now. I only have one more night in this area and then I am out of here.

I did manage to explore the town a little bit. I went down to the Waterfront to book a trip to Robben Island, the prison where Nelson Mandela was held. Unfortunately, the seas were too rough today and all trips to island were canceled. Just my luck eh. Then I decided to go to the District 6 museum. This is an area that was inhabited by black people and then the government declared it a white only area. They "moved" everyone out and bulldozed it all, except for the churches. They left the churches because they did not want to get the international religions upset or involved. But alas, I wasn't able to go to the museum. The taxi driver pointed out that it looked closed and I asked him to wait. Sure enough, it was closed. Ugh... The driver said it's probably closed because of the strike. The government workers are on strike here because they want a pay raise. The government says it can't give them a pay raise because they don't have any money. Apparently only 50% of the people here pay tax which doesn't give the government a lot of funds. All the funds are stretched thin because they have too many other infrastructure and social programs to invest in.

I thought about my mugging more and I think the downpouring rain which made it hard for me to see was another factor for why the guy went after me on Thursday. I've talked to some other people and they say you shouldn't stop at all but if you do, you should raise your voice and talk really loudly. That draws attention to the situation which they don't like.

I'm looking forward to getting out of here.

Cape of Good Hope - Southwestern most part of Africa

Today was much better than yesterday. I did a day tour to Cape Point with Baz Bus. I started out at 9 in the morning and stopped in Hout Bay. Here, I got to pet a seal. This town was interesting to see from far away because it was built up during the Apartheid period. One side was for colored people and the other for whites. The side for whites had much better infrastructure. Now, they are no longer separated but the houses in the white side cost 500,000 rand while those in the colored area are only 50,000. So, no one has really moved around.

Afterwards, we stopped to see the African penguins. They just one day decided to come ashore in this suburb and have stayed ever since. It's a protected area now.

Then, we did a bike ride in pouring rain. Although it wasn't a race, I finished first. No prize of course.

Next stop was the lighthouse at Cape Point. This is right next to the Cape of Good Hope. There are actually two lighthouses here. They built another one at a lower elevation because the old one was covered by clouds a lot.

Our final stop was the Cape of Good Hope. Again, it was pouring down rain here so everyone just jumped out of the bus to get our photo taken by the sign. I'll post that photo later. It was a cool photo opportunity because the sign gives the latitude and longitude. The Cape is the southwestern most part of Africa. It was once thought to be where the Indian and Atlantic Ocean meet but that's not the case. That happens some other place but I don't remember the name of the place.

South Africa - Not the Best Welcome

I made it to South Africa today and am not the most happy with Africa. The hostel I am staying out was supposed to pick me up but they didn't show up. On top of that, it's raining here. To cap it off, I just got mugged for R280 (roughly $40). I stopped on the corner and a guy came up to me and showed me something sharp and metallic up his shirt sleeve. He said he had a knife and I should give him all my money. Well, I obliged and made it out unscathed. Not the best start to Africa and I'm definitely not going back to that area.

Buenos Aires - Deathly Bear Hugs

Nick and I met up yesterday after I arrived in Buenos Aires. He's a classmate of mine from Michigan and he is down here studying Spanish. He showed me around the city a bit and we met up with Sandhya and Heather for dinner at an Italian place. We all had some pizza which wasn't all that great but not too bad. Nick and I got a pizza with Parmesan scales on it even though both of us weren't too keen on the scales. We neglected to tell each other that until we got the pizza.

After dinner, we went to a bar that was pretty packed. Nick said it was full of French people and other ex-pats who loved cheap beer. Beer was only 5 pesos or $1.66 not too bad. When we were sitting up front in the bar, one of our neighbors got a flashlight from the bar and started to look around on the floor. Apparently she lost something. Nick noticed a buckle on the floor near my foot and I reached down to find her wallet. We gave it back to her and she asked if we were from here. We told her we were from the States. She thanked me and gave me a big bear hug, almost strangling me. It was one of the strongest hugs I've ever gotten and I thought she was going to pop my head off.

Sandhya and Heather headed home and Nick and I took off to a club called Behrain. It was Club 160 night which meant they played music that had more then 160 beats per minute. The dance floor was kinda funny because with the strob lights going people looked like characters on a video game when the game experiences a glitch and they twitch back and forth. We called it a night after a while and headed home. Good times though.

Iguazu Falls - the Argentina Side

Yesterday, I headed to the Angentinean side of the the Falls with Sandhya and Heather from Michigan. We breezed through customs and headed to our hostel.

After that we set off for the falls. Our taxi driver was some guy from the hostel and he flew down the highway to get us there quick as we were pressed for time to make the boat trip we reserved. We boarded a jeep to take us to the boat and it was kind of like going on a tour at Epcot Center. A guide pointed out various plants and talked about wildlife and what not. He had a voice that kinda put me to sleep.

We started to get a little concerned about our boat ride when we were given waterproof bags to put our shoes in. They told us everything was going to get wet and it did. The boat was like an inflatable raft with a motor on the back, like one of those little Coast Gaurd boats. The ride to the falls was pretty cool because they had to navigate some rough rapids. Water splashed in left and right. Then they took us up close to the falls to get some photos and drove us pretty close to get drenched by the mist.

We got off the boat and did some hiking around the falls. We went out on this ledge and got our photo taken but this other guy jumped in our photo.



Afterwards we grabbed some lunch at this little cafe in the park. The guy told me to watch out for the animals. I said ok, sat down, and watched as a bunch of rat-like animals, maybe related to racoons, were trying to get into a trash can. Everyone was watching them. Then, I heard a noise to my right and one of those rat-animals jumped up on the chair across from me and nabbed my sandwich. He took it so quickly I didn't really have time to react. Everyone at the lunch place got a good laugh but I wasn't laughing. I hate those things. I had to go back in and buy another sandwich, no discount by the way. We decided it was best to eat inside after that.

Then we walked around the Falls some more and took a lot of photos. I think I took over 100 which is way to much and they pretty much look the same. Having seen just about all we thought was available, we tried to find the excite. We walked around in circles for a good half an hour trying to find a way out. Finally we found this train which took us to the Garganta de Diablo (Devil's Throat). This took us right out into the middle of the falls which was pretty cool. We got drenched again. Once we got back on the train it took us to the exit of the place.

That night we went to a parrilla place to get grilled meats. It took us a while to order what we wanted with Sandhya taking the lead. They tried to give us blood pudding, cow guts and a bunch of other stuff. Sandhya told them "carne normal" which seemed to work. The television was playing while we were eating. That seems to be the norm for most of South America. They were playing this show that looked like Dancing with the Stars" but it turned out to be even better. There was a pole in the middle of the dance floor on stage. The couples when they danced appeared to be dancing like they were at a strip club. They took off their clothes all the way down to their underwear. This show was on national TV and on prime time. Gotta love Argentina.

We decided to go grab some drinks after dinner and asked our waitress where a place to drink beers is. She told us "Club Bar" in a very thick accent. At least, we think that's what she said. When asked where it was, she told us, "Just ask a boy who hands out papers on the street." We gave her a puzzled look and she walked away. Later, we had here point it out on a map we had. We walked to where it should have been but it wasn't there. Luckily there was another bar open near there so we had drinks there. It was a long but good day. A "gran adventura" as the boat ride promised.

Iguazu Falls - the Brazilian Side

I had some problems checking in at the airport today but I made it. I couldn´t figure out which line to go to and asked someone but they didn´t know English well. Somehow they checked me in though but without my baggage so I carried it on the plane. Before we took off, they paged someone on the plane. I kept on thinking that it sounds like they are paging me if you tried to pronounce my name in Portuguese .... Ersh Archy was what it sounded like. I guess they just wanted to make sure I was on the plane but I don´t understand why they didn´t just check to see where I was sitting.

In Iguazo, I met up with this guy Robson at the bus station and we headed to the Falls together. He´s from Rio and was able to get us a cab when the bus didn´t show up. The Falls were fun but wet. More photos later.

I also met some girls that just graduated from Michigan at the Falls. The one girl was wearing a Michigan sweatshirt. I walked up to them and asked them if they went to Michigan. They said yes but then gave me the most awkward look ever (I'm kinda used to that so I wasn't phased.) It turns out the other girl was a BBA. Small world.

Rio - the last night

For our last night in Rio, KF and I joined up with these Irish guys to go to this club 00 (Zero Zero). There was a guy who came around to try to get us to go to this samba club but he was pushing us way to hard. We went out with this same guy on Tuesday night but the place he took us to was pretrty lame. He also managed to hook up with one of the girls from our hostel. I´m pretty sure he had some alterior motives last night as well because he wasn´t too helpful in recommeding clubs to go to.

So we came up with 00 on our own. I was a little worried when we first got to the place because there was no one there. We got there at 1030 because we were a big group of guys and didn´t think we could get in if we came later. All the Irish guys needed was some drinks and they were having a good time. Luckily more people showed up at the place and it turned out to be pretty good later. The dance floor was pretty packed. I said hi to this one Norwegian girl whom I thought was from our hostel (in our dorm room too). But she wasn´t and she gave me a pretty wierd look. The Irish guys loved it and said they thought she was the same girl as well.

Rio - Beaches

Yesterday was sunny and not a cloud in the sky. We hit the beach, hung out here in Ipanema and then walked over to Copacabana. Cool hike but the beach over there was not as nice. We hitched a cab back to Ipanema and hung out there for the rest of the day. At night, we headed out to Lapa and hit up Rio Senarium. It was a cool place with three floors but it kinda resembled an antique place inside. There were two bands playing as well and we ran into a group of people from our Pantanal tour. Small world.

Today was rainy all day. Not much going on in the rain.